Larry from OSHA (GrandPAH)

Dave Yates (PAH)

takes employee safety seriously and the flush-test each station weekly. I installed every one of them over the course of many years.

Flash electric water heaters seem like the way to tackle this issue.

<A HREF="http://www.heatinghelp.com/getListed.cfm?id=98&Step=30">To Learn More About This Professional, Click Here to Visit Their Ad in "Find A Professional"</A>

Dave Yates (PAH)

interesting job

I looked at today - adding tempered water to emergency shower/eyewash stations for compliance with OSHA regs. At 30-GPM, dat's a bunch-a-Btu's!

To Learn More About This Professional, Click Here to Visit Their Ad in "Find A Professional"

Unknown

thermostatic mixer on safety shiowers

You're right, that's a lot of BTU's but it's only when emergency occurs OR when it is tested. OSHA says test once a week.

The thing that gets me is that most emergency showers are installed with out drains or at least without drains that are large enough. Imagine what size drain you would need to handle 20-30 GPM.

Constantin

It always amused me...

... to see the emergency shower installs at my old place of employ to be rigged to the cold water and to feature an air-horn also. I always wondered which would be louder, the shower-victim or the air horn?

All jest aside, it makes a lot of sense to not intentionally cause hypothermia.

Larry (from OSHA)

no drains required

Well the standard only says

"Where the eyes or body of any person may be exposed to injurious corrosive materials, suitable facilities for quick drenching or flushing of the eyes and body shall be provided within the work area for immediate emergency use."

Doesn't say drains are required. Quite often employers will only do the minimum to comply with a reg.

By the way, while I don't know what other OSHA types advise about testing, here in Minnesota we advise people of a NIOSH study done some years ago about some type of bacteria being present in water pipes left stagnent for extended periods. This really applies to eyewashes due to the bacteria making an already bad situation worse. We tell people to flush eyewashes weekly for three minutes. I have never told anyone to flush/test a shower. I did have a plant manager try to soak me with one once. Fortunately, I can take a joke (and he missed me).

Larry

Brad White_9

On the other hand

I could not find a requirement that the Emergency Shower be on a recirculating line. If at the end of a run, the first minute of flow would be at room (pipe) temperature. In a garage heated to marginal temperatures, that could be a scream waiting to happen anyway.

Without recirculation to keep the shower near temperature (for those hopefully rare uses) what is the point?


My $0.02,

Brad