You’ve got OSHA requirements, market pressure, state safety regulations, environmental concerns, ANSI standards and employee demands. Safety is a top priority at your company, but there are many other items on your priority list that sometimes take precedence over safety shower maintenance.
Did you know that the ANSI standard is for safety showers to be activated weekly and inspected annually?
Why?
When an accident happens, you want your safety equipment to be in top condition, ready to respond as needed. Under ANSI Z358.1-2014, plumbed safety showers need to be turned on every week to clear any stagnant water and ensure proper operation.
There’s more to the operation of a safety shower than water spraying out of a nozzle: The spray pattern needs to have a minimum diameter of 20 inches; the water must flow from the shower at 20 gallons per minute; and the shower valves must be activated in one second or less and stay open with no use of hands until the user turns it off. If there’s stagnant water in the system, it may not work correctly in an emergency.
In 2013, a worker at a refinery was doing routine maintenance when she was blasted in the face by caustic materials. A properly working enclosed safety shower saved her from chemical burns. The Protector safety shower is an enclosed cubicle shower with proprietary innovations developed by ATS based on customer requests.
Doing scheduled maintenance and safety shower inspections will give you and your employees peace of mind, so everyone can focus on the work.
What can you do?
Sometimes safety shower maintenance and checkups get overlooked because of other, higher priority activities at your facility. But maintenance ensures safety showers will perform as needed in an emergency.
ATS offers maintenance programs that provide biannual checkups, flushing to meet code, water stabilizing renewals for safe water and reasonable ANSI updates of equipment for peace of mind. These showers, like the Protector, are owned and maintained by ATS, so you can focus on what you do best and not have to worry about routine shower maintenance and updates.
In an emergency, you don’t want to be stuck with the liability if your safety equipment hasn’t been properly maintained and inspected.
Safety showers need to be activated weekly and inspected annually to ensure they’ll work as needed in an emergency. ATS has the equipment and maintenance plan you need to protect your employees.