Do your eye wash/safety showers alarm centrally?

[jamesbanda]

dear all,

i'd like to ask a general question regarding your industry pratice. On your hazardous toxic/corrsive plants do you have a central alarm (eg in control room or emergancy response room) that is activated if someone goes under a safey shower?

my company policy is to do so - at every site...

i recently found out in some companys this is not normally done.. (so i'd like to validate with others what you do and why).

 

[ash9144]

This is done in a lot of facilities, especially newer ones or highly corrosive environments. It is a good practice and I would recommend it be done if capital is available. Some are set up to alarm if any of the showers are used. Some are set up for specific showers and will alarm individually so the control room knows exactly which shower is being used. The thought is someone can respond to the area and help the individual who has been exposed.

I would also recommend that if it is done you allow some means for disabling the alarm. So if there are times when you expect the showers to be used a lot it doesn't become a nuisance.

 

[ScottyUK]

Power industry, combined cycle power plant - yes
Oil industry, pipeline receiving terminal - yes

Why? If someone is really in trouble then getting to the shower might be only thing they can manage to do. It happened for real on our site, and no way would the guy have made a radio call for help. The rescuers knew where to find him, and maybe that contributed a little to saving his life.


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If we learn from our mistakes I'm getting a great education!

 

[MJCronin]

James,

According to a review of the information available, neither OSHA nor the ANSI Z358.1 standard governing the design and performance of the showers requires an alarm.

But all manufacturers of safety showers offer a flow switch as an option.

All projects I have been involved with have this signal alarm in the control room.

Also, you should note that the alarm and switch are tested during the periodic testing required for the shower.

-MJC

 

[VikingUK]

In my experience it's only modern plants that have this alarm. I did actually once trip over and fall in a safety shower and was not happy that the whole plant heard the alarm and caught me soaked.

 

[JLSeagull]

Search the web for a document somnewhere at GESafety.com by Guardian called ANSI Z358.1 Compliance Checklist. The bottom of the paragraph on emeergency response includes a sentence in all caps "WE RECOMMEND INSTALLING AN ALARM UNIT WITH ANY EMERGENCY EYE WASH OR SHOWER UNIT." Another sentence in all caps and bold follows "WE RECOMMEND THAT EMERGENCY EYE WASH AND SHOWER UNITS BE CONNECTED TO DRAIN PIPING. FOR EMERGENCY SHOWERS AND FOR OTHER UNITS WITHOUT WASTE CONNECTIONS, FLOOR DRAINS SHOULD BE PROVIDED."

I understand that a small mom and pop shop would not require an alarm on an eyewash or safety shower. However, I would expect an alarm on any new installation for a fortune 500 ish company.

BTW another issue worth studying is winterization for cold climate sites. You don't want to steam trace the water thus scald the user.

 

[siretb]

Waste to energy plants: yes

 

[roydm]

I think putting flow switches on showers is giving a false sense of security, flow switches are too unreliable. It's better to provide a panic button to be pushed in real need of assistance. I have also seen plants where switches were provided on the valves but the alarms soon got ignored as people were using the showers as a source of water.