While eyewash stations are meant to prevent further injury when a worker’s eye is exposed to a hazardous substance, these stations can actually cause harm to workers if they are not properly maintained.
According to OSHA (Occupational Health and Safety Administration), water found in poorly maintained eyewash stations can contain organisms that cause infections. Those organisms are Acanthamoeba, Pseudomonas and Legionella, and they can produce a wide range of symptoms, from eye redness and pain to fevers, chills, muscle aches and headaches.
To keep your eyewash stations infection-free, OSHA suggests following manufacturer instructions on how often and how long to activate specific plumbed systems to reduce microbial contamination. The ANSI standard Z358.1-2014 can also provide guidance. In addition, self-contained eyewash units should be flushed.
If you have an eyewash station, do you have a regular maintenance schedule you follow? What other safety precautions do you take to ensure workers are not harmed by contaminated water in your eyewash station?
The post See Clearly: How to Keep Your Eyewash Stations Healthy appeared first on Seton Blog.
