The fertiliser industry uses extremely hazardous materials in their production processes. Common industry chemicals like anhydrous ammonia can cause burns and inhalation hazards.Others like ammonium nitrate pose a risk of fire and explosion.

In 2006 a large explosion at a fertiliser plant in Teeside, UK caused a fire involving mixed gases including hydrogen, nitrogen and ammonia prompting the police to declare a major emergency.

Legionnaires' disease is contracted when bacteria in water droplets or aerosols are inhaled into the lungs. Certain conditions allow Legionella bacteria to multiply rapidly and increase the risk of an outbreak, these include temperatures between 20-45 C, stagnated water and areas that produce a lot of water spray.

As such, emergency safety showers and eye wash units, which can often remain unused for extended periods, should be managed effectively to reduce the risk of Legionella bacteria growing, surviving and spreading.

Every employer has a duty of care to ensure the health, safety and welfare of its employees, this specifically includes controlling the risks from a range of hazardous substances, including Legionella bacteria.

Failure to implement proper control systems or risk assessments can lead to heavy fines and huge reputational damage. Negligence alone is enough for a duty holder to be prosecuted

Ensuring that communities and businesses have access to safe, clean water each day is a top priority for the water and wastewater sector. From drinking water to crop irrigation to support the food supply, properly treated wastewater is essential to prevent disease and protect the environment.

A laboratory incident at UC Berkeley in 2009 caused severe chemical burns to a student. A few drops of the corrosive chemical oleylamine fell onto a researcher’s uncovered forearm. When he realized what happened, he went to the restroom and washed his arm with soap and water for about a minute. Unfortunately, oleylamine is corrosive and hard to wash off the skin.

The water held in a self-contained shower or eye/face wash units may become stagnant. This makes it susceptible to bacterial growth and if not properly treated and maintained can become a source of infection.

We outline some practical steps for limiting bacteria growth in your safety showers and eye/face wash equipment.

Work is already well underway in preparation for the phase-out of petrol vehicles across Europe. The UK Government announced a ban on the sales of new internal combustion engine (ICE) cars and vans - though the original date for this has been pushed back from 2030 to 2035.

With winter quickly approaching, ensuring that your emergency safety equipment can withstand the steep drop in temperature is a must. The UK’s winter temperatures average between 6.6C and 7.4C, with other areas of Europe, such as Germany, reaching lows of -3.8C. In these conditions, water can freeze in the standpipe, rendering the unit inoperable. If your safety showers and eye baths are not functional in the event of an emergency, this poses further danger to the casualty and significant fines and/or imprisonment can be imposed.

Safety showers and eye washes are designed to be simple to activate in the event of an emergency, going from off to on within a second. Once they have been installed in the correct position, within 10 seconds reach of the hazard with no obstructions as per EN and ANSI standard stipulations, employees must be made aware of their location and how to use them effectively. 

As would be expected within the petrochemical industry, health and safety is of great importance due to the high risk associated with the hazardous materials workers are exposed to. SOCAR Polymers were looking for an emergency safety shower solution which would ensure the water in the standpipe would be unaffected by potential solar radiation or freezing temperatures due to the extremes in the Azerbaijan climate. An engineered solution from Hughes provided everything they needed.

Self-contained and resilient, emergency tank showers are suitable for all climates and locations, and often the simplest and most comprehensive way to stay compliant. But what sets the Hughes emergency tank shower apart from others on the market? We've started with ten reasons, but we could go on and on!

Ensuring you have the right emergency safety equipment can be challenging, especially if your site does not have easy access to a clean potable water supply. Water pressure can also be an issue for a lot of sites.

For a lot of locations, portable emergency safety showers and face/eyewash stations are essential. If installation measures for a plumbed in unit cannot be met, portable equipment can provide immediate access, guaranteeing worker safety.

A global e-commerce organisation recently expanded its distribution network in Germany with the introduction of a new logistics centre. The company is responding to growing customer demand, offering an even greater product selection and supporting a growing number of independent merchants. The worldwide organisation chose Hughes to provide emergency safety showers for six of their logistic centres.

Anaerobic digestion is an environmentally-friendly, cost-effective solution to converting waste into renewable energy. There are many important health and safety issues to consider and potential risks to mitigate when operating a biogas plant such as explosion, fire, poisoning and surface water leakages. How can Hughes Safety Showers help with some of the potential hazards?

Specialists in industrial coating applications, IMG expands Justrite product portfolio and expertise. Adding a patented spray technology to our spill containment business is a major step forward to providing our customers with a unique solution to solve environmental spill containment issues that meet or exceed SPCC regulations.

In the UK alone more than 100 million tonnes of waste are generated every year requiring an enormous workforce to sort and process this waste each day. The recycling and waste management industry is constantly growing and developing due to the need for innovative technologies and processes required to deal with increasingly dangerous waste.

One of the world’s leading agriculture companies, through their technologies, helps farmers all over the globe maximise the use of limited agricultural resources. The Hughes engineered solutions team provided complete project planning, working closely with the site to ensure the units were customised exactly to their specifications. 

Due to the fast-paced, deadline-driven nature of the printing industry it can often be easy to overlook the need for health and safety equipment. The UK is the world’s fifth largest producer of printed products, with around 120,000 employees – a large workforce that needs to be protected.

The food & drink industry is the largest manufacturing sector in the UK, contributing more than £28bn to the economy every year. This industry and its employees face increased demand from a constantly growing population. As pressure to escalate production increases, the industry cannot afford to neglect the safety of its workers.

Vaping has made its mark as one of the fastest growing industries of the 21st century. With the number of vapers globally climbing from just 7 million in 2011 to a staggering 41 million in 2018 and a market worth an estimated £15.5 billion, it’s unsurprising that new vape liquid manufacturers are popping up every day.

To ensure that your e-liquid production facility conforms to health and safety guidelines and your workers are safe, it’s important to invest in EN and ANSI compliant showers and eye/face wash equipment.

Hughes are thrilled to have won the EIC award for Innovation for the Hughes Zero Power Cooler®! The prestigious award ceremony took place at 8 Northumberland Avenue, London on 3rd October 2019 to celebrate the successes of the EIC Member companies through the Survive and Thrive Awards.

With chemical hazards present at every stage of vehicle production, coupled with a large workforce, the risk of a chemical spill or splash is high. The manufacture of a car, although largely automated, requires the use of numerous dangerous materials that workers can come into close proximity of.

Over recent years, the hospitality sector has been recovering from the substantial financial losses caused by the pandemic. Alongside these losses came a change in customer priorities, with 55% of UK consumers stating cleanliness being of greater importance since the pandemic.

Cleaning products are the most common hazardous substances used in the hospitality sector. Now, with increased sanitising expected and required, these chemical cleaners are used more frequently and are purchased and stored in higher volumes to keep up with demand.

Every year, thousands of workers are injured or suffer ill effects due to hazardous substances. Employers are responsible for taking effective measures to control exposure to these substances and to ensure proper procedures are in place in the event of a spill or splash.

There is a wide range of chemicals that can be hazardous to workers health. If a substance is harmful, they will be clearly labelled with the relevant hazard symbol(s). Common materials in everyday use such as paint, bleach, solvent, or fillers are all considered hazardous.

The European standards, BS EN15154 and the international standard for safety showers and eye/face wash equipment, ANSI Z358.1-2014 specify that water delvered by an emergency safety shower must be tepid and is vital to ensuring worker safety.

Safety showers provide immediate relief for employees splashed with hazardous chemicals. However, a safety shower that operates outside of the tepid water range can cause more harm to a victim

Outokumpu are the global leader in stainless steel, boasting the widest product portfolio in the market. With 100 years of expertise in metals and mining, they aim to become the best value creator in stainless steel.

Their Sheffield facility has different process lines with varying mixtures of acids and caustics, bulk storage areas and effluent treatment. To ensure workers who could be exposed to any of these hazardous substances have access to quality and functional safety showers and eye/face wash equiment, they decided they needed to replace their old safety shower models.

Data storage centre sites store computing and networking equipment for the purpose of collecting, storing, processing, distributing or allowing access to large amounts of data. It's essential to ensure that these sites conform to health and safety guidelines and workers are safe.

Granite and other natural stones are a highly sought after material, for their various uses across many industries. From architecture and paving, to sculptures, and even home furnishings. Granite is a versatile natural stone used in the production of key infrastructures, such as roads, railways, bridges, and buildings. Natural stone has withstood the test of time as a construction material with buildings crafted in ancient times, such as the marble-crafted Roman Pantheon, still standing tall today.

Tepid water is defined as temperature-controlled water and is one of the requirements for safety equipment to adhere to international standards. For the water supplied by a safety shower to be compliant to ANSI standards this range must be between 16C to 38C (60F to 100F), and 15C to 37C (59F to 98F) for the European EN15154 standard.

Asia is home to the largest producers of pulp and paper in the world. China singlehandedly produces over 99 million tons worth of material each year, followed by Japan which produces an additional 26 million tons. A combination of hundreds of different chemicals will be used throughout the laborious process by different manufacturers worldwide. 

Industries worldwide rely on the steady supply of minerals and metals harvested by the mining industry such as coal, iron ore, bauxite, and potash. Though the final products of mining may not be hazardous, there are many chemical risks that mine workers are exposed to daily.

Whisky production is an unavoidably time-consuming and expensive process, with some of the world’s most sought-after whiskies taking upwards of half a century to produce. The arduous investment will inevitably prove to be lucrative as fans of the drink can be willing to pay huge margins for older malts. Recently, a bottle of Macallan 1926 60-year-old single malt scotch sold for a record £1.5million.

Light aircraft such as an Airbus A320 can hold 27,000 litres of fuel. While this is a staggering capacity, it pales in comparison to larger aircrafts. The Boeing 777, for example, can hold over 100,000 litres of fuel which weighs over 80 metric tonnes. Regardless of aircraft size, the refuelling process is extremely delicate and is conducted meticulously every time due to the severity of the dangers involved.