Emergency safety showers are used in a wide variety of industries. They are critical pieces of safety equipment for providing immediate relief to employees splashed with chemicals.

An emergency safety shower seems like a very simple piece of safety equipment. It must provide tepid water. It should activate quickly. It needs to flow for at least 15 minutes. But, is a simple on/off safety shower the right equipment for every environment?

With winter quickly approaching, ensuring that your emergency safety equipment can withstand the steep drop in temperature is a must. The USA’s winter temperatures can reach temperatures of -19.5C in Midwestern states, such as North Dakota, with areas of Canada reaching average lows of -35.3C. 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.

Remote location. Lack of a constant water supply. Extremes in temperature from -40°C to +45°C. Just some of the challenges faced by a customer in Kazakhstan looking for emergency safety showers. Find out how Hughes tailored a solution for this ‘super giant’ oilfield.

How you react in the first 10 to 15 seconds after exposure to a toxic substance, particularly if it is corrosive, is crucial. A delay in treatment, even for just a few seconds, can lead to serious long-term health issues or painful injuries. As such, emergency safety showers must be situated within any hazardous or industrial workplace.

All industries face their own limitations which can make implementing safety equipment a challenging task. Over the years, Hughes have developed a product range to provide safety showers and eye baths that provide relief in any environment. However, often our customers bring us new challenges which require a bespoke service. At Hughes, we pride ourselves on working directly with our customers to understand their requirements and engineer the most appropriate solutions, whatever the demands.

The international standard for safety showers and eye/face wash equipment, ANSI Z358.1-2014 specifies that water delivered by an emergency safety shower must be tepid. Safety showers provide immediate relief for employees splashed with hazardous chemicals.

The water, delivered at a minimum of 76 litres per minute for 15 minutes, washes the chemical from the skin and out of the eyes. However, a safety shower that operates outside of the tepid water range can cause more harm to a victim.