Eye Wash Station

The Occupational Safety and Heath Association (OSHA) estimates that nearly a thousand eye injuries occur in the workplace daily. Therefore among their Medical and first aid standards where there is a potential for chemical contact with the eyes, a proper eye wash station is required. The American Standard for placement of eyewash stations is to be ten seconds away from any location where eye contact with dangerous chemicals are being worked with and no more than 10 feet from where they are stored. Furthermore, they must be well lit and maintained free of obstructions. Local medical authorities may decrease this minimum distance.

There are two primary types of eye wash stations available. There are the ones which use pumped water from municipal sources which do have the downside of chlorine and other additives to the water which can in itself damage already injured eye tissue. This problem can be offset somewhat by allowing the station to run a flow of water constantly, thus keeping foreign particles and rust from building up in the pipes. There is also the issue of water temperature in these municipal pumped eye wash stations which in winter can drop to as low as 45 degrees. The other basic type is the self-contained eye wash station which recycles the water and uses it over. The basic flaw here is that a strong contaminant may not be entirely removed from the water stream.

The portable eye wash station has the advantage of being accessible even in the field or in new construction sites. However they are limited in the amount of fluid they carry and might not give the full 15 minutes of eye flushing that OSHA instructions for using eye wash stations requires. Of the major brand names of eye wash stations on the market, such companies as Aquarion, Optrex, Haws or Speakman Eye Wash Stations all conform to the government regulations for the proper use of these devices. They are simple to use, usually having a foot bar or pedal to activate the water flow while both hands are free to hold the eyelid back and get maximum flushing to the eye itself.

While eye wash bottles provide an immediate hands-on flushing, they do not carry enough fluid to completely rinse the eyes. As well as limited quantity, they are hard to handle while holding the eye open and should be used only as an emergency rinse to clear up enough contaminant to get to the installed eye wash station.