There are a few reasons why many emergency safety showers do not have drains:

1.       OSHA says you must install a safety shower, but it doesn't say anything about installing the drain (not within their purview).

2.       It saves money not to install a drain. 

3.       People who bid on construction jobs generally leave the safety shower drain out because it's "not required".  

4.       The people who decide whether or not to actually install the drain are generally not the same people who must clean up a huge mess after the shower is used - or hold up a bucket when testing the shower.    

5.       There's a persistent myth out there that using an emergency shower will somehow violate hazardous waste disposal regulations. 

40 CFR =A7 268.2 (e)

(4) De minimis losses of characteristic wastes to wastewaters are not considered to be prohibited wastes and are defined as losses from normal material handling operations (e.g. - discharges from safety showers and rinsing and cleaning of personal safety equipment - ).

Eric Clark, MS, CHMM, CCHO

Safety Officer, Public Health Scientist III

Los Angeles County Public Health Laboratory

I agree with Linda.

In my years in EHS there were about a dozen incidents where people should have activated the emergency shower but in only 2 cases did they actually use it. When queried as to why they didn't use the showers most people said they were afraid they would make a mess. 

So if you really want to increase the chances that people will actually use the shower they need to know there is a drain and, better still, they need to see it used (during testing) to have the confidence that it works. 

W.

Good morning,