I too, have some experience in recommending emergency shower equipment to the Chemistry Department (actually the architect of the new Science building (completed ca. 2011). Our office (EH&S) along with many other campus stake holders had an opportunity to peruse the early architectural plans for the new 5-story Molecular Sciences building - to ask questions or make comment and suggestions.
I spotted the traditional eyewash/shower stations in all the chemistry labs and realized I had the opportunity (unsuccessfully) to induce a change in the two rooms that were to offer the organic lab sections that historically produced almost all of the department's showering events.
I have always seen two disincentives to using an emergency shower correctly (or at all): 1) the large volume of water is an issue even in a single story building, and 2) there are privacy issues with an unclothed person in the shower.
If there were some device that could address both of these concerns then the only remaining issues would be the money involved and training of lab users on the equipment. Turns out, there is (at least) one - which I recommended with notes added to the plan copy I had and a detailed memo to the campus architect overseeing the project.
While I am not advocating for this particular brand or model number (there may be others that will suffice) I found a shower enclosure by Hemco (catalog number 16601)
http://www.hemcocorp.com/safetyequip.html that provides a 5 inch deep containment at the bottom to prevent/minimize flooding in the room and a shower curtain at the front for the privacy of the patient. ( The illustration doesn't seem to show the curtain.)
| Durable one-piece seamless fiberglass construction with glass smooth white surfaces and coved corners for ease of clean-up. |
These can be pricey. These didn't end up being included in the completed building. I assume it was a budgetary decision. As far as I know, no response was offered to anyone at EH&S about them. This was typical for big-budget projects on the campus. I assume the culture remains about the same.
The "contaminated floor drain" argument would be too easy to fix even if it was real.
I retired in 2009, during the construction of the building.
Thanks for listening.
Michael Ahler
Associate Faculty Member
LPS (Chemistry) Allan Hancock College
and retired CHO, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo
1) Don't lick the drain! Also, most floor cleaners should kill most bacteria, so mop every once in a while. There are also bactracides that can be poured dour the drain periodically.
2) I bet the architect would think it is worth the cost if they had to mop, squeeze mop so water goes into bucket, lift very heavy bucket and pour water into sink, repeat, repeat, repeat-. How many gallons of water are dumped by safety showers per minute, again?????
The drain will not take all the water as it comes out, but it sure helps to have a drain to push the water to when you're cleaning up.
Don't let them talk you out of drains. Also, make sure the floor slopes in the correct direction.
Kay
Hi Everyone,
This is a topic that's been discussed in depth before, but the architects planning our new science building had two arguments against drains under safety showers that I wasn't that familiar with and wanted to get people's thoughts:
1) Some medical facilities are calling them a health hazard due to possible build-up of biological stuff (presumably bacteria or mold?)
2) The drain will be too small to capture enough water to make it worth the cost (they did accept that a sloped floor might help with this)
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