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Previous by Date: Subject: Re: Eye protection in chemistry labs Date: Fri, 8 Jan 2010 16:46:10 -0500 Author: "Koza, Mary Beth (Environment Health & Safety)" |
Next by Date: Subject: Re: Eye protection in chemistry labs Date: Fri, 8 Jan 2010 17:35:29 -0800 Author: Laurence Doemeny |
Your description of what happens is accurate, especially if you don't know where the water shut off valves are for each shower. In most new labs that I've seen, the shutoff is in the ceiling above ceiling panels, usually wit hin 5-10 feet of the showerhead. Some showers have a bar or pull that you can you can push up or pull on to stop the water flow, but sometimes they don't work... labeling the ceiling panels to ID location of shutoff valves may be of value. Also, having a lad der on each floor or in the building is useful. Including these items in yo ur annual shower flow / or lab inspection helps keep track of shutoff locat ions and helps return the ladders that wander away. You want to be able to quickly shut off safety showers if you have server r ooms, NMR rooms or other equipment areas that may use high voltage electri city and have false bottom floors...think XRD units, lasers, GC/MS etc. In labs with no floor drains you also want to increase vigilance about use of /placing plugged in or energized electrical appliances on the floor. In a past life, I was a first responder on a hazmat call in a lab that had us ed the safety shower correctly, but no floor drains so several inches of wa ter in the lab and running down the hall. I was really glad we had electric ians on the team (because they turned off power to the room) when I noticed the plugged in metal hairdryer on the floor next to a fume hood in the lab . The hairdryer was sitting in about an inch of water. That got my attentio n. I've seen energized hot plates (curing TLC plates), stir plates and a few o ther interesting items plugged and in use on the floor. Sigh...... Kathy -----Original Message----- From: DCHAS-L Discussion List [mailto:DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**LIST.UVM.EDU] On Behalf Of Ar vedson, Steve Sent: Friday, January 08, 2010 3:43 PM To: DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**LIST.UVM.EDU Subject: Re: [DCHAS-L] Rec's for Spill Berms/Safety Showers? In certain cases (contaminant not flammable/reactive/highly toxic in aeroso l form) you can keep a shop vac nearby and have somebody start vacuuming up the water as it's being generated. Then the shop vac can be decontaminate d or just disposed of as is. -----Original Message----- From: DCHAS-L Discussion List [mailto:DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**LIST.UVM.EDU] On Behalf Of Ma rgaret Rakas Sent: Friday, January 08, 2010 12:57 PM To: DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**LIST.UVM.EDU Subject: [DCHAS-L] Rec's for Spill Berms/Safety Showers? Hi, You know the story...new science building, lots of code-meeting safety show ers, and of course there are no floor drains.... I can buy spill berms...but does anyone have any other/better responses to what to do when the shower is actually used (not just testing, we've got a device for that). My understanding is a huge amount of water gushes out, f or 15-20 minutes, and I'm assuming the potential for leaks in the floor bel ow is another issue that needs to be dealt with. Luckily, in my time here we've only had one occasion when the shower was needed, and that was in our 'old' building, but--I'd rather plan ahead. What DO you do with the water while you're waiting for the hazmat response/cleanup team to arrive? So if anyone has a recommendation or a "this is what happened to us" story that I could learn from... Many thanks, Margaret Margaret A. Rakas, Ph.D. Manager, Inventory & Regulatory Affairs Clark Science Center Smith College Northampton, MA. 01063 p: 413-585-3877 f: 413-585-3786
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