Eyewash stations and safety showers — Michigan

Michigan has adopted many federal OSHA standards and incorporates them by reference. The Michigan Occupational Safety and Health Administration (MIOSHA) has a few additional requirements or minor variations for eyewash stations and safety showers including:

• Eyewashes or safety showers must be within the work area for immediate use when the eyes or body of a person may be exposed to injurious or corrosive materials. Injurious or corrosive is defined by MIOSHA as, “chemicals that have the United Nations Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labeling of Chemicals (GHS) classification of serious skin/eye damage and serious skin/eye irritation.”
• Part 63, Pulp, Paper, and Paperboard Mills, contains a requirement that eyewash stations or deluge showers must be provided within 25 feet of an area where caustics or acids are used or mixed at a strength that could cause injury to an exposed employee.
• More than one motion to activate the eyewash is permitted only if the activation occurs within one second or less. A second, separate motion to remove nozzle covers is not allowed.
• Part 526, Dipping and Coating Operations, allows an exception to the standard ANSI emergency shower and eyewash. Instead of a safety shower or eyewash station, employers are permitted to use a water hose at least 4-feet long and ¾-inch thick with a quick-opening valve and carrying a pressure of 25 pounds per square inch (psi) or less.
• Part 472, Medical Services and First Aid, applies where there’s potential exposure to ammonia outside of the scope of Part 78, Storage and Handling of Anhydrous Ammonia.

The following exceptions also apply:

• Eyewash stations or safety showers are not required in battery charging area(s) where the battery(s) is charged without removing the battery(s) from the equipment. If employees service the battery(s) (i.e., check fluid levels and/or make additions) or remove the battery(s) for charging, this exemption does not apply.
• For telecommunications, Part 50, eyewash stations or safety showers must be provided unless the storage batteries are of the enclosed type and equipped with explosion-proof vents, in which case, sealed water rinse or neutralizing packs may be substituted for the quick drenching or flushing facilities.
• Eyewash stations or safety showers and PPE are required for custodial and housekeeping staff at the dispensing station for the injurious or corrosive chemicals they use. MIOSHA clarifies that, “PPE is required when handling injurious or corrosive materials as part of the traveling portion of the job, for example when the custodian/housekeeper goes from room to room or machine to machine, as a custodian/housekeeper would in a hotel, school, nursing home, or factory. A standard eyewash station is not required in the traveling portion of a custodian/housekeeper’s job. Hazard communication training is required for both the dispensing station and the traveling portion of typical custodial/housekeeping tasks.”