Chances are that if your day involves using an emergency eyewash station, it probably hasn’t been the best of days. An issue with chemicals or hazardous substances in your eyes can ruin any day, but if you add an eyewash with non-sterile water to this equation it could ruin your life. Each day over 2,000 people injure their eyes at work and temporary or permanent vision loss is a result of 10%-20% of these occupational eye injuries. Loss of vision, whether it’s temporary or permanent, is a scary thing and along with a diminished quality of life, there are large costs for both an individual and employer.

To prevent such permanent and costly eye injuries it is important for an employer to not only have eyewashes, but also make sure that the water being used in them is safe as well. For the water to be safe it must be between 60°F and 100°F so that it does not enhance the chemical reaction in the eyes and is comfortable for the whole 15 minutes of use. Along with temperature, making sure that the eyewash water is ‘sterile’ is another important factor for safe water. If a portable eyewash doesn’t have ‘sterile’ preserved water, it could lead to additional irritation.

Bacteriostatic preservatives are an ideal solution to having ‘sterile’ preserved water in your self-contained, portable eyewashes because they limit the growth of bacteria in the water. One 5 oz. bottle of the Haws model 9082 will preserve five to twenty gallons of potable water for up to three months. This ‘sterile’ solution is in compliance with FDA regulations and is an important piece to your own safety as well as your employees’.