Saving Those Peepers:
Air horns placed near safety stations

An emergency eyewash station is an essential resource in every ITD laboratory that uses chemicals and other hazardous substances. Now those eyewash stations also include air horns to alert the lab in case of an emergency. 

“The lab is pretty loud, but if an air horn goes off we will all hear it,” said Research Analyst Shelby Alvarado. “We haven’t had to use them, and hopefully we won’t have to, but it’s reassuring to all of us working in the labs that they are there.” 

Before joining ITD, Alvarado worked for the Idaho State Department of Agriculture in the feed and fertilizer laboratory when acid splashed into a fellow employee’s eyes. He ran to the eyewash station, but couldn’t see when he got there. 
 
“He was at the eyewash station for five minutes before anybody knew about it,” said Alvarado. “No one could hear him yelling for help. He couldn’t see anything. If he had a horn, he could have felt his way around the safety station for the horn to alert the rest of the lab that he needed help.”
  
Alvarado brought up the air-horn concept at the team’s monthly safety meeting, and within a month of approval, the horns were ordered and installed. Now air horns are included at all ITD HQ Central laboratory eyewash safety stations.  

Published 08-21-20