The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) of the United States Department of Labor warned that: “Water found in improperly maintained eyewash stations is more likely to contain organisms (e.g., acanthamoeba, pseudomonas, legionella) that thrive in stagnant or untreated water and are known to cause infections.”
The risks are similar to incorrectly maintained dental water lines. These lines are known to be a source of Legionella infection. When using the eye wash station, the operator creates an aerosol which without even being aware, are breathed in, providing the opportunity for the Legionella bacterium to infect the operator’s lungs. The danger is even more insidious in that the Legionella bacterium is known as a parasite of certain kinds of amoeba (acanthamoeba), which are themselves the most common form of contamination of the eye wash stations.
Regular testing using rapid test techniques can help guard against a build-up of biofilm where the pathogens survive and breed. Culture tests take 10-14 days to return a result, which would leave operators open to exposure, unnecessarily.
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