EN15154 European Standard
The EN15154 standard currently has two completed parts and 2 draft parts. As a European standard it is the logical first choice to turn to for guidance for EU based companies. The incomplete nature of the standard, does however, mean that guidance from other standards such as the ANSI Z358-1 American standard and the German DIN 12899-3 is also used by EU companies. When parts 3 and 4 of the standard are finalised it will be reasonably comprehensive but will still be missing guidance on plumbed in body showers for industrial / logistics sites but this will be eventually filled by the planned part 5.
Scope
Part 1 covers plumbed in body showers for use in laboratories
Part 2 covers plumbed in eye shower for use in all environments
Part 3 covers tank (non-plumbed) body showers
Part 4 covers tank (non-plumbed) eye/ face showers
Part 5 is currently in the planning phase and will cover plumbed in showers in production sites
Main recommendations
Flow rates
For body showers in labs the standard specifies that local standards on flow rates should apply and where no local standard is present a flow of 60 l /minute should be sued.
For plumbed in eye showers the flow rate should be 6 litres per minute.
In both cases the flow should be available for at least 15 minutes
Spray patterns
For body showers the standard recommends that at a distance of 700mm below the shower head 50% of the water will fall within a 200mm radius circle. 95% of the water will fall within a radius of 400mm
For eye showers the jets should reach a minimum of 100mm from the centre of the spray head spraying directly upwards. The maximum reach for the jets should be 300mm spraying directly upwards.
Water quality and temperature
The water should be of potable quality.
There is not firm recommendation in the standard as to water temperature, however, there is an advisory appendix which suggests that the temperature of the water should ne maintained between 15oC and 37oC
Product selection implications
All our safety showers and eye wash units are built to conform to the EN 15154 standards.
We would recommend heated / tempered shower solutions in light of the advisory note on this subject but this is not a mandatory requirement to achieve compliance.