Chementator: Eye washing takes a new direction  

Since the original invention of the steady-stream eyewash over 50 years ago, the accepted practice in the chemical process industries (CPI) and other industrial circles has been to flush the eyes with two, separate, arc-shaped water streams, each one flowing from the outside corner of the eye inward (diagram). A little-known, but potentially serious problem with this approach, says Michael Markovsky, vice president of marketing at Haws Corp. (Sparks, Nev.; www.hawsco.com), is that it can drive contaminants into the lacrimal punctum, which drains contaminants into the nasal cavity and eventually into the throat. To avoid this dangerous side effect, Haws’ new patent-pending Axion MSR Line reverses the direction of the streams, introducing flushing fluid at the inner corners of the eyes adjacent to the nose and letting it run across the eyes to the outer edges; from there, gravity takes over and runs everything into the eyewash bowl. "After we realized that healthcare professionals are trained to handle eye flushing in this reverse direction [from the inner corners out]," says Markovsky, "the potential for vast improvement in industrial eye washing quickly became clear." In addition to Axion MSR’s reversed…