Mine sites can ensure their emergency showers are up to the task year-round with Heat Trap Solutions.
When a mine worker pulls the handle on an emergency shower – an essential on-site safety feature – the last thing they expect is a blast of scalding water. But as the mercury rises across the Pilbara, that’s becoming a very real risk.
Under AS 4775, emergency shower water must remain within the tepid range of 15.6°C to 37.8°C to prevent thermal injury and reduce aerosolisation risk.
Built for emergencies, these showers help to quickly wash off harmful chemicals, dust or debris from a worker’s body and clothing after an incident.
However, when water in pipelines and storage tanks overheats, emergency eyewash and safety shower systems can shift from lifesaving equipment to a source of preventable injury and contamination.
While heat stress, hydration and fatigue are familiar safety concerns, extreme temperatures can also compromise the very systems designed to protect workers. In exposed conditions, water trapped in long stretches of pipework can quickly exceed 38°C, the upper limit of the safe tepid range required by Australian standards.
According to Heat Trap Solutions managing director Ashley Challenor, it’s here that hidden risks emerge.
“We’re seeing more sites discover that their ‘compliant’ showers fail when the heat arrives,” he told Safe to Work. “Once water temperature rises, anti-scald valves start dumping potable water, or worse, workers are exposed to unsafe temperatures at activation.”
Beyond the risk of scalding, stagnant, overheated water provides an ideal breeding environment for Legionella bacteria, which can cause serious respiratory illness. Warm, stagnant pipework creates ideal conditions for bacterial proliferation, especially in systems with uncirculated dead legs.
For operators, Challenor said, this means summer readiness is now a “critical part of mine-site compliance and worker protection”.
Innovation born in the Pilbara
Heat Trap began to actively address the problem in 2015 after Rio Rail’s Cape Lambert and Karratha operations in the Pilbara found themselves in ‘hot water’.
The company was struggling to control Legionella and dangerously high-water temperatures in its emergency eyewash and safety shower systems.
The Heat Trap team developed an innovative fix: a circulated safety shower cooling system that keeps water moving through insulated pipework, passing it through a chiller and UV steriliser to maintain safe, sterile water between 22–38°C.
The company soon realised this wasn’t an isolated issue, as sites across Australia were facing the same challenge, and that’s when it stepped in as a desired solution-provider, helping companies maintain control over water safety in extreme temperatures.
From there, Heat Trap has grown into a national leader in industrial water cooling and circulation. Its circulated safety shower cooling system eliminates the key issues of heat build-up and stagnation without wasting potable water or relying on energy-heavy refrigeration.
By continuously circulating water through a controlled chiller and UV steriliser, the system is designed to ensure that every safety shower and eyewash station delivers water that is safe to touch and safe to use, even in extreme sweltering conditions.
The company’s remote skid safety shower recirculation technology – recognised as a finalist in the 2021 Work Health and Safety Excellence Awards – extends this protection into hazardous and remote environments.
Housed in a 5000L insulated skid unit, the system includes chillers and pumps to maintain a constant 30°C water supply. Every drop is recirculated and UV-treated, eliminating dead legs and stagnant zones where bacteria can thrive.
While Heat Trap’s systems are best known for emergency response, their applications extend across cool-off units, chiller skids, drinking water systems, accommodation blocks, and temperature regulation in high-risk areas.
In addition, water temperatures at hand-washing stations in some Pilbara locations have reached 47°C, hot enough to cause discomfort and undermine hygiene. This often means that basic sanitation needs go unmet.
Bore water cannot be effectively treated through reverse osmosis unless cooled to suitable temperatures, and workers using untreated water for sanitation can be exposed to contaminants such as arsenic, cadmium and other blacklisted heavy metals.
Heat Trap resolves these problems by integrating chillers and sterilisation technology, ensuring mine sites can maintain clean, usable water for every purpose, from emergency response to hydration and sanitation, regardless of climate conditions.
From Western Australia to Queensland, Heat Trap continues to work with mining and industrial clients to help ensure compliance with safety regulations, helping operators turn reactive safety measures into proactive design standards.
What began as a local solution for Pilbara operations has grown into a nationwide push for better water safety standards across Australia’s harshest environments.
“Safety isn’t seasonal,” Challenor said. “It’s about designing systems that protect people every day of the year.”
All Heat Trap systems are also designed to support full compliance with AS 4775 and broader work health and safety (WHS) obligations relating to water temperature, hygiene and emergency response.
This feature appeared in the January-February edition of Safe to Work.