Safety shower.

Whenever I read about safety showers that were or weren't used, I always wonder whether the shower had a curtain around it.  Are people more likely to use it in an emergency if there's some semblance of privacy?  I think they would.  

"Don't be silly, Erin," you may be thinking, "what dummy is going to think twice about using the safety shower if they've just poured acid all over himself?"

The guy I shared a hood with in college organic chemistry lab, for one person.    He spilled a test tube full of sulfuric acid on his jeans.  The  safety shower was right next to us, yet somehow he felt more comfortable running down the hall to the men's room to take his jeans off.  

Then, of course, he was trapped there with no pants until some other guy in the class happened to walk in.  I was, of course, not there, but I can imagine the conversation:

Because he did come back to class to finish his reaction, wearing a pair of jeans that was half boot-cut and half short-shorts.  

He wasn't a dummy exactly, although he got a lot of ribbing for this afterward, as he should have; but he was also very lucky, because that could have ended quite poorly for him.

Also while I was an undergraduate, I interned at a chemical plant in the South that shall go un-named.  When I arrived, the hot gossip topic was a female technician (it's relevant, hang on) who had recently been released from the hospital into a new, desk-centered job.  (The other techs wouldn't work with her anymore, they were so mad at her for ruining the long string of days with no lost-time incidents, so nobody was going to get the safety bonus that had been only days away.)  

What'd happened?  She'd gotten sprayed all over by a leaking tank.  The safety shower was literally steps away — as were several male co-workers.  She climbed down out of the scaffolding and ran back to the women's locker room to shower.  The lengthy exposure seriously injured her; likely it would have been a minor incident had she stepped into the shower and removed her clothes.  

But, you know, "don't strip in front of your co-workers" is a hard taboo for some folks to get past.

Yes, yes, the thing both of these people should have done is forget modesty, hit the shower, and save their skins.  But… safety managers have a job too, and if there's anything that is part of the job of managing safety, it's taking human nature into account.