When
it comes to
confined spaces, knowing what they are, the threats they present,
and how to remove those threats is critical for maintenance work to
occur safely.
The
term pretty much defines itself: Places workers must enter to
operate machinery, maintain or clean equipment, but where they can
become trapped and injured or killed by exposure to chemicals,
abrupt changes of temperature, loss of oxygen or other factors.
“One
problem is that people don’t really understand what a confined space
is,” said John DiPaolo, national training manager, Compliance
Solutions, Denver, CO. “The legal definition is an enclosed space
where a worker can be trapped.”
The
trunk of a car or a refrigerator can be a confined space in which a
child, who trapped and die. People do tend to think of confined
spaces as being small. But a 10-15 million gallon petroleum tank can
also be a confined space.
“A
worker can go down into one to clean it up, and never come back up,”
said Di-Paolo. “And how many miles of sewer are there in your city?
They too are considered confined spaces.”
One
positive trend that DiPaolo has seen developing in recent years can
be characterized in the saying, “nothing is done until the paper
work is done.” Instead of having the permit required for confined
space (PROS) at the end of the process, it is being handled up
front.
“We’re
in the process of setting up a web site for a major client that
identifies every site within the plant. Press a button and the site
comes up with the PROS permit.
needs
to be accomplished. All of the information is there. The permit is
being used as a tool.”
“This
results,” DiPaolo says, “in much more standardization, so both
workers and management know of all the dynamics and requirements for
safe entry and what needs to be done in case of an emergency. If an
incident occurs, there is a means for quick investigation. And the
fact that the process is standardized does not mean it is difficult
to change. On the contrary, new information can be put into the web
site at any time.
“Before, training was limited to a few people.” DiPaolo continues.
“Someone might come back from training with a few notes jotted down
on a piece of paper. Now all of the relevant information can be
brought to bear on an exact work event, and everybody is on the same
page.”
Another positive trend DiPaolo sees is
that more rescue teams are being trained. “Before the
attitude was more along the lines that if we have good entrance
training no one will get hurt. But it hasn’t worked out that way.”
DiPaolo adds that just having specialized rescue teams might not
always be the best solution either.
He mentions one major project he did with a company that had
multiple eight to 10 story buildings and 175 confined spaces, while
other projects might have one in 100 square miles. Each company will
have different needs, and often times this will involve training
most of the workers on the site for rescue. Not everyone is right
for such training, though. For instance, a 58year old, a year from
retirement, might be left off the team.
“A lot of times you will find a well meaning buddy who will jump in
and become a victim as well,” DiPaolo says. “You need an effective
team.”
How do you get an effective team? Di-Paolo responds that it’s
usually necessary to have upfront training of 8-10 hours, to provide
a general outlook, and then zero in on site specific confined spaces.
Here Di-Paolo says that the law requires training once a year.
“But that’s not good enough. You have to have training at least once
a month to keep everybody up to speed. You need to keep looking at
all the details. I just finished consulting at a plant that found out
that 85 percent of the rescue equipment they had was not feasible,
would not work in the places they thought it would.”
In other words, rescue teams are expensive. This leads to another
consideration. Whereas DiPaolo sees more rescue teams being trained,
Scott Blackburn, co-owner of Emergency Response Training, Baton
Rouge, LA, sees just the opposite. “A current trend, which is
surprising me, is that more and more companies are beginning to
declassify confined spaces.”
Blackburn explains that OSHA defines permitted space as encompassing
a number of factors: immediately dangerous to life and health (IDLH),
any danger of a worker being trapped or being unable to exit on his
own, a list of hazardous gases, and so on, and rescue teams.
“The standard says basically that if you can guarantee no
possibility of a bad atmosphere, you can have a non-permitting
space,” Blackburn says. “So companies are complying in every way,
except for having rescue teams. It’s a cost cutting measure.
But, in reality it just doesn’t work that way if you think you won’t
have a bad atmosphere. What administration and operation managers
aren’t paying attention to is that someone can be hurt by a machine,
have a heart attack, or be overwhelmed by the heat. He may not be
killed but can have very damaging after effects.”
Moreover, the technicality of finessing a permitted space into a
non-permitted space won’t really help you, if there is for any
number of reasons, an accident.
OSHA is not going to let you off the hook on a cost-cutting
technical maneuver that goes against the spirit and intent of the
regulations that results in an unsafe environment in which someone
was hurt, and no one was there to rescue him.
Not only that, says Blackburn, “It won’t protect you from liability.
The plaintiff’s lawyer will ask you why you complied with everything
else except the rescue team?”
Another issue, Blackburn says, has to do with inadequate monitoring
of oxygen. While most plants now have oxygen pumped into confined
spaces and don’t have problems, there are problems in some
industries, especially marine and petrochemical companies, says
Blackburn.
“The lack of oxygen and inadequate monitoring of safety is an
ongoing problem. Take, for example, a 60 foot vessel. You test the
opening and the air comes back clear. But that‘s not necessarily
true once you get into the tank. What happens in most metal tanks is
that oxygen levels are reduced by rusting. So, if you don’t have
good ventilation, you can have big areas of dead or stale air. Or
the air can be eaten up by toxic gas. If you look back through
newspaper clippings, you’ll find that the biggest cause of death in
confined spaces is due to lack of oxygen.”
In other words, says Dave Angelico, president, Air Systems
International, Inc. Chesapeake, VA, “There has been industry wide
learning experiences to identify hazardous areas that in the past
have been overlooked in terms of confined spaces.”
One problem Angelico has heard a lot about from his customers is
that of static electricity, which can take place while a confined
space is being ventilated. “You have air movement in two areas, he
explains. “First you have the air moving through an 8 inch duct
going into the confined space. This air blowing in often has dust or
particles. Then, what can happen inside the space, given the right
combination of temperature and humidity, is that a spark is created,
and if the gases are at the right level you have an ignition and
explosion.”
Angelico reports that, as a manufacturer, he’s come up with a
patented solution. “We’ve made an electrical circuit from the duct
back to the blower that has a securely grounded electrical source.
We tie each section of the duct together with electrical wiring.
Electricity will follow the path of least resistance. So the static
electricity, instead of going into the confined space, goes right
back to the grounded electrical source.
In short, though confined spaces may be safer work areas than they
were a few years back, there are still many things to be learned,
and improvements to be made. FSM
