Confined Space

1. Confined Space San Juan College/Regional Energy Training Center

2. Confined Space • Objectives: • You will be able to • Understand the characteristics of a confined space • Describe the position of attendant, entrant and supervisor • Analyze the duties required of attendants, entrants and supervisors • Discuss the components of the entry permit

3. Confined Space Objectives (continued) • List the steps to obtain an entry permit • Describe hazards encountered while working in a confined space • Identify communication procedures between entrant and attendant • Explain conditions under which an entrant must alert the attendant • Discuss rescue and emergency procedures

4. Confined Space • Confined Space is: • Large enough and configured that an employee can bodily enter and perform assigned work • Has limited or restricted means for entry or exit • Is not designed for continuous occupancy

5. Confined Space • Examples of confined permit spaces: • Process vessels Open-top water tanks • Silos Ship holds • Pits Trenches • Sewers Storm Drains • Boilers Pipelines • Vaults

6. Confined Space • What is acceptable entry conditions? • Conditions that must exist in a permit space to allow entry and to ensure that employees involved with a permit required confined space entry can safely enter into and work within the space

7. Confined Space • An Attendant means an individual is stationed outside one or more permit spaces and monitors the authorized entrants and who performs all attendant duties assigned in the employer’s permit space program

8. Confined Space • “Authorized Entrant” is an employee who is authorized by the employer to enter a permit space • “ENTRY” means the action by which a person passes through an opening into a permit-required confined space. • “Entry” is considered to have occurred as soon as any part of the entrant’s body breaks the plane of an opening into the space

9. Confined Space • Entry Supervisor: • Person responsible for: • Determining acceptable entry conditions • Authorizing entry operations • Overseeing entry operations • Terminating entry

10. Confined Space • Permit-required confined space: • A known or potentially hazardous atmosphere • Contain materials that can engulf (bury) workers (soil, sand, sawdust, grain, coal, woodchips) • Have inwardly sloping walls or sloping floor • Any other serious safety hazard

11. Confined Space • Hazards of Confined Spaces: • Asphyxiation • Most common reason for death and injuries

12. Confined Space • Hazards of Confined Spaces (continued): • Hazardous atmosphere is the most common cause of asphyxiation • Other hazards: • Toxins • Explosions and fires • Engulfment • Struck by falling objects • Heat exhaustion • Electrocution

13. Confined Space • PERMITS include: • Location of the confined space • Date and time of entry • Length of time permit is valid • Names of authorized entrants and attendants • All possible hazards • Allowable exposures to toxins • Measures that must be taken to manage and minimize hazards • Results of air quality rests and names of person (s) conducting tests • Type of work to be done • Emergency phone numbers • Name, signature, title of individual authorizing the entry

14. Confined Space • Hot Work Permits • Vessel Preparation • 1. Cleaning • 2. Lockout/tagout • 3. Ventilation

15. Confined Space • Hot work requires special equipment • Types of special equipment include: Auxiliary lights Power Tools This equipment should be listed on the hot work permit Don’ts: do NOT bring gas cylinders or other large hot work equipment into space do NOT block entry/exit with equipment DO: Shut down during breaks or overnight

16. Confined Space • When the entry permit allows you to perform hot work in the confined space care must be taken. • The following are some items that may be encountered in a flammable or explosive atmosphere: solvents or fuel vapors, coal or grain dust, methane or acetylene gasses

17. Confined Space • Entrant's RESPONSIBILITIES • Know all hazards • Use all personal protective equipment properly • Keep in contact with attendant • Alert the attendant to any hazard not allowed by the permit • INSTANTLY obey any order to evacuate the permit space

18. Confined Space • Attendant’s RESPONSIBILITIES • Know the hazards within the permit space and signs of exposure to hazards within the space (monitor the entrants’ behavior) • Keep count of workers in the space • Only allow authorized entrants in the space • Keep in constant communication with entrants • Protect entrants from external hazards • Do NOT leave the entrance unless relieved by a QUALIFIED attendant • Do NOT enter the space to perform the rescues • Be able to contact the rescue team INSTANTLY

19. Confined Space • If a confined space has a hazardous atmosphere you should do the following: • Test the air • Ventilate the space • Use an appropriate respirator, if necessary

20. Confined Space • When testing for atmospheric hazards in any situation, test first for • 1. oxygen • 2. combustible gases and vapors • 3. toxic gases and vapors

21. Confined Space • Oxygen deficiency within a confined space can be caused when oxygen is: • Absorbed by other substances such as activated charcoal • Consumed by chemical reactions such as rusting and burning, or biological processes such as bacterial decomposition (H2S) • Displaced by another gas that takes the place of oxygen, as when a confined space is intentionally inerted by a nitrogen blanket or other non-reactive atmosphere that contains no oxygen

22. Confined Space • Other Roles: • Record Keeper – maintains descriptions of permit space characteristics and hazards, expired entry permits and MSDS (material safety data sheets) • Rescue Team – trained to enter hazardous confined spaces and remove victims

23. Confined Space • An unauthorized worker enters the permit-required confined space. • WHAT WILL YOU DO? • You should: • Advise unauthorized workers to leave the space immediately • Inform authorized entrants and entry supervisor of unauthorized workers in the confined space

24. Confined Space • The following are conditions that require attendants to notify entrants: • When conditions of the confined space change from approved to prohibited conditions • Order evacuation when conditions outside the confined space are hazardous to the entrants • When signs of a cave-in are present

25. Confined Space • HEAT • Noise • Working in a cramped position • These are all adverse conditions that may affect a permit space entrant

26. Confined Space • OSHA Findings: • Significant risk to workers who enter confined spaces • Risk to employees entering confined spaces is excessive • Accident reports show a significant annual toll of deaths and injuries resulting directly from confined spaces entry

27. Confined Space • To achieve compliance with the performance-oriented standard as set by OSHA, employees must use a “systems approach” to systematically: • Think through and implement safety precautions • Develop written work rules and critical review processes • Recognize and correct unsafe practices • Develop and implement effective rescue procedures • Provide management tools to determine the cause of an incident and prevent future recurrence

28. Confined Space • An effective permit space program has two basic goals: • 1. Control all confined space hazards by using good engineering and work practice controls • 2. Verify the safety of each confined space by an aggressive program of atmospheric testing, monitoring and inspection

29. Confined Space • Hazards identified in the initial evaluation of confines spaces will dictate the specific types of equipment used during entry. • The following are some types of equipment employers are responsible for providing to their employees:

30. Confined Space • Atmospheric Testing and monitoring before and during entry • Ventilation to achieve and maintain acceptable entry conditions • Communications to maintain contact with entrants or to summon rescue services • Personal protective equipment • Lighting needed to see well enough to work safely and to exit the space quickly (next slide)

31. Confined Space • Barriers and shields to protect entrants and exclude bystanders • Safe entry and exit of permit spaces (for example, ladders) • Rescue and emergencies, when not provided by rescue services • Any other equipment necessary for safe entry into and rescue from permit spaces

32. Confined Space • “IDLH” • Immediately Dangerous to Life or Health • IDHL refers to any condition posing one or more of the following: • An immediate or delayed threat to life • A threat that would cause irreversible adverse health effects • A threat that would interfere with an individual’s ability to escape unaided from a permit space