Can an Industrial Vacuum Solve Confined Space Hazards? From grain handling operations to heavy blast material, pit cleaning with vacuums allows workers to clean outside of confined spaces. By David KennedyMar 25, 2020 Two workers died this week and two will die next week, statistically speaking, in confined space-related accidents according to OSHA data that documents an average of 92 deaths and nearly 11,000 injuries per year. Of those 92 annual deaths, one-quarter of them occur during repair, maintenance, cleaning and inspection activities in enclosed spaces. Despite OSHA’s spotlight on confined spaces, the number of deaths remains relatively the same as it was 23 years ago. In November last year, the National Fire Protection Agency (NFPA) released NFPA 350: Guide for Safe Confined Space Entry to provide extended guidance and best practices to fill in gaps or confusion in relation to OSHA standard CFR 1910.146. Working in septic tanks, silos, reaction vessels, vats, boilers, holding tanks, pits or similar structures or enclosures qualifies as working in a confined space. According to NFPA 350, “all confined spaces have the potential to become OSHA-defined permit-required confined spaces, depending on the work to be performed and the inherent, potential, or introduced hazards in the space at the time of the entry.” OSHA standards designates a permit-required confined space when it has a hazard to health or life associated with it such as containing a hazardous atmosphere; material with the potential to engulf someone who enters the space; an internal configuration that might cause an entrant to be trapped or asphyxiated by inwardly converging walls or by a floor that slopes downward and tapers to a smaller cross section; and/or contains any other recognized serious safety or health hazards. Confined Space Procedures are costly in terms of the resources needed for evaluation, training and additional manpower to monitor confined space entry. Unfortunately, the safety procedure of providing a monitor frequently ends up putting additional workers at risk since anywhere between 40 to 60 percent of all confined space deaths include would-be rescue workers. Let's block ads! (Why?)