Permit Required Confined Spaces

At 1:30 p.m. on April 19, 2022, an employee, 35, was back welding inside a spool vessel (titanium pipe) that was 24 inches in diameter. The employee was asphyxiated due to the displacement of oxygen by argon gas.

At 4:15 p.m. on June 14, 2022, two employees entered a 21-inch sewer manhole to conduct vacuum testing, not knowing that it was oxygen deficient. Both employees were overcome and died.

At 8:00 a.m. on June 26, 2022, two employees, 45 and 46, were emptying and cleaning an open-topped frack tank (Tank #4) at an oil and gas services site. There were no eyewitnesses and the employees were working at a remote site by themselves, so few details are known about what occurred.

Which six words am I talking about?  There are a lot of requirements in 1910.146 and 1926.1201-.1213 that get missed on entries.  Luckily, missing a few here and there USUALLY does not equate to a tragic accident.  However, the six words I speak of are a CRITICAL PATH in a “permitted entry” into a PRCS. 

I have several clients who offload ships/containers in this manner. Whenever I see this, I immediately go to “that is a PRCS”. The ship/container is for sure a CS, and the fact that we have an engine putting off CO inside the ship/container makes the space a PRCS. I am fortunate enough to have great

SPECIAL NOTE: This appears to be the first case where OSHA has applied it’s new Instance-by-Instance Penalty for Willful Citations.  This case involved a leg amupation while working inside a sile with the paddle conveyor still running.  OSHA issued three (3) Willfuls using 1910.28(b)(6)(i) for each citation and all three (3) were willfuls. An grain

In OSHA’s LOTO standard, they incorporated a requirement that required businesses to have forethought about the means used to isolate energy.  Specifically, the standard requires: 1910.147(c)(2)(iii) After January 2, 1990, whenever replacement or major repair, renovation or modification of a machine or equipment is performed, and whenever new machines or equipment are installed, energy isolating

On June 7, 2022, an employee working as an environmental engineer was replacing two failed pumps in a pump station. Two coworkers connected the new pumps to electricity, and the employee lowered the pumps into the vault. It was noted that the pumps weren’t working correctly, and water was pumped from the space. The employee

This Safety Alert addresses the importance of verifying atmospheric conditions in fish holds on commercial fishing vessels. There are specific hazards associated with the use of brine dip solutions, a common substance used in the industry. Brine dip combined with standing water can produce dangerous levels of hydrogen sulfide (H2S). The U.S. Coast Guard is

At 12:00 a.m. on June 16, 2022, Employee #1 and a coworker were filling train cars with soybeans. Both employees entered the grain bin from the top entry door to investigate why the soybeans were not flowing through the bottom gates of the bin. While inside, Employee #1 was engulfed by the soybeans and the