Just an FYI for those of you outside of Canada… there are fourteen (14) jurisdictions in Canada – one (1) federal, ten (10) provincial, and three (3) territorial each having its own occupational health and safety legislation. Federal legislation covers employees of the federal government including Crown agencies and corporations across Canada. The federal health […]
See if this sounds all too familiar… three (3) workers remove a manhole cover to a sanitary sewer to check for water and blockage. Unable to see anything, Employee #1 climbs down into the sewer to look for problems. A co-worker working nearby sees Employees #2 and #3 enter the manhole and comes over to
On May 19, 2021, a supervisor entered a dredging vessel’s ballast tank for an inspection. The supervisor entered the tank without any appropriate Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and did not check if the confined space was safe. Shortly after entering, he collapsed and passed out. After some time, another worker entered the tank in an
So far, I have discussed Evaporative Condensers and Spiral Freezers, making the case that most of these spaces are indeed Permit-Required Confined Spaces (PRCS). This last space is gaining a lot of traction over the past 10-20 years, and still today, the design of most of these penthouses makes them, without a doubt, a PRCS.
A worker at a water technology company suffered an injury when a guardrail loosened and he fell and struck his head on a support beam as he lowered himself into a nearly 30-foot deep water test pit. OSHA received the report of the injury on Oct. 29, 2020. Its inspectors later determined that the company
The only item remaining in dispute is Item 3b of the citation. Item 3b alleges a violation of 29 CFR 1910.146(c)(4) for failure to develop and implement a permit-required confined space program to control entry of employees into the Fish Bin Chiller Alley at the Seward plant. This item was classified as a serious violation
Once again, a DOT container cleaning company had another fatal PRCS incident (2020) where we have an entrant and a would-be rescuer dying in a hazardous atmosphere – oxygen deficient. In this incident, the would-be rescuer donned a full-face Air Purifying Respirator before he attempted his rescue effort but was overcome by the atmosphere and
For the life of me (pun intended) I can not find this fool who runs around and tells all these safety lies about OSHA compliance. I used to think it had to be Casper The Friendly Ghosts’ brother – but now I am at a loss in combating some of the most fundamental safety principles.
The following are highlights from the 2020 findings:
In response to a January 2021 complaint, the department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration investigated a production facility and found machine operators and maintenance employees entered POWDER-COATING OVENS routinely without testing atmospheric conditions or securing natural gas lines and operating machine parts. By doing so, the employer exposed these workers to dangerous asphyxiation hazards and
From 2011 to 2018, 1,030 workers died from occupational injuries involving a confined space. The annual figures range from a low of 88 in 2012 to a high of 166 in 2017. These data are from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI). Here is the breakdown of the data…
We have all done it… used the words “confined space” when we were actually discussing a Permit-Required Confined Space. But in the year 2021, I hope we have come to realize the huge difference between the two types of spaces. Just merely speaking in terms of OSHA compliance, there is a good reason why 1910.146
