OSHA cited three employers – a University, a Mechanical contractor and an HVAC contractor – for exposing workers to permit-required confined space hazards associated with underground steam vaults. Proposed penalties for the three companies total $235,962. OSHA received an employer-reported referral from the mechanical contractor after an employee suffered burns from a release of steam […]
Since the 1970’s Purdue University’s Agricultural and Biological Engineering Department has been documenting and investigating incidents involving grain storage and handling facilities at both commercial and on-farm locations. Beginning in 2013, the effort was expanded, with support from a U.S. Department of LaborSusan Harwood Training Grant, to include incidents involving grain transport vehicles (trucks, wagons,
On November 30, 2015, an employee entered a large transformer, top cover removed, which had previously been filled with nitrogen. The employee fell unconscious one he/she entered the space. Another employee entered to retrieve the first employee and also fell unconscious. Another employee (#3) followed and also fell unconscious. Employees #1 and #2 died. Employee
A 52-year-old male was fatally injured when he was burned due to a flash fire inside a 23’ long x 6’ diameter stainless steel tank. The company was contracted to restore a stainless steel tank so that it could be returned to the dairy process as a Sugar Tank. At the time of the incident,
At 4:30 p.m. on March 26, 2019, a contractor working at an asphalt refinery in AL entered a Permit-Required Confined Space to take a video of a reactor section when he lost air supply and was asphyxiated. OSHA cited the industrial contractor for failing to ensure personnel outside the PRCS were capable of providing effective
Sometime in the late afternoon of July 3rd, two workers entered the water main vault at the intersection of Highways 70 and 100 in North Carolina. The two were employees of a Backhoe and Landscaping business and were working with several employees to extend a 24″ main water line. While the vault they entered and
Another Fatality OSHA Case file involving a Water Valve Pit (Hazard Information Bulletin regarding Asphyxiation Hazard in Pits: Potential Confined Space Problem) – a SINGLE entrant (the job foreman), a would-be-rescuer, and potentially another would-be-rescuer. The water valve pit was 7 ft in diameter and 16 ft deep. The vault contained a 12″ water main
A few weeks ago we were debating in my FaceBook Group about these vaults being a PRCS. The picture in question (shown to the left – full scale in the article) had a working platform just a little more than 4′ down inside the vault, but the fixed ladder went all the way down to
We go all the way back to 1996 and OSHA issued a Hazard Information Bulletin regarding Asphyxiation Hazard in Pits: Potential Confined Space Problem. Fast forward 23 years later and we have this: At 2:23 p.m. on July 8, 2019, a worker employed by a utilities construction company was working in an underground vault. He
The only OSHA standards that make mention of the phrase “Double Block and Bleed” (DB&B) are its Permit-Required Confined Space (PRCS) standards. In both 1910.146(b) and 1926.1203, OSHA defines a DB&B as: the closure of a line, duct, or pipe by closing and locking or tagging two in-line valves and by opening and locking or
I will offer my 1-day PRCS training class for SAFETY PROFESSIONALS for FREE as long as a company steps up to sponsor the course. Sponsoring a course means you provide the training accommodations and lunch; SAFTENG provides the training and materials. The sponsor gets 3-5 seats in the class in return for sponsoring the course.
What do you get when you have no “qualified/competent” person on site who fully understands the implementation of a Confined Space program AND OSHA’s eTool Industry page is being read literally by the unqualified worker? The answer: SERIOUS PRCS PROBLEMS! I had a smile on my face the entire time I was thinking about how
