When you work in a confined space, safety is a primary concern because your life is often in danger due to the extremely hazardous nature of the environment. Often I have had to crawl through tunnels, climb on confined walkways and ladders, even work submerged in hazardous underwater conditions, and, believe me, I made a point of getting as trained up in health and safety as I could because plenty of guys who either didn’t know or didn’t care about these things are either regretting it now because of their injuries or they are sadly no longer with us as a direct result.
You cannot over emphasise the danger of working in confined spaces - people die or suffer terrible injuries due to accidents happening in confined spaces, people also die or are injured when trying to help fellow workers who have become trapped in confined spaces. it may seem morbid or depressing, but these things happen all the time, so thinking about these scenarios, analysing how they occur is the best way to be able to help to prevent them from happening. Becoming trapped, asphyxiated or crushed are all common occurrences for people working in cramped and dangerous environments. Sometimes rescue workers can suffer terrible injuries and fatalities when attempting rescue operations as well, the only solution is knowledge. Being aware of the dangers and being familiar with the appropriate use of safety equipment often means the difference between life or death.
These are one of the most dangerous environments you can work in so safety is of primary concern to all involved, or certainly should be - often in confined spaces you face a variety of dangerous and sometimes deadly scenarios, being trapped is obviously one of them others are being crushed, injured and most common of all, becoming asphyxiated, through oxygen starvation or poisoning due to toxic gases, fumes or other substances like liquids and particles. One of the commonest mistakes workers make prior to a life threatening accident is knowing that the environment has the potential to be deadly but assuming it will remain in a safe state during their time in there..
This assumption can turn out to be a terrible mistake as accidents can happen that the worker would not have expected. Like another worker could make a mistake that leads to flooding or filling the area with toxic or in other ways harmful or obstructive material while you are in the confined space. Or machinery, moving parts or live wires that were supposed to be not in use can be activated at the worst possible time for the unfortunate worker.
All of these scenarios actually happen in real life and the only real defence is knowledge and training. Using the right safety equipment, and training, training and more training. Every moment that you are going to be in that confined space needs to be planned and scheduled. Other members of staff in the plant or on site all need to be equally aware and available in a supportive role to ensure that you are not alone and no one is going to make a mistake that could cost you your life!
Confined Space Training is a very important subject to me and a lot of the people I work with so I welcome your questions and personal accounts if they are relevant to this subject.
