Confined space work involves a very particular set of potential risks that are not always evident to workers or their health and safety advisors. It is very important to understand and recognize the hazards that are specific to your job sites, and to train workers to mitigate or eliminate them.
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The hazards related to working at heights are self-evident to most people. We’ve all experienced the sudden and often irrational physical fear response that occurs when we find ourselves above the void; increased heart rate, sweaty palms, churning stomach, senses heightened. Our very physiology activates as a tool to help keep us safe.
When it comes to working in confined spaces the hazards are, in many cases, not as obvious or intuitive. That is because the risks that are present in various types of confined spaces are invisible, in the case of toxic and flammable gasses, or unpredictable, as is the case with liquids or free-flowing solids. That’s why it is crucial that workers be properly trained to understand confined space hazards, identify cases where those hazards are present, and to control for or completely eliminate them.
The regulations for workers in confined spaces vary significantly depending on whether the organization falls under federal or provincial regulations, the type of work being performed in the space, and the hazards that are relevant to a particular confined space. Section 11 of the Canadian Occupational Health and Safety Regulations (COHSR), established under the Canadian Labour Code was created to help ensure that employees performing work in confined spaces are following safety best practices, and that employers are also enforcing those standards.
What are some of the main requirements under federal and provincial regulations for controlling confined space risk?
The employer shall, in consultation with the workplace safety and health committee/representative, survey the workplace, identify each and every confined space, and appoint a *qualified person to determine whether they are hazardous confined spaces.
If it’s likely that work will need to be carried out inside a potentially hazardous confined space, the employer shall appoint a *qualified person to assess the hazards, classify those hazards, list the permitting requirements, specify the tests that are necessary for understanding the risks that are present, and list the safety equipment necessary for risk control/risk elimination for anyone who is granted access to work in, or perform a rescue from the referenced confined space.
*Qualified Person: Someone with professional knowledge and understanding of applicable confined space regulations, standards, equipment and systems, physical sciences, engineering principles, and mandatory requirements for confined space equipment and systems used by the employer.
The employer shall, after having assessed the hazards of the confined spaces, establish work procedures that provide for safe entry and exit, emergency response measures, permitting requirements, rescue personnel and systems, control measures, permitting, documentation requirements, and the rescue procedures that include the required equipment and PPE necessary to extract workers from the confined space, factoring for all of the foreseen and unforeseen risks. Those work and rescue procedures shall be made available to all affected workers.
The employer must provide every employe who is likely to enter or be on standby for a worker who will enter a confined space with training in the use of all safety and protective equipment, entry/exit, permitting, and emergency procedures, and rescue procedures for the extraction of those workers in the event of an emergency.
Regardless of your company’s needs around confined space work, Nouvelle Hauteur can help. If you need to purchase confined space PPE or safety equipment, a qualified person to perform confined space identification and hazards assessments (characterization of confined spaces), an expert to write your confined space work or rescue procedures, a temporary rescue team for confined space work to sit on standby, or basic to advanced confined space safety training.
Talk with one of our safety experts.