Confined Spaces

Confined Spaces

Introduction

Confined spaces refer to the area which is considerably small or closed enough that pose the issue of the health and safety of labor and workers. Confined spaces are dangerous to work in with very finite accesses into it. There are several characteristics of the confined spaces such as it is a place with limited exit and entry; it is only large enough to accommodate only one or two people it is not constructed for continuous working and it can cause potential danger and risk to the labor and workers. Form the viewpoint of organizational safety and health, the accidents that take place in confined spaces are of importance because, in confined spaces, several deaths at a time can takes place if there are dangers and toxic of severe intensity.

Discussion

Industries Involving Confined Spaces

There are several industries in which works involve access to the confined spaces. These industries include agriculture, manufacturing, shipping, food and beverages and construction. Apart from these industries, there are also many other industries where confined spaces are used for work, but, these above mentioned industries majorly involve the use of confined spaces.

Agriculture

The industry of agriculture includes confined spaces in areas, such as, dairy farms. In dairy farms, confined spaces include manure pits, tank spreaders, milk tanks, joint manure trenches, sumps, tower silos etc. Apart from dairy farms, green houses also involves confined spaces, such as, storage tanks of water, wastewater sumps, wells, tube wells, tanks of chemical mixing, fertilizer tanks and boilers. The spaces in the green houses are more dangerous than dairy farms because they not only are less spacious, but also, involve emission and production of gases, and chemical reactions that are more hazardous for health of workers and farmers. Wine yards also have some confined spaces such as water cisterns, underground value boxes, tanks of fermentation and grape shipping tank trunks. These spaces are not that much confined as the green house confined spaces because these may have some form of ventilation but still insufficient than what is required. In compost operations of the farming, confined, spaces are crusher hopper, pump sheds and pumps. These are not suffocation related spaces instead they are dangerous with respect to the physical soreness. Moreover, vegetable farms also include confined spaces such as chemical tanks, dip tanks, sprayers and well houses. These may cause skin diseases and breathing problems (Eubanks.C, 2013).

Shipping and Ship Building Industry

In the shipping and transportation industry there are also several jobs that are performed in the confined spaces. These includes in them, the flotation section of a barrage is the space which lacks enough oxygen to sustain a life. Moreover, the narrow vessels in the pulp mills and the water cisterns are also confined spaces because they also lack oxygen and proper ventilation. Several workers died because they got suffocated while trying to breath in this industry. Apart from these spaces the entry and exit hatchways are very small where there is a high probability for a worker to fall from ascending or ...