Text For Citation: 01 Item/Group: 001 Hazard: CONFINED

Section 5(a)(1) of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970: The employer did not furnish employment and a place of employment which were free from recognized hazards that were causing or likely to cause death or serious physical harm to employees in that employees were exposed to: ...the danger of asphyxiation, illness, fire and explosion. The employer did not provide employees, entering D.D. #1, a confined space with an entry measuring 17 inches in diameter, an adequate confined space entry plan to prevent employees from becoming trapped in the vessel, or to remove an employee who became unconscious or disabled. One employee was trapped in this vessel for approximately 30 minutes on 2/12/90. A feasible and acceptable abatement method, among other, to correct this hazard, is to implement a confined space entry procedure which includes but is not limited to the following elements: 1) Selection procedures for respirator which may be used for rescue in emergencies in accordance with the selection procedures in ANSI Z88.2-1969. 2) A procedure to determine the minimum safe diameter for each manway into each vessel to be entered based on the physical dimensions of each employee entering the vessel. This procedure should be taken into consideration the difficulty of rescue of an employee who becomes unconcious or disabled while inside a vessel and the manway should be sized to make this type of rescue feasible in a timely manner. a) Employee Exposure: The employees enter the vessel on occasion for maintenance purposes. Prior to their entry, production workers enter to remove material and prepare the vessel. The employees doing this work are Midwest Rubber Reclaiming employees. b) Hazard Recognition: The entryway is 17 inches in diameter; too small to allow entry or exit with any degree of safety for most people except those of very slender build. Some employees who are selected to enter find it very difficult to exit quickly. One employee was trapped for approximately 30 minutes. The employee representative agress that this employee was trapped for approximately 30 minutes and further agrees that if any employee became disabled or unconcious his immediate rescue and removal would be very difficult, would take considerable time and that he does not have procedures in effect to do this safely. c) Serious Hazards: If an employee cannot exit immediately, there is a danger from fire since this workplace has frequent fires due to the combustible nature of the settled dust which produces clouds of smoke which would produce a serious hazard of asphyxiation. Also, an employee who developed a medical problem such as a heart attack, could not get immediate medical attention. Finally, if a toxic atmosphere developed a low oxygen level, immediate exit could not be assured. d) Feasible Abatement: Develop plans adequate to immediately remove employees inside the vessel and train the affected employee(s) or enlarge the manway to a size that would allow immediate exit for all employees who might enter.