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 hazard of possible death due to delayed rescue. (a) Location - Astle Street Water Tower On or about 06/27/01, an employee painting inside a water tank fell for reasons unknown to those outside. Multiple employees including the assigned attendant entered a confined space with an unknown atmosphere to perform rescue procedures. The rescuers had no constant communication nor was direct observation maintained with anyone outside the space. There was no coordinated entry of employees to determine the number or names of the employees entering the space. Among other methods, feasible and acceptable means of abatement would be to effectively implement a confined space entry program to include meeting the requirements of ANSI Z117.1, but not limited to: 1) Developing a plan of action for rescue which includes: (a) determination of what methods of rescue must be implemented to retrieve individuals; (b) designation of trained rescue personnel that are immediately available and, if offsite emergency response personnel are used, notification and coordination for ability of timely response; (c) type and availability of equipment needed. 2) Ensuring trained attendants remain stationed outside the confined space unless relieved by another attendant and remain in constant two-way communication with entrants. 3) Re-evaluating and testing for any hazards that may be associated with entering the confined space.