Confined Space Competent Person Refresher Online 29 CFR 1910.146

Confined Space Hazard Alert

This hazard alert can help employers and employees prevent deaths and injuries in confined spaces. Since confined spaces may be encountered in virtually any industry their recognition is the first step in preventing fatalities and injuries.

Confined Spaces Can Be Deadly

• October 2011: Two brothers, aged 16 and 22, died in an underground drainage system at a recycling center when the younger brother was overcome by hydrogen sulfide and his brother rushed to the rescue and was overcome as well.
• July 2011: One worker at a commercial laundry died of traumatic asphyxia when he was unloading a large horizontal washer and was pulled into the space and crushed when the washer was inadvertently activated while the worker reached in to unload the machine.
• January 2011: One worker died and two co-workers seriously injured at a pharmaceutical plant. The first worker died when he entered a large reactor vessel in which nitrogen had displaced oxygen. Two other workers were injured when they attempted to rescue the first worker.

Entering a confined space without following all required procedures and having an effective emergency rescue plan can result in serious injuries or death. More than 60% of confined space fatalities occur among would-be rescuers.

What Is A Confined Space?

For all employers and employees a confined space exhibits these types of characteristics:

• Is large enough and configured such that an employee can bodily enter and perform work;
• Has limited openings for entry and exit;
• Is not designed for continuous employee occupancy;
• Has the potential for a hazardous atmosphere that may include the lack of or too much oxygen, and/or the presence of toxic or explosive vapors or gases such as hydrogen sulfide and methane; and/or
• Has physical safety hazards such as machinery, sources of electrical shocks, liquids (drowning or fires), steam (burn hazard), or loose, unstable materials that can cause employees to be trapped, crushed, or buried.

Examples of confined spaces include but are not limited to: water and sewer pipes, pumping stations, manholes, boilers, vats, kilns, vaults, silos, storage bins, meter vaults, tunnels, tanks, wastewater wetwells, grit chambers, utility tunnels, crawl spaces under floors, water reservoirs, holding tanks, pits, and sumps.

This Online Confined  Space Competent Person course is specifically designed to increase the student’s knowledge of hazards associated with permit-required confined space entry.

• Course content includes
  Definition of a confined space and permit required confined space
• entry procedures
• required elements of a confined space program and permit system
• hazards ventilation
• lockout tagout procedures
• equipment
• duties of the entrant, attendant, and supervisor
• evacuation and rescue procedures
• closing an entry operation
• final exam

This online confined space competent person refresher course meets the safety training requirements set forth by OSHA for the competent person.