This document summarizes various confined space incidents from 2014-2017 involving deaths due to hazardous atmospheres, lack of permits, monitoring or rescue equipment. It emphasizes that confined spaces can contain invisible, odorless gases like carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and argon which can quickly incapacitate unsuspecting entrants. Proper safety precautions like obtaining permits, continuous atmospheric monitoring, forced ventilation, training employees on hazards and having proper rescue equipment and plans in place are necessary to prevent fatalities from occurring in permit-required confined spaces.

1. Confined Space
johnanewquist@gmail.com
Draft 12 19 2018

2. Nov 2018
• 3 Dead in cryogenic cooler room.
• Alberta Canada
• Liquid Nitrogen
• Cited - written code of practice
for working in the confined space
of the cryogenic coolers,
• establish an emergency response
plan for responding to an
emergency that may require
rescue or evacuation and
• designate a competent worker to
conduct hazard assessments
related to working in confined
spaces.
2

3. July 2018
• CONCORD, MASS.
• The Occupational Safety and
Health Administration is
investigating a fatal industrial
accident at a Massachusetts
hospital.
• Authorities say a 46-year-old
worker died Wednesday at
Emerson Hospital in Concord
while working in the crawl space
of a boiler system.
3

4. Dec 2017
• Two workers burned in
confined space in NY.
• The two workers were
using solvent-based
cement in a confined
space at the time.
• Fire officials said the
space lacked proper
ventilation, which may
have led to the
explosion. 4

5. Sep 2017
5
Wakefield, NE
Worker crushed in
dock leveler accident
at food company.

6. Aug 2017
6

7. April 2017
• Utility crews spent
hours in downtown
Boston Sunday where
multiple manholes
exploded.
• Officials say an old,
blackened, and
corroded wire caused
the explosion.

8. Aug
2017
• Shippingport PA
• Two dead
• Enerfab workers were doing contract
work with Penn Energy at the plant.
• They were working in a well-type area
to remove an elbow joint from a pipe.
• Two men were in a pit below, one was
on a ladder and the other two were
about 20 to 50 feet on a wall above.
• When they removed the elbow joint, it
released hydrogen sulfide gas.
• “The line was not supposed to be
charged, obviously. They got to the last
bolt to crack it open and when they did
so, this nauseous gas…hydrogen sulfide
type mixture immediately incapacitates
you,” State Police Lt. Eric Hermick said.

9. Jan 2017
• Key Largo FL
• Three dead in
manhole
• Firefighter critical
• 10 “serious” violations
totaling $119,507 in
penalties for the
deaths of three
workers, Robert
Wilson, 24, Elway
Gray, 34, and Louis
O’Keefe, 49
9

10. December 2016
• Lytle TX
• Two brothers dead
entering a tanker
containing naptha
10

11. Aug 2016
• Rochester NY
• Police say the contract worker
was doing some underground
work when another co-worker
looked down into the manhole to
discover that the man was
unresponsive.
• Co-workers pulled him out of the
manhole and performed CPR until
first responders arrived.
• Investigators say the victim's
heart stopped and they had to
use a defibrillator on him.
• He was breathing again as he was
being transported to Strong
Hospital.
11

12. March 2016
• Placid LA
• “Trouard and another
contract worker were
working near the
storage tank at the
Placid refining facility
and were exposed to
argon instead of the
fresh air supply.”
12

13. June 2015
• Washington Township OH
• The sheriff says 20-year-
old James Bradley Brown
and another plumber
were working on a septic
system at a home on
Township Road 254
around 2:30 p.m.
Tuesday.
• The office says Brown
crawled into the septic
tank and lost
consciousness.
13

14. Aug 2016
14
DUBLIN, Ohio — Neighbors credit a teen girl for
rescuing a toddler who had fallen head-first into a
septic tank full of sludge.
But Madison Williams, 13, said there was no way she
was going to let a two-year old boy die. Williams is
about 5 feet, 4 inches tall and the hole is more than
8 feet deep and only 11 inches wide. Once she could
reach the toddler, she pulled the small child out of
the tank.
The septic tank cover has now been bolted down. It
was not the evening of the accident.

15. April 2015
• OSHA - Nebraska Railcar Cleaning
Services sent two employees into
the rail car to work without
monitoring the air continuously for
explosive hazards as required, nor
providing the employees with
emergency retrieval equipment or
properly fitted respirators
• The explosion blew the rail car’s
escape ladder off and killed the two
men, trapping one inside and
hurling the other off the top of the
car. A third employee was injured.
• The workers who died were Dallas
Foulk, 40, and Adrian LaPour, 44.
• $963,000.
15

16. June 2014
• A specially trained Pekin
Fire Department rescue
team, which arrived
within several minutes
of the accident report
about noon, entered
the tanker with oxygen
tanks and masks to pull
the victims out by
winch and rope.
16
A railroad tank car containing
300 gallons of Toluene would be
a permit confined space

17. 2013 NC
• Autopsy: Catawba plant worker
died of hydrogen sulfide
intoxication
Samir Storey, 39 and others were
cleaning a 10-by-40-foot tank
• “clear, cloudy smoke” entered the
tank, triggering emergency
alarms, which trapped Samir in
the tank.
• Hydrogen sulfide affects the body
in two ways, she said. It blocks
oxygen from binding with blood
cells, and it interrupts the central
nervous system, which, in turn,
affects the respiratory system.

18. Nov 2012 IL
• Tank 16 feet high
• 28 inch opening
• Methylene chloride
• Contracted a cleaning
company to do the
work.
Fall protection should be provided on
tanks 4 feet high.

19. 2012
• Worker engulfed in a sand
bin at precast plant.
• Plant employees attempted
to rescue the worker for
more than an hour before
the company summoned
emergency assistance.
• Worker suffered serious
crushing injuries.
• Proposed fines total
$70,000.

20. Grain Fire
• Jan. 13, 1996
• Seward IL
• The Stickle employee collapsed
and died due to carbon monoxide
inhalation.
• After entering the bin, Pecatonica
Fire Department Chief Dale
Zimmerman became lethargic
and was physically unable to
climb the ladder to exit the bin.
• William J. Kirchner, 54, of Leaf
River, IL, manager of Fasco's
Seward elevator, pleaded guilty
to a misdemeanor charge of
making false statements on a
document
Victor A. Randolph, 42, of Cedar
Rapids, a vice president of Stickle,
indicted for obstructing an OSHA
investigation and making a false
document concerning workplace
safety violations. Three years
probation. $10,000 fine.

21. 2010 IL
• Mt. Carroll, IL
• Haasbach LLC sent Will Piper 16,
Alex Pacas 19, and Wyatt
Whitebread 14, into the grain
bin.
• 179 grain entrapment deaths
since 1984
• Michaels also says OSHA has
urged both state and federal
prosecutors to file criminal
charges. "We don't have criminal
prosecution powers," he says.

22. Examples
• Manholes
• Grain Bins
• Tanks
• Vaults

23. History
• No standard for years -
proposed 1976
• Film Recovery – Hydrogen
cyanide -1983
• ANSI Z117
• General Duty Clause
• OSHA 1910.146 published
in 1993

24. Idaho 2000
• Allan Elias, 61, was ordered
to serve 17 years in Jail
• $6.3M in restitution
• Told workers to clean
cyanide tank without
respirators
• Employee suffered
permanent brain damage

25. Confined Space
A space that:
 Is large enough and so
configured that an
employee can bodily enter
and perform assigned work
 Has limited or restricted
entry/exit means
 Is not designed for
continuous Employee
occupancy

26. Permit Space
• a risk of death,
incapacitation, injury or
acute illness
• flammable gases
• oxygen deficient
• toxic atmosphere
• engulfment,
• other serious physical
hazards

27. Standard
Permit-Required Confined Spaces
– 29 CFR 1910.146
– Four revisions since was made law by
OSHA
– 29 CFR 1926.1200
27
1910.146(c)(2)
If the workplace contains permit spaces, the employer shall inform exposed
employees, by posting danger signs or by any other equally effective means,
of the existence and location of and the danger posed by the permit spaces.

28. Sign
28

29. Motel Fatality
• 2002 - IL
• Worker goes to restart
pump
• Passes out and dies
• 5 feet deep

30. Atmosphere
Atmosphere that is hazardous if:
1) Oxygen concentration less
than 19.5% OR greater than
23.5%
2) Flammable gas, vapor or mist
in excess of 10% of LEL/LFL
3) Airborne combustible dust at
level equal or greater than
LFL (or wherever dust
obscures vision at 5 feet (1.52
m) or less
Lower flammable limit of a flammable gas or
vapor is the: Lowest concentration of the gas
or vapor in air, expressed as a percentage, that
can be ignited

31. Non Permit Spaces
• All other serious
hazards have been
controlled
• Air monitoring data to
show that the air
quality is safe or
• Continuous force air
ventilation presents no
hazards
Underground storage
vault

32. Monitoring
• Monitor for YOUR
hazards
• Calibrate your monitor
– ensure the validity of
your sensors
• Calibration must occur
in clean air

33. Respirators Considerations
• Identify your hazards
• Refer to respirator
standard 1910.134
• Enforce the respiratory
protection that in in the
program

34. Entry
• Action where the
entrant passes through
the opening into the
permit space to
perform work
NOTE: Entry is considered to have occurred when
any part of the entrant’s body breaks the plane of the
opening.

35. Chemical Plant
• 1989
• Worker went into vessel
• Used 100% nitrogen to
cool himself off
• Passed out

36. Supervisors
• (35%) of the workers killed
in confined spaces were
supervisors
• Acceptable entry conditions
must be present
• Authorizes entry and
oversees entry operations
• Initiates termination of
entry

37. Bastian Plating
• June 26, 1988 - IN
• Worker asphyxiated while
acid cleaning out a tank.
• The 5’ x 4’ x 5’ tank had
been treated with zinc
cyanide
• Four coworkers, aged 19 to
25, were subsequently
asphyxiated one by one as
they tried to save their
friend.
Typical Plating Tank

38. Attendant
• Individual stationed
outside the permit
space who monitors
entrants
• Must have
communication
• Can alert rescue
• Does not enter

39. Training
• For employees,
confined space training
must be before being
assigned to enter the
space.
 Provide advisory
training prior to entry of
any space

40. Manufacturing
• 1995 - IL
• Open pit 45’ x’ 60’
• Argon gas had been
used instead of
compressed air to
operate an air hammer
in pit.
• 3 died including a
firefighter.
Typical Machine Pit

41. Retrival
Equipment for non-entry
rescue of personnel
from a permit space:
• Full-body harness
• Retrieval line
• Wristlets
• Lifting Device or Anchor

42. Rescue
• Sixty percent (60%) of all
confined space deaths were
the would-be-rescuers
• Rescue equipment must be
maintained
• Run practice drills

43. Summary
• Carbon Dioxide,
Carbon Monoxide
and Argon are
colorless, odorless
gases.
• Constant Monitoring
• Constant Ventilation
• Train
• Rescue

44. Questions?