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Joe Gurican, who teaches a confined space awareness class, believes confined space deaths typically occur for two reasons. First, employers and workers fail to recognize and control the hazards associated with confined spaces, and secondly, they conduct inadequate or incorrect emergency response, resulting in the death of the initial entrant, the would-be rescuer or both. The first step in preventing confined space deaths is understanding the difference between permitted and non-permitted confined spaces. A permit-required confined space contains or has potential to contain a hazardous atmosphere, contains the potential for engulfment, is an internal configuration that can trap or asphyxiate the entrant or poses any other serious safety and health hazards. A permit system and a written permit-required confined space program must be developed if employees are going to enter permit spaces, says Gurican, an instructor for the Safety Center. A permit space may be reclassified as a non-permit space if it poses no actual or potential atmospheric hazards and if all hazards with the space are eliminated. If an entry must be made to eliminate the hazards, the entry must be done using the permit system. The elimination of hazards must be documented and certified by the employer. Employers must inform the employees of the existence of any permit spaces through signs or other equally effective means and prevent unauthorized entry, Gurican adds. Typical permit-required spaces include chemical storage tanks, pipelines, lift stations, tunnels, waste water tanks, air handling units, catch basins, furnaces, sewers, boilers, underground, retention basins, man holes, valve pits, grain bins and waste storage pits. According to Gurican, Sewers are considered a permitted confined space because you never know what someone has dumped upstream that could flow into the work space. A confined space has limited means of egress, can be bodily entered and is not designed for continuous occupancy. Typical non-permit-required spaces include utility closets, cable vaults, storage vaults and utility subbasements. In most cases, a trench is not considered a confined space.
19.5-16 percent: Fatigue, mild impaired coordination 16-12 percent: Increased breathing rate and pulse; impaired coordination, perception or judgment 12-10 percent: Further increased breathing rate, blue lips, mental confusion
10-8 percent: Fainting, nausea, vomiting, mental confusion within a few minutes 8-6 percent: Collapse, death within eight minutes 6-0 percent: Coma within 40 seconds, death Extra oxygen typically is from leaking oxygen cylinders used for oxyacetylene torches. Oxygen above 23.5 percent is a fire or explosion hazard. Flammable gases, vapors or dusts will ignite from a spark or a flame if they are above the lower flammable limit. A confined space cannot be entered if the gas or vapor levels are higher than 10 percent above the lower flammable limit.