Confined spaces are present in a wide variety of industries and workplaces and are recognised as having a higher potential for fatal or serious injuries. Workers from many different occupations enter confined spaces to perform work-related tasks, sometimes unaware that they are entering a potentially hazardous work environment.

Because these areas are not designed primarily as a place of work, confined spaces are typically more hazardous than normal work places with usually smaller tolerances for error. Seemingly minor alterations in conditions or practices within a confined space can often change the status of these workplaces from relatively harmless to life threatening. Many other hazards, including hazardous energies, toxic gases and vapours, can also be exacerbated in confined spaces.

Work in confined spaces can increase the risk of injury or death by exposing employees to working environments that require them to work closer to hazards than they normally would. Often the design characteristics of confined spaces have the potential to increase other hazards such as the resonation of noise, or the reflection of radiation produced from welding and similar processes.

Confined spaces present a special OH&S problem because the hazards that are present may not be readily apparent. Confined spaces usually have poor ventilation, and regardless of their volume or size, hazardous atmospheres may accumulate rapidly. Examples of confined spaces incidents will be provided in the form of case studies by your trainer. These examples will illustrate some of the different hazards associated with confined spaces.

The frequency of course participants recounting near miss experiences to our consultants leads us to suspect that many confined space incidents go unreported and that the occurrence of confined space incidents in Australia is underestimated. The fact that many of these near miss incidents have not resulted in a serious injury or death is often due to “good luck” rather than good management.

Risk Response + Rescue offers a variety of confined space courses. These are both accredited and non-accredited and are widely respected across a broad spectrum of industry sectors.
 
Contact us for a recommendation or customisation of a course suitable to your industry specific needs.