(1) An employer or user of machinery
shall take steps to ensure that a confined space is entered by an employee or
other person only after the air therein has been tested and evaluated by a
person who is competent to pronounce on the safety thereof, and who has
certified in writing that the confined space is safe and will remain safe while
any person is in the confined space, taking into account the nature and duration
of the work to be performed therein.
(2) Where the provisions of
subregulation (1) cannot be complied with, the employer or user of machinery, as
the case may be, shall take steps to ensure that any confined space in which
there exists or is likely to exist a hazardous gas, vapour, dust or fumes, or
which has or is likely to have, an oxygen content of less than 20 per cent by
volume, is entered by an employee or other person only when -
(a) subject to the provisions of subregulation (3), the
confined space is purged and ventilated to provide a safe atmosphere therein and
measures necessary to maintain a safe atmosphere therein have been taken; and
(b) the confined space has been isolated from all
pipes, ducts and other communicating openings by means of effective blanking
other than the shutting or locking of a valve or a cock, or, if this is not
practicable, only when all valves and cocks which are a potential source of
danger have been locked and securely fastened by means of chains and padlocks.
(3) Where the provisions of
subregulation (2)(a) cannot be complied with, the employer or use of machinery
shall take steps to ensure that the confined space in question is entered only
when the employee or person entering is using breathing apparatus of a type
approved by the chief inspector and, further, that -
(a) the provisions of subregulation (2) (b) are
complied with;
(b) any employee or person entering the confined space
is using a safety harness or other similar equipment to which a rope is securely
attached which reaches beyond the access to the confined space, and the free end
of which is attended to by a person referred to in paragraph (c);
(c) at least one other person trained in resuscitation
is and remains in attendance immediately outside the entrance of the confined
space in order to assist or remove any person or persons from the confined
space, if necessary, and
(d) effective apparatus for breathing and resuscitation
of a type approved by the chief inspector is available immediately outside the
confined space.
(4) An employer or user of machinery
shall take steps to ensure that all persons vacate a confined space on
completion of any work therein.
(5) Where the hazardous gas, vapour,
dust or fumes contemplated in subregulation (2) are of an explosive or flammable
nature, an employer or user of machinery shall further take steps to ensure that
such a confined space is entered only if -
(a) the concentration of gas, vapour, dust or fumes
does not exceed 25 per cent of the lower explosive limit of the gas, vapour,
dust or fumes concerned where the work to be performed is of such a nature that
it does not create a source of ignition, or
(b) such concentration does not exceed 10 per cent of
the lower explosive limit of the gas, vapour, dust or fumes where other work is
performed.
