I’ll formulate a more lengthy response later, as I have confined spaces to inspect, but I’m going to add that every time I teach a Shipyard Competent Person course, my introduction starts with “when in doubt, blow it out.” I repeat that phrase maybe 40 times over the two day course. It’s the most simple method to ensure a space is made safe.
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then why do we still have so many deaths?
Not so. A compressor for filling tanks is not the same as a demand compressor for supply air. Two very different systems, and again, complexity is added. Who will inspect and maintain a system of supply air running from a vapor-free internal space at the source with very high quality air, to where it is needed, bearing in mind that every foot of distance, every coupling and bend, increases liability, complexity and risk on the user, not to mention on the owner.
Put another way, I’m not being paid enough to risk my life on a fabricobbled system like you’re describing. Are you, and are they hiring?
Because you can’t fix stupid. And stupid people shouldn’t be in charge of anything.
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If you poured through the incident reports, most are pretty good at pointing out the root cause, however, that usually makes people or companies look bad so you’d have a harder time tracking them down than an article about another death.
IMHO Poor leadership would seem to cover most of the incidents, could be shipboard or shoreside. Either not understanding the dangers, complacency, not ensuring that those serving under them are competent, or just toxic individuals.
People will gravitate towards short cuts, it’s nature to want things easier. So if you can impress your boss getting work done quickly, or avoid a confrontation over the length of a job, or you don’t understand what you’re dealing with, or confined space entry procedures get shortcut in other spaces so no big deal…and your chances of dying or killing people start to go up.
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Exactly. Supplied air just adds something else to service, inspect, maintain, and set up for an entry. If those involved are taking shortcuts in confined space prep, how could you expect that system to be well cared for? (Rhetorical question).
Say they were willing to drag an airline and respirator through a confined space, I’d venture a guess the shortcutting would only continue aided by the safety net of outside air.
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Supplied air isn’t the answer. There’s an entire slew of equipment servicing, face-piece fitment, maintenance, etc. that comes along with it. Frankly, the industry would have to master a knowledge of the basics of confined space hazards before venturing into supplied air respirators. We need to stick to the basics and educate personnel at the deck-plate level all the way up to shore-side management.
In the Industrial Hygiene field, the use of supplied air is a last-resort, as it is always recommended to engineer out the hazard rather than attempt to bypass it. 99.9% of the time, this can be accomplished with fresh-air ventilation. No IH, MC, GFE, SCP would suggest entry into a space relying on a mechanical system such as supplied air if the space contains hazardous vapors or an oxygen deficient atmosphere.
Fresh air ventilation doesn’t necessarily require elaborate equipment. I’m most impressed when I go to inspect a rusty void on a vintage tugboat and someone has ventilated it with a floor dryer rigged with an old cardboard box for ductwork, or a basic Walmart box fan taped to the hatch-cover. There is ALWAYS a way to ventilate a space prior to entry, and the life of no mariner is worth losing to take a shortcut.
Why are these deaths still so frequent, despite all of the industry efforts? You can’t replace actual confined space entry training with checklist boxes and flow charts, and that’s the avenue we’ve gone down by pushing aside the knowledge and training, and replacing it with paperwork and a series of meaningless signatures.
I’m sure someone will have a surly comment like “of course you’re promoting training, you make money off of training.” I’m putting my profession aside, and speaking from the heart. There is no excuse for loss of life. We all work to put food on the table for our families, and every mariner has a right to go home to that family.
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Bottle fill has multistage compressor to get the pressure
Demand flow single stage they are cheaper and simpler
Just like a dive boat you can fill a bottle bank and there is your capacity.
Who said its cobbled together?
You go to hospital, do they must have cobbled together gas systems through out the building?
Do they run a compressor?
Dive compressors designed to supply a regulator directly are readily available. If someone wants to set that up, they can. They are not the same thing as tank-filling compressors, the output pressure is more like 100 PSI than 3,000.
One job I had was somewhat of a confined space doing glass and paint work, for most of it we just used box fans to keep fresh air moving through and for the actual spray painting that was with external air and a regulator. I ran a long hose to keep the compressor way away from any fumes.
- I think I mentioned before there is a horrible video from Mexico showing a worker collapsing in a tank and then his fellow workers go to the rescue one-by-one and all die
I’ll see if I can find it.
This should by now be common sense. Confined space entry isn’t like sending someone to the moon. You just want to make sure that there is enough breathable air to support life before some one goes into an enclosed space. Measure the air before anyone goes in. Simple…at least one would think.
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Just imagine the cost of having a Brownies rig class approved.
Even if it were approved, human nature would lead to people taking even fewer precautions to ventilate the space. After all, “we have an air line mask, no need to waste a lot of time setting up fans, just hand me the mask.”
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The linked article in the OP is a bit more than the usual simple-minded P&I club hand-wringing about working mariners not following procedures.
Several years ago, InterManager launched a survey on enclosed space deaths, to which 5000 seafarers responded. A number of issues were raised, in particular:
• Procedures often seem to seafarers, difficult to understand, confusing, and do not take account of the resources, equipment and time available aboard the vessel.
• Investigations of fatalities point to failures in the victims and in particular their failure to follow procedures.
• Commercial/time pressure is a significant factor and was described as ‘verging on abuse’.
• Design and equipment added to the problems by creating hazards.
• Training was seen as being limited to tanker trades.
People i work with dont care. They send kids down into old scows every few days. O2 meter, blower tripod siting in a conex somewhere. Rusty old scows, ladders rusted through, deckhands down there with shovels and buckets clearing away the mud so they can shingle and weld boxes over cracks.
If i am not supervising, the only time i have ever seen a blower taken out is during long term welding projects. 02 meter only used in the shipyard.
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Exactly! Then add a maintenance schedule for said rig to your list of things to do.
All true, but some things can’t be done another way. When I was spraying in there any kind of air filter mask would have just clogged up and suffocated me or poisoned me.
For just going into a tank or a void and not doing something as nasty as spray painting, fans are of course way easier and cheaper to deal with.
A ship’s fuel tank needing repair was cleaned and ventilated.
The next step was cutting an access port into the top.
The cutting stopped when the fuel oil flowed out.
Sorry! Wrong tank!
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During my brief period of working in the GOM the shipyards gave zero shit about OSHA. The maximum fine they got from OSHA was laughable IF they ever got a fine.
Talk to any ex firemen in Singapore and they all say they left as they got sick of scraping bodies out of tanks etc in shipyards.
Unless its a huge explosion and everyone hears, its kept out of the papers.