Confıned Spaces – Invısıble Dangers - Businesses Could Be Putting Themselves At Huge Risk By Not Knowing That They Have A Confined Space Within Their

Businesses could be putting themselves at huge risk by not knowing that they have a confined space within their work environment. Confined spaces are not just underground and what is one day not classed as a confined space can quickly become one, through very subtle changes like a change in the weather.

Under the Confined Spaces Regulations 1997 act, a confined space can be: “any place, including any chamber, tank, vat, silo, pit, trench, pipe, sewer, flue, well or other similar space in which, by virtue of its enclosed nature, there arises a reasonably foreseeable specified risk.”

Confined Spaces can be present across a wide range of industries and sectors from agriculture to hairdressing and mining to plumbing, examples of over 50 industries are listed on the HSE website.

It has been reported that there on average 25 fatalities per year involving people who work in Confined Spaces. These are caused by suffocation, drowning, being exposed to dangerous substances or by being crushed. It is believed that most are directly attributed to employee’s not being taught the correct procedures whilst working in a confined space.

Aside from the distressing loss of human life, the cost to organisations can be huge and can vary from a sullied reputation, massive legal fees and downtime.

Leading technical training provider, Develop Training, have now extended their specialist Confined Spaces training from a regional programme to a nationwide as a way of creating awareness of this issue and have recently introduced certificated refresher programmes for those who may have undertaken this sort of training in the past.