Confined space entry-what to look out for?
What are confined spaces? And why should you bother about them?
Well, confined spaces are places in your workplace that are “confined” because their configurations restrict the activities of employees who must enter, work in, and exit them. A confined space has limited or restricted means for entry or exit, and it is not designed for continuous employee occupancy. Think underground vaults, tanks, storage bins, manholes, pits, silos, process vessels, and pipelines and even elevator shafts.
OSHA uses the term “permit-required confined space” (permit space) to describe a confined space that has one or more of the following characteristics: contains or has the potential to contain a hazardous atmosphere; contains a material that has the potential to engulf an entrant; has walls that converge inward or floors that slope downward and taper into a smaller area which could trap or asphyxiate an entrant; or contains any other recognized safety or health hazard, such as unguarded machinery, exposed live wires, or heat stress.
Training in confined spaces is absolutely essential for all employees who are going to work in confined spaces, as well as for those who supervise them. It’s the law! And what better and cost effective training to get than e-learning? You control the pace of the course, the time it can be taken and it costs almost next to nothing, if you factor in the yearly refresher training. An excellent choice would be a CD based confined space entry training given below. Check it out!
Safety Training -Lessons from the US Airways Hudson river landing
Again in this post, we go out of the industrial plant-into the air. Last weeks fabulous landing of the US Airways plane on the Hudson river emphasized one thing in particular, which is-the importance of the safety training. In our industrial plants, many times a new visitor or a recruit is perfunctorily shown a short “safety training” video. More often than not, this is a grainy ancient video that somebody made to comply with some XYZ regulation. The quality certainly does not show the seriousness with safety matters. (I am sure there are many of you out there who may have had a better experience, if so, please share it in the comments section). The plane landing incident only shows how important the safety training demo is. Most people on most flights sleep off/ignore/look the other way, thinking of course…”Oh that’s just a formality. It can’t happen to me!”. As this incident has shown, it CAN happen (that is why the demo includes what you should do if the plane lands on water). I hope all of you will now watch the safety demo at the beginning of the flight more seriously from now on. Also, please take down those grainy old VHS videos that are shown to new recruits and visitors to your industrial plants and replace them with something more visible, eye-catching and worth remembering. Why should it have to be a traditional video at all? It can be snazzy Flash movie, or something that can be downloaded to an MP4 player or shown on a projector on a big screen with sound and effects. The key is not only showing the video/demo/program… it is also making the visitor to your plant feel that your management takes safety seriously enough to invest in such things. People will remember it much better and maybe it does save somebody’s life in case of some undesirable occurence.
Perhaps you can take a leaf out of Abhisam Software’s e-learning courses? These cover subjects like Hazardous Area Instruments and Gas Detectors, making extensive use of Flash/Shockwave to engage the learner.
As for the commander of the airliner, it was a fantastic performance. BTW , I hear that he is also an aviation safety expert, so this knowledge must have helped tremendously.
