Health Hazard Evaluation Report: HETA-2010-0175-3144, November 2011. Confined Space Program Recommendations for Dairy Plant Inspectors - Nationwide

摘要

NIOSH investigators evaluated a federal agency's confined space program for equipment inspectors in dairy plants on March 1-2, 2011, after receiving a request from the agency's health and safety manager. The requestor was concerned with potential exposures to oxygen-deficient atmospheres and off-gassing of cleaning and disinfection products during equipment sanitation surveys in dairy plants. No health concerns were specifically reported. We toured one dairy plant on March 1, 2011, to learn about dairy plant processes and equipment. We evaluated typical procedures during an equipment sanitation survey on March 2, 2011, at a second dairy plant. We also reviewed the agency's draft written confined space program and interviewed equipment inspectors about their confined space practices and work-related health and safety concerns. We learned that dairy plants within the United States are increasing in size, which usually means more confined spaces in a plant. We observed six partial permit-required confined space entries (head and arm/hand into a vessel manhole for less than a minute) by an equipment inspector. We also observed several inspected pieces of equipment that were not confined spaces. The equipment inspector was accompanied at all times by plant personnel and usually wore a lab coat, safety glasses, hearing protection, bump cap, and a hair net, and used a high-intensity portable flashlight. We found the agency's draft confined space program hard to understand because much of it was written using legal jargon. Also, the program was not specific to the dairy industry and did not include rescue procedures in case of an emergency during an equipment sanitation survey. Our interviews with equipment inspectors revealed that they routinely entered permit-required confined spaces during equipment sanitation surveys but were not always familiar with the permit-required confined space and rescue procedures of the dairy plants.