SAFETY MOMENT OF THE WEEK       

 2 Workers Lose Consciousness in Confined Space: $73K fine issued by CAL/OSHA

August 30, 2016

After one worker collapsed inside a confined space, a second one rushed in and also lost consciousness. Now the company faces $73,105 in fines. 

Cal/OSHA has cited Kittyhawk Inc., based in Garden Grove, CA, with nine violations (6 serious, 3 general).

On March 13, 2016, a supervisor sent an untrained production assistant into a pressure vessel furnace to perform maintenance. The assistant didn’t have an oxygen sensor. The space was only four-feet wide and eight-feet tall and was filled with argon gas.

When the worker was overcome by the argon gas and collapsed, a second worker went in after him and also lost consciousness.

A third employee took a nearby fan and blew fresh air into the confined space.

The first worker spent four days in a hospital. The second worker was taken to a hospital, treated and released.

Cal/OSHA cited Kittyhawk for failure to:

• identify permit-required confined spaces
• train employees to safely perform their work in confined spaces
• monitor atmospheric conditions in a confined space during maintenance, and
• develop effective rescue and emergency procedures when employees are endangered in confined spaces.

Kittyhawk is a metal processing company.

Cal/OSHA defines a permit-required confined space as one that has limited entry and exit openings, isn’t designed for continuous worker occupancy, and has one or more of the following characteristics:

• a hazardous or potentially hazardous atmosphere including too little or too much oxygen, and/or presence of toxic gases
• a material that can engulf an employee, such as grain, sand or sugar
• an internal layout (such as floors that slope downwards) that can trap or asphyxiate a worker, or
• any other serious safety or health hazard, such as machinery with moving parts, sources of electrical shocks, burning or drowning hazards.

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(661) 587-8633 or stop by our retail location at 3510 Allen Rd #102, Bakersfield, CA 93314. 

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