Oct 7, 2015
Given that each rope is attached to the load and an anchor, at some point someone wondered if you could swap them out and switch between using a belay as a mainline and a mainline as a belay. In other words, could you keep both lines tensioned so that if one failed, the other line would prevent any appreciable freefall and associated shock loads?
Aug 4, 2015
When you are asked the question: Is it worth having a rescue team? Common sense dictates that most employees should be able to respond appropriately to an incipient fire. Alarms and extinguishers have saved countless billions in damages and few would argue against spending money to ensure a safe and effective response in the few moments after a fire has started. Like structural fires, confined space emergencies are the result of a chain of events and if this chain can be broken early, lives can be saved.
June 2, 2015
For the last five or so years we have enjoyed considerable success with Version 3 of our Confined Space Entrant, Attendant, and Entry Supervisor curriculum. Nonetheless, we are excited to release Version 4.
Mar 3, 2015
Does your facility require a rescue team? What OSHA standards require some kind of emergency response procedures? If your facility needs some level of emergency response, how do you develop these capabilities? What types of procedures, equipment, and training is needed? Or should it be out sourced?
Jan 27, 2015
We are often asked how much training or equipment a confined space team really needs, and while we’d like to be able to respond with a simple answer, the answer is really not simple. The problem may be the use of the term ‘rescue team’ and what this term connotes; specifically a crack squad of former fire fighters who never encountered a hole they didn’t want to jump into or a tower they wouldn’t climb. But if we drill into the intent of the regulations we can see that OSHA does not require everyone who enters a confined space to be backed up by a rescue team, they simply require you to have a means of rescue. So how much rescue capability is enough at your location?
Jan 19, 2015
When you are hanging in a harness the leg straps cut off this return flow. Blood pools in the legs where the tissues scrub out all the oxygen and load it up with metabolic waste products. With this reduction of blood circulating in the body, the heart compensates by speeding up the heart rate to maintain blood flow to the brain. How long does this process take? It depends on many factors.
Oct 7, 2014
Developing a rescue team is simple: recruit team members, purchase equipment, and hire someone to provide training. Easy enough. The real challenge is maintaining that capability over time. People leave the team, equipment ‘disappears’ and skills degrade. Having been involved in the development and maintenance of hundreds of rescue teams, we have learned that successful, long-lasting teams are built on a firm foundation. And firm foundations begin by asking and answering these five questions.
Jul 7, 2014
Can you define rescue tripod “footprint” if a student or fellow team member asked you? The footprint of a rescue tripod is exactly what it implies. Begin with something familiar: your footprint.
Apr 17, 2014
Technical rescue is a transportation problem that needs to be solved quickly. The team needs to move someone (who is injured or otherwise incapacitated) from a hazardous or inaccessible location to a place of safety.
Jan 30, 2014
Any profession that can impact life and safety and that requires interactions with other life safety professionals (i.e., nurses, paramedics, EMTs, and physicians) requires skills, knowledge, and a commitment to that trade. This is also true of rescue technicians. These abilities don’t accrue overnight; they require years of dedicated study and participation rescue drills and skills exercises.
Apr 9, 2013
The requirement to provide a means of rescue when workers enter permit-required confined spaces is well known aspect of the OSHA regulations. But employers, who are rarely rescue experts, often do not know how these teams should be equipped and trained.
Oct 9, 2012
Should rescuers enter a non-IDLH confined space to observe conditions during the entry?
Jul 23, 2012
What is the required capacity for an anchor point used solely for rescue (retrieval) as opposed to fall arrest or fall restraint? It seems like a simple question, and there should be a fairly simple answer. But once you start digging, you discover that the question can be fairly complicated.
Nov 7, 2011
Recently OROSHA released the text of of proposed changes to the confined space standards rules. Their goal is to bring construction under the same standards as general industry. The proposed rules can be found here:
http://www.orosha.org/pdf/notices/proposed2011/propchgs_conf_sp.pdf
Aug 15, 2011
Last Sunday while skimming the business section of our local newspaper (Eugene’s Register Guard), I came across an article on training wind turbine workers so that they can avoid accidents and injuries. A key point in the article was the problem with existing wind turbine safety standards.
Jul 8, 2011
One area of concern for many employers relates to the safety requirements needed when an employee reaches into a permit-required confined space to perform a low-hazard job task such as steam cleaning or collecting a sample. Has the employee made a confined space entry? Is a permit needed? What exactly are the requirements?
Sep 1, 2009
When it comes to rope rescue, one issue that seems to arise frequently involves the use of conditional versus unconditional belays. Just to review, a belay is a safety line that will catch the rescuer or patient if the mainline fails. An unconditional belay will catch the load without any action being taken by the person operating the belay (the belayer). A conditional belay requires the belayer to take some action (e.g., pull, wrap, or tighten the belay rope) to catch the load.