Heavy duty industrial vacuum cleaners can eliminate the need to enter confined spaces for cleaning, reducing hazards and costs in a variety of ways.
Whether it’s eliminating the need to enter a permit-only confined space to clean accumulations of combustible dusts from grain elevators, or eliminating the amplified ergonomic, fall and overexertion hazards associated with cleaning non-permit confined spaces, such as blast recovery and sludge pits, industrial vacuum cleaners are an accepted engineering control to mitigate safety hazards and support compliance with OSHA and NFPA guidelines.
Employing industrial vacuum systems in housekeeping routines to remove dust and debris not only creates a safer environment but also saves companies tens of thousands of dollars per year in labor costs, equipment maintenance, material expenditures (through reclamation), and through increased uptime by reducing lengthy production interruptions for manual cleaning. In environments where cleaning needs to occur in confined spaces, especially in permit-required spaces, the ROI of an industrial vacuum cleaning system quickly rises when vacuums allow for cleaning from outside the enclosed space or cut man hours in half.
OSHA defines a confined space as one that is large enough for an employee to enter fully and perform assigned work, is not designed for continuous occupancy and has a limited or restricted means of entry or exit.
A confined space becomes a permit-required confined space when inherent, introduced or potential serious hazards to health or life are present, such as hazardous atmospheres, materials that can engulf workers with spaces that can trap someone and other recognized serious hazards.
Permit-required confined space procedures are costly in terms of evaluation, training, PPE and the additional manpower needed to not only monitor entry, but to remain at the ready for the duration of a task, turning a one-person assignment into a four-person assignment.
Although necessary for safety and health, coordinating time-consuming entry into permit-required spaces for cleaning is sometimes regarded as a nuisance which can result in less frequent housekeeping and maintenance activities in those spaces.
This article originally appeared in the July/August 2021 issue of Occupational Health & Safety.
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