ARIA 33637

Many industrial accidents involve work conducted within confined areas, where the primary risk has been generated by the latent or accidental presence of an either flammable, toxic or simply oxygen-deficient atmosphere. Some persons have died after entering such spaces due to underestimating the risks, while others have succumbed by attempting to rescue those already incapacitated.

Given the lack of awareness relative to these phenomena, a preliminary risk analysis serves to adopt a series of prevention and protection measures, to be implemented as part of an effort to reduce accident occurrence or at least limit harmful consequences.

The objective of this analysis is to build awareness among actors. It relies upon an analysis of 80 illustrative accidents selected from the ARIA database that involve classifi ed facilities. In light of the amount of data available, this synthesis does not purport to provide actual statistical elements, but still allows drawing valuable insight on risks related to confined atmospheres.

 Published in 2008