In construction and industry, some potential hazards are visibly manifest, such as the risk of falls from heights. Others are more hidden. A confined space may not look dangerous, but workers perish each year because someone assumed the air inside was safe to breathe, when testing would have revealed that it wasn't. In 2017,166 workers died in incidents involving confined spaces, a 15-percent increase from the previous year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The real tragedy is that such fatalities are potentially preventable by understanding and following OSHA requirements for entering confined spaces. But significant confusion remains around which of the two confined space standards to follow, and that confusion can result in all-too-common noncompliance.
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