Recent review on standards related to risk assessment for confined spaces

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to identify, review and carry out comparisons to five Standards where the main interest is on its risk assessment elements related to confined space activities. This is due to lack of specific approach of the Standards for confined space such as entry procedure requirements, risk assessment method, current practice of risk assessment is rather general and additional references are required for conducting risk assessment which would lead to non-compliance by industries. The selected Standards will be summarized on its requirements, followed by a review of review of Standard contribution factors towards (i) practical application (ii) enhancing a safe system of work (iii) suitability as elements of risk assessment and finally the comparison of Standards will be carried out. The results from the study would be used as a contribution factor to promote an ideal method in developing an effective risk assessment tools for working safely in confined space. Furthermore, literature that has been referred to gives additional input for developing the risk assessment tools.