Recent review on legislations related to risk assessment for confined space

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to identify, review and carry out comparisons to three legislations. The main interest of the paper is on the risk assessment elements in these legislations which are related to confined space activities. This is due to lack of specific approach of the legislation for confined space such as entry procedure requirements and risk assessment methods. The existing practice of risk assessment is rather general and additional references are required for its conduct, which would lead to non-compliance by industries. The selected legislations will be summarized on its requirements, followed by a review of the factors contributing towards (i) practical application, (ii) enhancing a safe system of work, and (iii) suitability as elements of risk assessment. Finally, a comparison of the legislations will be carried out. The results from the study would be used to promote an ideal method in developing effective risk assessment tools for working safely in confined spaces. Furthermore, several pieces of literature which were referred to could give additional input for developing the risk assessment tools.