Training both workers and supervisors to recognize and anticipate hazards and perform rescues is vital, according to a panel of confined space experts speaking at the International Safety Equipment Association (ISEA) roundtable earlier this month.

OSHA has cited Bushnell Illinois Tank Co., which operates as Schuld/Bushnell in Valley, with eight safety and health violations based on a follow-up inspection for hazards associated with workers who enter and work in permit-required confined spaces. Proposed penalties total $116,270.

Representatives from OSHA, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) and Newport News Shipbuilding are among seven experts who will share their perspectives during an International Safety Equipment Association (ISEA) Washington Roundtable on Confined Space Safety, August 21 in Arlington, Va.

To ensure that California employers do everything they can to prevent serious injury or death as a result of working in a confined space, The Phylmar Regulatory Roundtable (PRR) -- a group of companies committed to improving workplace safety and health -- compiled information from members companies existing safety and health programs and created materials that provide the public with a set of successful or good practices for confined space and lockout/tagout procedures for those who do not have these resources available to them.

The Los Angeles Fire Department has become the latest organization to sign on to Cal/OSHA’s confined space awareness campaign -- an effort to educate employers and employees about the dangers of working in confined spaces.

An agricultural cooperative was sentenced last month in federal court in Lincoln, Nebraska after admitting to safety violations that led to the death of an employee.