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The kinds of accidents that arise from industrial activities may be broadly categorized as accidents arising from routine activities and that from non-routine activities. The production related operations/processes would fall in the former category while the maintenance related activities would fall in the latter category. There are well-established safety rules and procedural guidelines when it comes to taking precautions for accidents arising from the routine activities. However, these safety arrangements become non-functional when the plant or the establishment undergoes maintenance and there remains a reasonably high probability of accidents due to the nature of work involved. Work in “Confined Spaces” which might involve working in poorly ventilated spaces such as manholes, boilers, pipelines, drains, etc.
Certain provisions of the Factories Act, 1948 and the Andhra Pradesh Rules, 1950 obligates the stakeholders of the factories to take proper measures for the safety of the workers working in “Confined Spaces”. However, to further facilitate and bolster this process, the Andhra Pradesh government has released a detailed list of guidelines and instructions that must be complied by the factories to prevent any kind of accidents arising out of the non-routine activities. The said guidelines are released as a Standard Operating Procedure called “Work Permit System” which create a minimum threshold or baseline for safety, however, the said guidelines do not affect or substitute any other additional safety and health measures which are appropriate and must be adopted for creating a safe working space for the worker. The said guidelines mandate facilities like safety gears, emergency rescue mechanism, a vigilant person being present at the premises to look if there is any mishappening and immediately reporting the same to higher authorities and also specifying maximum level of toxic gases concentration allowed in the work area along with other safety measures.
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