THE National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (Niosh) will introduce national standards and guidelines for work safety involving confined space, its chairman Datuk Lee Lam Thye said yesterday.

He said under the guidelines, a permit will be given to competent persons to conduct work in confined spaces.

"This will ensure that workers in confined spaces will at least have a minimum knowledge of safety, thus ensuring fewer accidents," he said.

Confined spaces generally refer to spaces having relatively small volume and unfavourable natural ventilation, into which infrequent and irregular entry is made for the purpose of maintenance, repair of cleaning.

He said accidents in confined spaces like silos, tanks, vats, sewers, reaction vessels, ship compartments, sludge pits, and boilers displayed several common features, such as non-routine and irregular works. Persons involved were usually contract employees with poor knowledge of safety requirements.

There were also few or no standard safeguards, while safe practices and procedures were neglected and persons with basic first aid and cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) skills were not available.

Lee said industry experience indicated that oxygen deficiency was the most common cause of acute illness or fatality.- Bernama