Health & Safety warrants a special mention on the Camstopper website as it is at the core of our driven designs.

Confined spaces can be deadly

A number of people are killed or seriously injured in confined spaces each year. This happens in a wide range of industries, from those involving complex plant to simple storage vessels.

What is a confined space?

It can be any space of an enclosed nature where there is a risk of death or serious injury from hazardous substances or dangerous conditions.

In drain and sewer networks, a confined space is generally definded as any chamber deeper than 1200mm.

What is sewage?

Raw sewage is mainly water containing excrement, industrial effluent and debris, such as sanitary towels, condoms, plastic etc. Excrement is the major source of harmful micro-organisms, including bacteria, viruses and parasites.

What are the health risks?

Exposure to sewage or its products may result in a number of illnesses. These include:

- Gastroenteritis, characterised by cramping stomach pains, diarrhoea and vomiting;
- Weil's disease, a flu-like illness with persistent and severe headache, transmitted by rat   urine. Damage to liver, kidneys and blood may occur and the condition can be fatal
- Hepatitis, characterised by inflammation of the liver, and jaundice
- Occupational asthma, resulting in attacks of breathlessness, chest tightness and wheezing,   and produced by the inhalation of living or dead organisms
- Infection of skin or eyes
- Rarely, allergic alveolitis (inflammation of the lung) with fever, breathlessness, dry cough,   and aching muscles and joints.

What the law says

You must carry out a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risks for all work activities for the purpose of deciding what measures are necessary for safety.

If your assessment identifies risks of serious injury from work in confined spaces, such as the dangers highlighted above, the Confined Spaces Regulations 1997 apply.

These regulations contain the following key duties:

- avoid entry to confined spaces, eg by doing the work from outside;
- if entry to a confined space is unavoidable, follow a safe system of work; and
- put in place adequate emergency arrangements before the work starts.

“With the remote retrival feature of the Camstopper™, entry into a confined space is now AVOIDABLE”

The Camstopper™ helps save lives and reduce exposure to hazards by reducing the time spent in confined spaces and in contact with sewage. If, in the event of an accident, the operator was down inside the chamber recovering for example a wing-hut plug: when in fact a Camstopper™ could have been used and retrieved remotely away from the Confined Space, it is possible that the law in this case could have been breached.