In construction and industry, some potential hazards visibly manifest, such as the risk of falls from heights. Others are more hidden. A confined space may not look dangerous, but workers perish each year because someone assumed the air inside was safe to breathe when testing would have revealed that is wasn’t.
In 2017, 166 workers died in incidents involving confined spaces, an increase of 15 percent from the previous year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.