ABSTRACT
In con‰ned space work, as with respiratory protection, one of the major hurdles is terminology. Here, just the name of the topic causes confusion: conned space, for example, does not describe or even refer to a hazardous location. Rather, it is a work setting with certain physical attributes. For the uninitiated, conned space may suggest an environment in which people work in close quarters or even in a claustrophobic setting. I have been asked, for example, whether it pertains to simply working in narrow passageways (no), or phone booth-sized structures (not necessarily), or to areas that have only one point of entry (again, not necessarily). In fact, this term does not lend itself to a simple de‰nition, if for no other reason than it is applied to an incredibly wide variety of work environments.
