Hot Work Resources

An employer must:

General Duties

• Make sure to take every precaution that is reasonable in the circumstances to ensure the health and safety of persons at or near the workplace. This is commonly known as the General Duty Clause and is a core part of the Internal Responsibility System (IRS); covering any circumstances that could impact the health and safety of persons in the workplace, including those not specifically addressed in the Act or regulations.

• Make sure to provide and maintain equipment, machines, materials, or things that are properly equipped with safety devices.

• Make sure all employees performing or supervising hot work are competent to do so, and aware of the hazards by providing the required information, instruction, and training.

• Make sure to conduct business activities in a way that does not expose employees to health and safety hazards.

Workplace Monitoring

• When workplace OHS inspections or OHS monitoring (including tests, samples, and measurements) are performed in the workplace, notify the Joint Occupational Health and Safety Committee (JOHSC) or safety representative about the reports, and provide them to the JOHSC or safety representative, or employee, when requested.

• When a monitoring observer is required and selected, give reasonable notice about when it will start.

• Provide and explain the monitoring procedure to the observer, if requested.

• Notify the observer if the monitoring equipment has malfunctioned, or the process has been altered.

• When monitoring will be performed by an owner, constructor, or contractor, then all of the employer’s requirements apply, and they must also provide reasonable notice to all employees at the workplace about when it will be done.

Ventilation

• Provide sufficient fresh air supply and impure air removal from the workplace, to keep the air reasonably pure and remove any impurities.

• Where a process creates a harmful impurity that is likely to be inhaled and cause injury, provide and use mechanical means to prevent inhalation, carry off and dispose of, and prevent recirculation and re-entry of the impurity.

• Make sure all parts of the ventilation system are designed, installed, operated, maintained, and repaired in an adequate manner by a competent person.

Portable Compressed Gas Cylinders

• Make sure all cylinders are stored and transported safely, not exposed to corrosive materials or corrosion-aiding substances, and are protected from falling or having objects fall on them; subject to the Fire Safety Act.

• Make sure ‘No Smoking’ signs and the names of all gases stored there, are prominently posted in the storage area.

• Make sure no one rolls a cylinder on its side, handles it roughly, or moves it with a lifting magnet.

• Make sure suitable cradles or platforms are used for holding and lifting cylinders, when appropriate lifting mechanisms are not provided on the cylinder.

Hot Work – General Precautions

• Make sure all hot work equipment is erected, installed, assembled, started, operated, used, handled, stored, stopped, inspected, serviced, tested, cleaned, adjusted, carried, maintained, repaired and dismantled following the manufacturer’s specifications.

• Make sure all hot work is performed by a competent person.

• Before hot work starts, make sure the responsible worker has inspected the surroundings and taken adequate precautions:

  • to remove all hazardous material or processes that produce combustible, flammable or explosive material, dust, gas or vapour;

  • to prevent fire or explosion; and,

  • to protect any person(s) located below the hot work area from sparks, debris and other falling hazards.

• Where there is a radiation or reflection exposure hazard, provide adequate screens to prevent it from affecting any workers, or prevent persons from entering the work area.

• Make sure a compressed gas hose line or welding cable is adequately protected from damage.

• Make sure an operator does not leave an electric welding machine unattended without removing the electrode.

• Make sure appropriate welding and ground leads are used to fasten the electric supply cable securely so that the inner wires of an electric welding machine are not exposed to damage and the cable cannot be separated from the fittings.

Hot Work – Containers

• Make sure no person performs hot work on a container, pipe, valve or fitting that holds or may have held an explosive, flammable or otherwise hazardous substance, or may become hazardously pressurized; unless a written work procedure is established and followed.

• Make sure the written work procedure includes instructions for disconnecting and blanking off or moving out of alignment pipes, or locking out valves in the closed position.

• Make sure the written work procedure includes these steps that the competent person must take after ventilation:

  • examine the area to be welded or processed to ensure that it is free from residue;

  • test air samples to make sure that explosive, flammable or hazardous amounts of gases or vapours have been reduced to less than 1% of the lower explosive limit in areas to be welded or processed; and,

  • certify, in writing, that work involving the application of heat can be safely undertaken and that the conditions tested in the area to be heated are likely to be maintained within a predicted and recorded range for the entire time the certification is valid.

• where hot work is performed on a natural gas pipeline or a liquids pipeline associated with a natural gas pipeline, make sure an engineer certifies that the written work procedure meets the requirements of the API Standard.

• Make sure no person uses the exhaust of an internal combustion engine to decrease the concentration of flammable and explosive gases and vapours in the area to be welded or processed.

Hot Work – Gas Welding

• Make sure a gas supply leak test is performed immediately after the regulator and its flexible connecting hose are connected to a gas cylinder.

• Make sure gas supply leak tests are not performed with a substance that is oil, fat or grease based.

• When a leak develops during gas welding or allied process, make sure the supply of gas is cut off by the operator, and work does not resume until the leak is repaired.

• Provide a flashback arrestor between the torch and the fuel gas and oxygen supply.

• Make sure hose lines or pipelines for conveying gases to burner and couplings are legibly marked or identified, to make sure the hoses are not interchanged.

• Make sure a torch is ignited by a lighting device that is designed for that purpose.

• Where acetylene is manufactured in the workplace, establish a written health and safety procedure for this process.

An employee must:

• Comply with the Occupational Health and Safety Act and the regulations.

• If selected by the JOHSC or safety representative, or by employees where there is no JOHSC or safety representative, observe when workplace OHS monitoring (including tests, samples, and measurements) is performed, unless the monitoring takes place in certain circumstances. Time spent in this activity is deemed to be regular paid work time , and the selected employee must be granted access to the workplace for the purpose of observation.

• Not roll a portable compressed gas cylinder on its side, handle it roughly, or move it with a lifting magnet.

• Before hot work starts, inspect the surroundings and take adequate precautions:

  • to remove all hazardous material or processes that produce combustible, flammable or explosive material, dust, gas or vapour;

  • to prevent fire or explosion; and,

  • to protect any person(s) located below the hot work area from sparks, debris and other falling hazards.

• Not leave an electric welding machine unattended without removing the electrode.

• Perform a gas supply leak test immediately after the regulator and its flexible connecting hose are connected to a gas cylinder.

• Not use a substance that is oil, fat, or grease based to perform a gas supply leak test.

• When a leak develops during gas welding or allied process, cut off the supply of gas and not resume work until the leak is repaired.

Source: ohs.guide.constructionsafetyns.ca/topic/hot_work/#leg_ref_LEG_1_0