[Health surveillance for employees who work in "areas suspected of pollution" or confined].

About medical aspects related to the work involving confined spaces Neil McManus, one of the leading world expert on the topic, points out that now a days, besides what is required for general work environmental, no specific data can be found in the literature on health surveillance programs for workers engaged in activities in confined environments. Although there are activities in confined environments, which may include the adoption of operating procedures and protection systems similar to those one used in manufacturing jobs (e.g., use of PPE as respiratory mask and protective clothing, etc.) we must, however, emphasize that activities in confined environments involve specific working conditions of particular physical / psychological stress for employees. Working in these spaces has as consequences issues not found in other situations (being confined, difficulties in the movement, unable to access / exit, uncomfortable postures, etc.) and also, in emergency, it may involve difficulties with activities offirst aid or extraction of the worker injured and in some cases even obstruct them. Therefore we believe that it is important to begin a debate on the topic and to indicate what should be the physical requirements of the employees who have been called to work in this particular workplace.