Confined Space Archives

Confined Space: When Air Testing Before Entry is Impractical

Author's Note: This is an updated version of a blog originally published in 2017. At a client's facility there was a confined space (a large vault) that they wanted to enter using alternate entry procedures given that the only hazard was the possibility of a hazardous atmosphere. (Issues such as these are routinely addressed in our Confined Space Train the Trainer classes.) Checking the Air Before Entry Over the years his crews had entered the vault many times and had never encountered a hazardous atmosphere, nor had work activities ever created one. They had the testing records to verify this....

Categorized under: Blog, Confined Space, Confined Space Entry, Safety Blog

Tagged as: Confined Space, confined space entry, confined space regulations

Confined Spaces: The Simpler, The Deadlier

September 3, 2019

Across the U.S. there seems to be an endless variety of confined spaces; some complicated, others quite simple. When it comes to ensuring the safety of entrants, it seems that the simpler the space, the greater the danger.

Categorized under: Blog, Confined Space, Confined Space Entry, Safety Blog, Uncategorized

Tagged as: Confined Space

Confined Space and Industrial Rescue: How and How Much?

Jan 22, 2018

Does your facility require a rescue team? What OSHA standards require some kind of emergency response procedures? If your facility needs some level of emergency response, how do you develop these capabilities? What types of procedures, equipment, and training is needed? Or should it be out sourced?

Categorized under: Rescue Blog, Safety Blog

Tagged as: Confined Space, confined space entry, confined space regulations, D2000, OSHA, OSHA Safety, OSHA standards, rescue

Confined Space Training: Signs and Symptoms of Exposure

Sep 6, 2017

The rules that deal with confined space training are clear. Entrants and attendants may need to know a lot about medical issues.

Categorized under: Rescue Blog, Safety Blog

Tagged as: Confined Space, confined space entry, confined space regulations, OSHA regulations, OSHA Safety

Entry supervisor deciding whether to use alternate entry procedures.

Confined Space Attendant and Fall Protection

Oct 5, 2016

Consider for a moment the issue of fall protection and the confined space attendant overseeing entry operations for workers in a vault or manhole (top down entry). A question I often ask our students is: “Does the confined space attendant need to be tied off?”

Categorized under: Blog, Safety Blog

Tagged as: Confined Space, confined space entry, Fall Protection

Worker sandblasting inside a confined space.

Confined Space Safety Best Practice: What to Include in the Inventory

Jun 21, 2016

One of the challenges in administering a confined space safety program is deciding which spaces to include in your inventory. The simple answer is to just include those spaces that meet the definition of a permit space*, but is this a confined space safety best practice? My sense is that it may not be. In fact, I believe that when you’re deciding which spaces to place under the confined space program, you should consider putting aside OSHA’s legal definition of a permit space and instead use a broader measuring stick.

Categorized under: Safety Blog

Tagged as: Confined Space, confined space entry, confined space regulations, confined space rescue

The Shipyard Confined Space Standard: Any Lessons for General Industry?

May 4, 2016

Given a topic as potentially complex as confined spaces, we can often enhance our understanding of the safety requirements by looking at other, similar standards. The shipyard employment standard (29 CFR 1915 Subpart B) offers us one such opportunity.

Categorized under: Safety Blog

Tagged as: Confined Space, confined space entry, confined space permits, confined space regulations, confined space rescue, shipyards

Workers are lowered into a permit space on a suspended scaffold.

Fall Hazards and Permit-Required Confined Spaces

Jan 7, 2016

When Oregon re-wrote its confined space rules last year, one issue of interest among those attending the stakeholder’s meeting hosted by OROSHA, was the question of fall hazards and permit spaces. In other words, if you had a pit twenty feet deep and the only hazard was posed by using a fixed ladder to enter this pit, would the fall hazard be serious enough to make the confined space a permit space?

Categorized under: Safety Blog

Tagged as: Confined Space, confined space entry, confined space regulations, Fall Protection, fall protection training

Confined Space Reclassification: Facts and Myths

Nov 4, 2015

Few topics elicit as much confusion as the reclassification of permit-required confined spaces, also referred to (more appropriately as using alternate entry procedures). People want to know if we should control hazards or eliminate them?

Categorized under: Safety Blog

Tagged as: Confined Space, confined space entry, confined space regulations

As illustrated in a Chemical Safety Board video, methyl ethyl ketone ignites deep in a penstock killing several workers.

Confined Space Rescue: Justifying your Team.

Aug 4, 2015

When you are asked the question: Is it worth having a rescue team? Common sense dictates that most employees should be able to respond appropriately to an incipient fire. Alarms and extinguishers have saved countless billions in damages and few would argue against spending money to ensure a safe and effective response in the few moments after a fire has started. Like structural fires, confined space emergencies are the result of a chain of events and if this chain can be broken early, lives can be saved.

Categorized under: Rescue Blog

Tagged as: Confined Space, confined space rescue, OSHA compliance, rescue, rescue team, Rope Rescue

Confined Space Train the Trainer UPDATED!

June 2, 2015

For the last five or so years we have enjoyed considerable success with Version 3 of our Confined Space Entrant, Attendant, and Entry Supervisor curriculum. Nonetheless, we are excited to release Version 4.

Categorized under: Rescue Blog, Safety Blog

Tagged as: Confined Space, confined space construction, confined space entry, confined space permits, confined space regulations, construction confined space, OSHA compliance, OSHA Safety

Construction Confined Space Rules: Updated

May 20, 2015

In both Oregon and nationally we have seen changes to the rules governing entry into confined spaces. None of the changes have anything to do with how we identify, evaluate, and safely enter into confined spaces. But there are important changes to the scope of who must comply with these rules and the types of documentation they must maintain. In addition, both sets of rules changed the reclassification process.

Categorized under: Safety Blog

Tagged as: Confined Space, confined space regulations, construction confined space, New regulations, OSHA compliance, OSHA standards

Confined Space and Industrial Rescue: How and How Much?

Mar 3, 2015

Does your facility require a rescue team? What OSHA standards require some kind of emergency response procedures? If your facility needs some level of emergency response, how do you develop these capabilities? What types of procedures, equipment, and training is needed? Or should it be out sourced?

Categorized under: Rescue Blog, Safety Blog

Tagged as: Confined Space, confined space regulations, OSHA standards

OROSHA’s New Permit Space Rules: What do they mean?

Feb 16, 2015

After years of comments, proposals, discussions, edits, issuances, retractions, amendments, and related activities, OROSHA has issued its Confined Space Rule: OAR 437-002-0146. The permit space rules became effective for general industry on January 1, 2015 and will become effective for construction on March 1, 2015. Will your location be in compliance with Oregon’s new rules? What does it mean to Oregon employers? If you were in compliance with the Federal rules (1910.146) will you be in compliance with this one?

Categorized under: Safety Blog

Tagged as: Confined Space, confined space permits, confined space regulations, confined space rescue, OSHA standards

How Capable Does My Confined Space Rescue Team Need To Be?

Jan 27, 2015

We are often asked how much training or equipment a confined space team really needs, and while we’d like to be able to respond with a simple answer, the answer is really not simple. The problem may be the use of the term ‘rescue team’ and what this term connotes; specifically a crack squad of former fire fighters who never encountered a hole they didn’t want to jump into or a tower they wouldn’t climb. But if we drill into the intent of the regulations we can see that OSHA does not require everyone who enters a confined space to be backed up by a rescue team, they simply require you to have a means of rescue. So how much rescue capability is enough at your location?

Categorized under: Rescue Blog

Tagged as: Confined Space, confined space entry, confined space regulations, confined space rescue

Rescue From IDLH Spaces: Always Required?

Apr 9, 2013

The requirement to provide a means of rescue when workers enter permit-required confined spaces is well known aspect of the OSHA regulations. But employers, who are rarely rescue experts, often do not know how these teams should be equipped and trained.

Categorized under: Rescue Blog

Tagged as: Confined Space, confined space entry, OSHA regulations, rescue, rescue team

Standby Rescuers Entering the Confined Space?

Oct 9, 2012

Should rescuers enter a non-IDLH confined space to observe conditions during the entry?

Categorized under: Rescue Blog

Tagged as: Confined Space, confined space permits, confined space regulations, OSHA standards

Intrinsically Safe Classifications

Jun 3, 2011

Certain jobs often call for “intrinsically safe” or “explosion-proof” tools and equipment such as lighting and radios. The purpose of this requirement is ensuring that our equipment doesn’t create a source of ignition which in turn could ignite vapors, dusts, mists, or fibers in the atmosphere.

Categorized under: Safety Blog

Tagged as: air monitors, Confined Space, flammable atmospheres, intrinsic safety

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