Your workplace likely contains some areas that are hard to reach, and may even be awkward to enter, such as crawlspaces. When these confined locations don’t pose additional hazards to employees (such as atmospheric or physical hazards), your employees don’t need special permission or procedures to enter them.
Some confined spaces, however, present hazards such as low oxygen, flammable or toxic gases, or even converging walls that could trap and suffocate an employee in the space. The presence of such hazards makes them permit-required confined spaces. Employers must identify the existence of any permit spaces.
If your workplace contains any permit-required confined spaces, you must inform employees by posting danger signs (or by any other equally effective means) of the existence and location of them, and the danger posed by the permit spaces.
If you decide that your employees will not enter permit spaces, you must still take effective measures to prevent your employees from entering the permit spaces.
For necessary maintenance, you might decide to hire a contractor, or your employees might share entry operations. Either way, you’ll have some obligations to the contractor.
Even if contractors will handle all permit space entry, you aren’t free from responsibilities. The contractor will need information regarding permit space hazards and entry operations. As the host employer, you must:
The answers to compliance questions aren’t always clear in the regulations, but OSHA has issued letters of interpretation and other guidance to provide clarity. In addition to regulatory assistance, our experts can often help you find guidance from the many pages of published information. Submit your question through the Expert Help feature in the J. J. Keller® SAFETY MANAGEMENT SUITE. Our experts typically respond in a few hours, and no more than one business day.
Sign up to receive the weekly EHS Insider email newsletter for safety articles, news headlines, regulatory alerts, industry events, webcasts, and more.