Permit Required Confined Spaces

So OSHA made some serious improvements in their latest Construction Standard, 1926.1201-.1213, for confined spaces.  But there is another option to “upgrade” our efforts for entry safety practices and that is NFPA 326 – Standard for the Safeguarding of Tanks and Containers for Entry, Cleaning, or Repair. … Membership Required You must be a member to...

At 9:50 a.m. on June 5, 2018, Employee #1 was in an 8 foot by 8-foot pit that was approximately 10 feet deep, cleaning out built-up sediment using a brush and 5-gallon bucket. Employee #1 was being helped by Employee #2, who was dumping the waste outside of the building that the pit was in…....

NOTE: this incident happened long BEFORE OSHA had 1910.146 in place… At about 3:30 p.m. on October 10, 1986, Employee #1, a self contractor, arrived to inspect the sawmill’s fire protection sprinkler system backflow valve located in an underground vault 8 ft deep by 6 ft wide by 12 ft long with a 31 in…....

At 10:45 a.m. on January 11, 2020, Employee #1, employed by an oil and gas operation company, was overseeing a heater treater welding repair. Employee #2 emptied the remaining fluids in the heater treater. Employee #1 power washed the heater treater to remove any remaining flammable materials and ensure that it was safe for welding…....

CAUTION:  This interim order is specific to the facility requesting it.  Do NOT use these measures at your facility!!! If I had a nickel for every time I have heard the excuse… “its more dangerous to do these isolations than it is to do the entry with lesser isolations,” I would not be writing this…...

On or about January 11, 2020, employees engaged in performing cleaning and maintenance on a heater treater system with a combustible engine power washer within range of flammable material stored within the heater treater were exposed to burn hazards…. Membership Required You must be a member to access this content.View Membership LevelsAlready a member? Log...

As the debate continues to rage regarding the types of PRCS rescue and when they are required, OSHA has seen fit to publish the following: (emphasis by me) Effective emergency planning is vital to ensure that any entrant who becomes sick or is injured in a permit space can be evacuated quickly and safely. The…...

This a followup to my earlier posting about OSHA LOI and using both Reclassifications and Alternate procedures on the same space at the same time.  I received a lot of questions from that post so I thought I would share the info I shared with those who contacted me.  This information is also directly from…...

Jonathan Zimmerman and I received some less than flattering feedback when I stated in our 2019 ASSP presentation that there are NO exemptions for NOT having a rescue plan for ENTRY RESCUE when the entry method is via a “permit” (1910.146 (d)-(k).  This single topic garnered more discussion after our session than any other –…...

UPDATE from OSHA case file:  At 12:30 p.m. on February 20, 2020, Employee #1, employed by a structural steel fabricator and erector company, was entering a tank to clean it. The tank had a combination of Ecocure II and methyl ethyl ketone (MEK) residues and had been purged with nitrogen. Employee #1 entered the permit-required…...