Permit Required Confined Spaces

OSHA has cited a manufacturer of steel storage tanks for exposing employees to amputation, confined spaces, and other safety hazards. The company faces $234,528 in penalties. OSHA issued 10 repeated and 12 serious safety and health violations, including failing to implement lockout/tagout procedures to prevent machines from unintentional startup, provide required machine guarding, and control…...

One of the topics we have debated about 1910.146 is whether (c)(5) and (c)(7) entry methods could be used simultaneously on the same space.  I was a resounding “No” but since we could never get an official answer from OSHA, there were many in our profession who felt it was acceptable to use (c)(5) and…...

This article should have been written 20 years ago as this topic has been misunderstood since OSHA published 1910.146 way back in the early 1990’s.  We still see many facilities misunderstanding what a NON-Permit Required Confined Space and more importantly how one is created.  First, OSHA defines a NON-Permit Required Confined Space in both the…...

At 2:00 p.m. on September 20, 2019, an employee was inside of a 10,000-gallon fiberglass gasoline storage tank and was draining some brine water while cleaning the tank. The employee used a drill while inside the tank and ignited the gasoline vapors, exploding it and setting it on fire. The employee was caught in the…...

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OSHA cited three employers – a University, a Mechanical contractor and an HVAC contractor – for exposing workers to permit-required confined space hazards associated with underground steam vaults. Proposed penalties for the three companies total $235,962.  OSHA received an employer-reported referral from the mechanical contractor after an employee suffered burns from a release of steam…...

Since the 1970’s Purdue University’s Agricultural and Biological Engineering Department has been documenting and investigating incidents involving grain storage and handling facilities at both commercial and on-farm locations. Beginning in 2013, the effort was expanded, with support from a U.S. Department of LaborSusan Harwood Training Grant, to include incidents involving grain transport vehicles (trucks, wagons,…...

At 4:30 p.m. on March 26, 2019, a contractor working at an asphalt refinery in AL entered a Permit-Required Confined Space to take a video of a reactor section when he lost air supply and was asphyxiated.  OSHA cited the industrial contractor for failing to ensure personnel outside the PRCS were capable of providing effective…...

Sometime in the late afternoon of July 3rd, two workers entered the water main vault at the intersection of Highways 70 and 100 in North Carolina. The two were employees of a Backhoe and Landscaping business and were working with several employees to extend a 24″ main water line. While the vault they entered and…...