Permit Required Confined Spaces

This guide is intended to help small businesses comply with the Confined Spaces standard. It addresses the most common compliance issues that employers will face and provides sufficient detail to serve as a useful compliance guide.  It does not, however, describe all provisions of the standard or alter the compliance responsibilities set forth in the…...

Lets walk through a process in which we will isolate a PRCS using either the blinding/blanking or disconnect and misalignment provisions.  The vessel we will enter is a PSM/RMP covered piece of equipment.  Here’s how I was taught the process works… Since this is a PSM/RMP covered process we will be impacted by three key…...

UPDATED 10/5/15, see bottom of page Another common debate we like to have among our profession… When is entry rescue required, and when is non-entry rescue required for entries into Permit-Required Confined Spaces?  Ask ten safety professionals who are really into PRCS safety, and I will bet you a burger and a beer that we…...

You and your team are preparing to enter a PRCS, and as the entry supervisor begins to review the permit, he/she explains the space is isolated, and you notice the permit states “LOTO- N/A.”  You inquire about this and ask about the isolation method(s) used for the entry.  The supervisor offers to show you the…...

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When using Blinding/Blanking or Disconnect and Misalignment as an energy isolation method for your PRCS, do these isolation points have to be secured in their safe position with a lockout lock or tagout tag?  In other words, Can I install a blind/blank and not tag it out in the field indicating that it is an…...

UPDATED on 9/19/2015 @ 12:25 pm – As I sit here in my truck eating lunch, I thought I would update this posting after having a very nice and interesting phone call with some of the nice and very helpful folks @ OSHA.  Please see the bottom of this post for more info for those…...

OSHA has announced a 60-day temporary enforcement policy of its Confined Spaces in Construction standard, which becomes effective Aug. 3, 2015. The agency is postponing full enforcement of the new standard to Oct. 2, 2015, in response to requests for additional time to train and acquire the equipment necessary to comply with the new standard…....

My phone has not stopped ringing with clients who have received a ton of advertising about how this “new OSHA rule will impact you.”  Some of this literature is just disgusting in how it misleads an unsuspecting manager who wants to do the right thing.  But as I began to research some of these claims,…...

OSHA has announced their Information Collection Activities; Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request; Permit-Required Confined Spaces in General Industry Standard.  Some of these announcements have some interesting tid-bits in them.  This PRCS announcement listed all the documentation one would need to fully comply with 1910.146.  Most of us could list many of these items, but…...

The Technical Committee has completed the second draft revisions and, absent any Notice of Intent to Make a Motion (NITMAMs), the new guide will be released this coming November!  This document explains  “how to” comply with provisions in the existing confined space regulations and standards by providing more detailed guidance on subjects such as hazard…...