The state of Washington’s OSHA has published their DRAFT standard on Confined Spaces. The standard pretty closely mirrors federal OSHA’s 1926.1201-.1213; however, the OSHA standards in WA must be written in a much more simplified manner, thus we end up with a standard that is easier to read and WA-OSHA does an EXCELLENT job explaining the requirements with their “Summary” in each section and the special NOTES they post through out the standard. They have also made some things more clear… for example, in their definition of a confined space they use the phrase “Not primarily designed for human occupancy” vs. “Is not designed for continuous employee occupancy” as found in Federal OSHA’s definition. For those in facilities that really want a well explained standard, this is a MUST READ. CLICK HERE
