4. The Statistics
2.1 million workers enter permit-required confined
spaces (PRCS) annually:
Routine maintenance, repairs, and inspections.
166 fatalities in 2018
144 in 2017 (15% increase)
Common themes include:
No written program.
Atmospheric hazards (H2S and CO).
Lack of, or improper, training for employees.
6. What is a Confined Space?
OSHA defines confined space as a space
that is:
1. Large enough for bodily entry
2. Restricted or limited entry / egress
3. Not designed for continuous occupancy
7. What is a Confined Space?
Examples:
• Tanks
• Silos
• Pits/Manholes
• Underground storage
• Vaults
• Ditches
• Crawl spaces
8. Types of Confined Spaces
Confined spaces can be classified into three main types:
1. Non-Permit Required
2. Temporary Permit-Required
3. Permit-Required
Employers are required to evaluate all spaces to determine if
they are permit-required confined spaces
9. Non-Permit Required Confined Spaces
29 CFR 1910.146(b)
Non-PRCS are confined spaces
that:
• Contain no potential or actual
hazards capable of causing
death or serious harm
• Signs, permits, or special
precautions are not required
to enter non-PRCS
• However, conditions may
arise that causes a non-
PRCS to temporarily
become a permit-space
10. Temporary Re-Classification
• If conditions change within a non-PRCS, employers
must re-classify the space as permit-required as long
as the hazard(s) is present
• Example:
A non-PRCS is entered by an employee
Employee cleans inside with a alcohol
Creates a hazardous atmosphere
Temporarily becomes a PRCS
11. Permit-Required Confined Space (PRCS)
Confined spaces that have one or more of the following
characteristics:
• Actual or potential hazardous atmosphere
• Engulfment or entrapment
• Internal configuration that can trap or asphyxiate
• Other serious hazards (no specific definition)
Electrical
Mechanical
Temperature
Noise
Falling objects
12. PRCS Characteristics - Atmosphere
1. Flammable gasses, vapor, or mist >10% LEL
Lower Explosive limit
Concentration required to ignite
2. Combustible dust ≥ its LEL
5-foot rule of thumb
3. Oxygen
deficient
>23.5% or <19.5%
4. Toxic substances >PEL
Permissible exposure limits
5. Immediately dangerous to life or health (IDLH)
13. PRCS Characteristics - Engulfment
Engulfment is defined as:
• When an employee becomes
surrounded or captured by
solids or liquids that can cause
death by…
Filling or plugging lungs
Strangulation
Constriction or Crushing
Examples include flour, cement,
pellets, or water/sludge
14. PRCS Characteristics - Configuration
A confined space that
contains
“an internal configuration
such that an entrant can be
trapped or asphyxiated by
inwardly converging walls or
by a floor that slopes
downward and tapers to
smaller cross-section”
Examples
• Hoppers
• Cyclones
15. PRCS Characteristics – Other Hazards
Permit-required confined space standard applies when a
safety or health hazard is serious enough to inhibit an
entrant’s ability to rescue themselves
Examples:
16. Entering a PRCS
After evaluating your spaces, you must decide if employees
will enter the space
No Entry Prevent EntryPost Signs
Inform
Contractors
Entry
Evaluate
Spaces
Options
Maintain
Safety
Emergency
Preparedness
18. No Entry Requirements
If you decide your employees are not going to enter PRCS
• Effectively communicate this policy through training
• Inform employees of their existence, location, and hazards
• Ensure they do not enter
If you decide contractors will enter PRCS
• Inform them of existence, location, and hazards of permit-
spaces
• Ensure entry is compliant with a permit-space program
• Debrief upon completion of work
20. Permit Required Confined Space Entry Program
If alternative entry and re-classification are not feasible,
employers must develop a written permit space program that
contains:
• Identification of hazards (TRA).
• Required procedures.
• Equipment required.
• Responsibilities.
• A permit system; and Training
21. Identification of Hazards
Inventory of permit-required
spaces that includes:
• An initial evaluation of hazard(s)
• Pre-entry requirements for that space
• Subsequent evaluation(s)
• Changes to the space during work
Electrical
Mechanical
Noise
Falls
Falling Objects
Temperature
Biological
22. Procedures
Programs must include the means,
procedures, and practices necessary for
safe-entry, including but not limited to:
• Acceptable entry conditions
• Testing/monitoring data
• Isolation/LOTO procedures
• Control of hazardous atmosphere; and
• How hazards will remain
controlled throughout the duration
of entry
27. Responsibilities / Duties
Employers with PRCS Programs
must designate responsibilities for
each of the following
• Authorized Entrants
• Attendants
• Entry Supervisors
• Rescue and Emergency
28. Responsibilities / Duties
Authorized Entrants
• Understand the hazards
• Properly use equipment
• Communicate
• Evacuate when necessary
• Attend training
29. Responsibilities / Duties
Attendants
• Understand hazards including
over-exposure symptoms
• Conduct headcount
• Communicate
• Monitor activities (in and out)
• Order evacuations
• Summon emergency response
• Prevent unauthorized access
• Perform non-entry rescue
• Attend training
• Does not
- Leave space unattended
- Enter the space
- Engage in other tasks/distractions
30. Responsibilities / Duties
Entry Supervisors
• Terminate/cancel permits
when work is finished
• Attend training
• May act as attendant or
entrant
Cross-trained
Capable of performing
functions
31. Responsibilities / Duties
Onsite Rescue/Emergency Team
• Equipped, trained and proficient in
use of rescue PPE and equipment
• Must be trained to entrant
responsibilities/duties
• Basic CPR and first aid
1 member must be certified
• Annual mock rescues
• Evaluate your need for an outside
service - onsite rescue teams require
advanced training and equipment
32. Permit Requirements
Employers must develop a system for issuing
permits that describes all information about the
space
• Permits must be written, signed, and posted
prior to entry into PRCS
• Detail the time and task(s); and
Cancelled when complete (kept for 1 year)
Permits must include
• The space to be entered
• Names of employees entering
Authorized entrants, attendants, supervisor
33. Permit Requirements
Permits must include
• Hazards (actual and potential)
• Isolation procedures
• Acceptable conditions to enter the
space
Including monitoring data (initial and
continuous)
• Means for summoning emergency
rescue
• Means of communication (entrants
and attendants
34. Permit Requirements
• Equipment
PPE, ventilation, rescue, etc.
• Description of additional permits
hot work, special permits, etc.
• Must be revised or re-issued if
changes occur