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  2. Confined Spaces

Confined Spaces

Confined Spaces Menu Workers' Rights

Overview

Visit the Confined Spaces in Construction Page for information specific to construction.

Highlights
  • Calibrating and Testing Direct-Reading Portable Gas Monitors. OSHA Safety and Health Information Bulletin (SHIB), (September 30, 2013). Provides workers and employers guidance on calibrating and testing direct-reading portable gas monitors (hereafter, "DRPGMs" or "instruments").
  • Loss of Start-Up Oxygen in CSE SR-100 Self-Contained Self-Rescuers. OSHA Alert, (April 2012). Alerts employers and workers using the CSE Corporation's SR-100 Self-Contained Self-Rescuer (SCSR) to potential failure problems with these respirators.
  • Permit-Required Confined Spaces in General Industry. OSHA QuickCard™ (Publication 3214), (2013). Explains what workers should do before entering a confined space, such as an underground vault, tank, storage bin, silo or manhole.
  • Shipyard Employment. OSHA eTool. Confined and enclosed space operations have a greater likelihood of causing fatalities, severe injuries, and illnesses than any other type of shipyard work.
    • Confined or Enclosed Spaces and Other Dangerous Atmospheres (Ship Repair | Shipbuilding). Helps workers identify and control the hazards that cause the most serious confined space-related injuries.
What are confined spaces?
Ventilation hoses
Ventilation hoses provide air and exhaust toxic vapors during confined space entry. A guardrail would also be necessary to protect workers from potential falls.

Many workplaces contain areas that are considered "confined spaces" because while they are not necessarily designed for people, they are large enough for workers to enter and perform certain jobs. A confined space also has limited or restricted means for entry or exit and is not designed for continuous occupancy. Confined spaces include, but are not limited to, tanks, vessels, silos, storage bins, hoppers, vaults, pits, manholes, tunnels, equipment housings, ductwork, pipelines, etc.

OSHA uses the term "permit-required confined space" (permit space) to describe a confined space that has one or more of the following characteristics: contains or has the potential to contain a hazardous atmosphere; contains material that has the potential to engulf an entrant; has walls that converge inward or floors that slope downward and taper into a smaller area which could trap or asphyxiate an entrant; or contains any other recognized safety or health hazard, such as unguarded machinery, exposed live wires, or heat stress.

Standards and Enforcement

Confined spaces are addressed in specific OSHA standards for general industry, maritime, and construction.

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Hazards and Solutions

Provides references that may aid in recognizing and evaluating hazards and possible solutions related to confined spaces.

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Construction

Provides construction information related to confined spaces.

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Additional Resources

Provides links and references to additional resources related to confined spaces.

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