§ 1926.1204 Permit-required confined space program.

Each entry employer must:

(a) Implement the measures necessary to prevent unauthorized entry;

(b) Identify and evaluate the hazards of permit spaces before employees enter them;

(c) Develop and implement the means, procedures, and practices necessary for safe permit space entry operations, including, but not limited to, the following:

(1) Specifying acceptable entry conditions;

(2) Providing each authorized entrant or that employee's authorized representative with the opportunity to observe any monitoring or testing of permit spaces;

(3) Isolating the permit space and physical hazard(s) within the space;

(4) Purging, inerting, flushing, or ventilating the permit space as necessary to eliminate or control atmospheric hazards;

(5) Determining that, in the event the ventilation system stops working, the monitoring procedures will detect an increase in atmospheric hazard levels in sufficient time for the entrants to safely exit the permit space;

(6) Providing pedestrian, vehicle, or other barriers as necessary to protect entrants from external hazards;

(7) Verifying that conditions in the permit space are acceptable for entry throughout the duration of an authorized entry, and ensuring that employees are not allowed to enter into, or remain in, a permit space with a hazardous atmosphere unless the employer can demonstrate that personal protective equipment (PPE) will provide effective protection for each employee in the permit space and provides the appropriate PPE to each employee; and

(8) Eliminating any conditions (for example, high pressure) that could make it unsafe to remove an entrance cover.