With a name like Diversified Fall Protection, you might think all of our systems are designed to protect employees working at heights. Although MOST of our systems are designed to do just that, we also offer descent and rescue solutions for confined space applications. This post offers up some pointers on how to keep your employees safe and OSHA compliant when working in confined space.
Let’s start with OSHA’s definition of confined space. OSHA 1910.146(b) defines a confined space as a work area that:
Prime examples of confined space include underground vaults, tanks, storage bins, manholes, pits, silos, underground utility vaults and pipelines. The OSHA regulation cited above (1910.146) also is specific to “permit-required confined spaces”, or are areas that:
If you read OSHA’s complete text of 1910.146, you’ll note a long, comprehensive list of provisions to ensure worker safety and facility compliance. For our purposes here, we are going to focus most of our attention on the types of systems OSHA requires for safe descent and rescue from confined space areas:
For confined space applications, OSHA also requires employers to provide:
OSHA also requires:
As we mentioned earlier, this post isn’t designed to be a complete summary of all OSHA’s General Industry Confined Space Requirements, but we hope it will get you thinking about how to keep your workers safe when working in underground vaults, tanks, storage bins, manholes, pits, silos, underground utility vaults, pipelines, etc. If you want to see some of the equipment we design and manufacture for these types of applications, check out the brief training video below:
To learn more about how to ensure worker safety and compliance with OSHA’s Confined Space Requirements, contact Diversified Fall Protection for further assistance.