California Code of Regulations › Title 8 - Industrial Relations › Division 1 - Department of Industrial Relations › Chapter 4 - Division of Industrial Safety › Subchapter 7 - General Industry Safety Orders › Group 16 - Control of Hazardous Substances › Article 108 - Confined Spaces › Section 5157 - Permit-Required Confined Spaces

Current through Register 2024 Notice Reg. No. 28, July 12, 2024
(a) Scope and application. This section
						contains requirements for practices and procedures to protect employees from
						the hazards of entry into permit-required confined spaces. This section applies
						to employers, as specified in section
						5156(b)(1).
(b) Definitions.
Acceptable entry conditions means the conditions that
						  must exist in a permit space to allow entry and to ensure that employees
						  involved with a permit-required confined space entry can safely enter into and
						  work within the space.
Attendant means an individual stationed outside one or
						  more permit spaces who monitors the authorized entrants and who performs all
						  attendant's duties assigned in the employer's permit space program.
Authorized entrant means an employee who is authorized
						  by the employer to enter a permit space.
Blanking or blinding means the absolute closure of a
						  pipe, line, or duct by the fastening of a solid plate (such as a spectacle
						  blind or a skillet blind) that completely covers the bore and that is capable
						  of withstanding the maximum pressure of the pipe, line, or duct with no leakage
						  beyond the plate.
Confined space means a space that:
(1) Is large enough and so configured that an
						employee can bodily enter and perform assigned work; and
(2) Has limited or restricted means for entry
						or exit (for example, tanks, vessels, silos, storage bins, hoppers, vaults, and
						pits are spaces that may have limited means of entry.); and
(3) Is not designed for continuous employee
						occupancy.
Double block and bleed means the closure of a line,
						  duct, or pipe by closing and locking or tagging two in-line valves and by
						  opening and locking or tagging a drain or vent valve in the line between the
						  two closed valves.
Emergency means any occurrence (including any failure
						  of hazard control or monitoring equipment) or event internal or external to the
						  permit space that could endanger entrants.
Engulfment means the surrounding and effective capture
						  of a person by a liquid or finely divided (flowable) solid substance that can
						  be aspirated to cause death by filling or plugging the respiratory system or
						  that can exert enough force on the body to cause death by strangulation,
						  constriction, or crushing.
Entry means the action by which a person passes through
						  an opening into a permit-required confined space. Entry includes ensuing work
						  activities in that space and is considered to have occurred as soon as any part
						  of the entrant's body breaks the plane of an opening into the space.
Entry permit (permit) means the written or printed
						  document that is provided by the employer to allow and control entry into a
						  permit space and that contains the information specified in subsection
						  (f).
Entry supervisor means the person (such as the
						  employer, foreman, or crew chief) responsible for determining if acceptable
						  entry conditions are present at a permit space where entry is planned, for
						  authorizing entry and overseeing entry operations, and for terminating entry as
						  required by this section.
NOTE: An entry supervisor also may serve as an
						  attendant or as an authorized entrant, as long as that person is trained and
						  equipped as required by this section for each role he or she fills. Also, the
						  duties of entry supervisor may be passed from one individual to another during
						  the course of an entry operation.
Hazardous atmosphere means an atmosphere that may
						  expose employees to the risk of death, incapacitation, impairment of ability to
						  self-rescue (that is, escape unaided from a permit space), injury, or acute
						  illness from one or more of the following causes:
(1) Flammable gas, vapor, or mist in excess
						of 10 percent of its lower flammable limit (LFL);
(2) Airborne combustible dust at a
						concentration that meets or exceeds its LFL;
NOTE: This concentration may be approximated as a
						  condition in which the dust obscures vision at a distance of 5 feet (1.52 M) or
						  less.
(3) Atmospheric oxygen
						concentration below 19.5 percent or above 23.5 percent;
(4) Atmospheric concentration of any
						substance for which a dose is published in Group 14 for Radiation and
						Radioactivity or a permissible exposure limit is published in section
						5155 for Airborne contaminants and
						which could result in employee exposure in excess of its dose or permissible
						exposure limit;
NOTE: An atmospheric concentration of any substance
						  that is not capable of causing death, incapacitation, impairment of ability to
						  self-rescue, injury, or acute illness due to its health effects is not covered
						  by this provision.
(5) Any
						other atmospheric condition that is immediately dangerous to life or health.
NOTE: For air contaminants for which a dose is not
						  published in Group 14 for Radiation and Radioactivity or a permissible exposure
						  limit is not published in section
						  5155 for Airborne contaminants,
						  other sources of information such as: Safety Data Sheets that comply with
						  section 5194, published information, and
						  internal documents can provide guidance in establishing acceptable atmospheric
						  conditions.
Hot work permit means the employer's written
						  authorization to perform operations (for example, riveting, welding, cutting,
						  burning, and heating) capable of providing a source of ignition.
Immediately dangerous to life or health (IDLH) means
						  any condition that poses an immediate or delayed threat to life or that would
						  cause irreversible adverse health effects or that would interfere with an
						  individual's ability to escape unaided from a permit space.
NOTE: Some materials--hydrogen fluoride gas and cadmium
						  vapor, for example--may produce immediate transient effects that, even if
						  severe, may pass without medical attention, but are followed by sudden,
						  possibly fatal collapse 12-72 hours after exposure. The victim "feels normal"
						  from recovery from transient effects until collapse. Such materials in
						  hazardous quantities are considered to be "immediately" dangerous to life or
						  health.
Inerting means the displacement of the atmosphere in a
						  permit space by a noncombustible gas (such as nitrogen) to such an extent that
						  the resulting atmosphere is noncombustible.
NOTE: This procedure produces an IDLH oxygen-deficient
						  atmosphere.
Isolation means the process by which a permit space is
						  removed from service and completely protected against the release of energy and
						  material into the space by such means as: Blanking or blinding; misaligning or
						  removing sections of lines, pipes, or ducts; a double block and bleed system;
						  lockout or tagout of all sources of energy; or blocking or disconnecting all
						  mechanical linkages.
Line breaking means the intentional opening of a pipe,
						  line, or duct that is or has been carrying flammable, corrosive, or toxic
						  material, an inert gas, or any fluid at a volume, pressure or temperature
						  capable of causing injury.
Non-permit confined space means a confined space that
						  does not contain or, with respect to atmospheric hazards, have the potential to
						  contain any hazard capable of causing death or serious physical harm.
Oxygen deficient atmosphere means an atmosphere
						  containing less than 19.5 percent oxygen by volume.
Oxygen enriched atmosphere means an atmosphere
						  containing more than 23.5 percent oxygen by volume.
Permit-required confined space (permit space) means a
						  confined space that has one or more of the following
						  characteristics:
(1)
						Contains or has a potential to contain a hazardous atmosphere;
(2) Contains a material that has the
						potential for engulfing an entrant;
(3) Has an internal configuration such that
						an entrant could be trapped or asphyxiated by inwardly converging walls or by a
						floor which slopes downward and tapers to a smaller cross-section; or
(4) Contains any other recognized serious
						safety or health hazard.
Permit-required confined space program (permit space
						  program) means the employer's overall program for controlling, and, where
						  appropriate, for protecting employees from, permit space hazards and for
						  regulating employee entry into permit spaces.
Permit system means the employer's written procedure
						  for preparing and issuing permits for entry and for returning the permit space
						  to service following termination of entry.
Prohibited condition means any condition in a permit
						  space that is not allowed by the permit during the period when entry is
						  authorized.
Rescue service means the personnel designated to rescue
						  employees from permit spaces.
Retrieval system means the equipment (including a
						  retrieval line, chest or full-body harness, wristlets, if appropriate, and a
						  lifting device or anchor) used for non-entry rescue of persons from permit
						  spaces.
Testing means the process by which the hazards that may
						  confront entrants of a permit space are identified and evaluated. Testing
						  includes specifying the tests that are to be performed in the permit space. If
						  electronic or thermal equipment is used to perform such tests, and the
						  possibility exists of an explosive substance or a hazardous atmosphere due to
						  flammable gases and vapors, then the testing equipment must be approved for use
						  in such explosive or flammable conditions as required by section
						  2540.2.
NOTE: Testing enables employers both to devise and
						  implement adequate control measures for the protection of authorized entrants
						  and to determine if acceptable entry conditions are present immediately prior
						  to, and during, entry.