California Code of Regulations › Title 8 - Industrial Relations › Division 1 - Department of Industrial Relations › Chapter 4 - Division of Industrial Safety › Subchapter 4 - Construction Safety Orders › Article 37 - Confined Spaces in Construction › Section 1953 - Permit-Required Confined Space Program

Current through Register 2024 Notice Reg. No. 28, July 12, 2024
(a) Each entry employer shall:
(1) Implement the measures necessary to
					 prevent unauthorized entry;
(2)
					 Identify and evaluate the hazards of permit spaces before employees enter
					 them;
(3) Develop and implement the
					 means, procedures, and practices necessary for safe permit space entry
					 operations, including, but not limited to, the following:
(A) Specifying acceptable entry
					 conditions;
(B) Providing each
					 authorized entrant or that employee's authorized representative with the
					 opportunity to observe any monitoring or testing of permit spaces;
(C) Isolating the permit space and physical
					 hazard(s) within the space;
(D)
					 Purging, inerting, flushing, or ventilating the permit space as necessary to
					 eliminate or control atmospheric hazards;
NOTE to Section
						1953(a)(3)(D):
						When an employer is unable to reduce the atmosphere below 10 percent LFL, the
						employer may only enter if the employer inerts the space so as to render the
						entire atmosphere in the space non-combustible, and the employees use PPE to
						address any other atmospheric hazards (such as oxygen deficiency), and the
						employer eliminates or isolates all physical hazards in the
						space.
(E) 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;
(F) Providing pedestrian, vehicle, or other
					 barriers as necessary to protect entrants from external hazards;
(G) 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
(H) Eliminating any
					 conditions (for example, high pressure) that could make it unsafe to remove an
					 entrance cover.
(4)
					 Provide the following equipment (specified in Section
					 1953(a)(4)(A) through
					 (a)(4)(I)) at no cost to each employee,
					 maintain that equipment properly, and ensure that each employee uses that
					 equipment properly:
(A) Testing and monitoring
					 equipment needed to comply with Section
					 1953(a)(5);
(B) Ventilating equipment needed to obtain
					 acceptable entry conditions;
(C)
					 Communications equipment necessary for compliance with Section
					 1957(a)(3) and
					 Section 1958(a)(5),
					 including any necessary electronic communication equipment for attendants
					 assessing entrants' status in multiple spaces;
(D) Personal protective equipment insofar as
					 feasible engineering and work-practice controls do not adequately protect
					 employees;
NOTE to Section
						1953(a)(4)(D): The
						requirements of Article 3 of the Construction Safety Orders, Article 10 of the
						General Industry Safety Orders, and other PPE requirements continue to apply to
						the use of PPE in a permit space. For example, if employees use respirators,
						then the respirator requirements in Section
						5144 (Respiratory protection) shall
						be met.
(E) Lighting
					 equipment that meets the minimum illumination requirements in Section
					 1523, that is approved for the
					 ignitable or combustible properties of the specific gas, vapor, dust, or fiber
					 that will be present, and that is sufficient to enable employees to see well
					 enough to work safely and to exit the space quickly in an emergency;
(F) Barriers and shields as required by
					 Section 1953(a)(3)(F);
(G) Equipment, such as ladders, needed for
					 safe ingress and egress by authorized entrants;
(H) Rescue and emergency equipment needed to
					 comply with Section
					 1953(a)(9), except
					 to the extent that the equipment is provided by rescue services; and
(I) Any other equipment necessary for safe
					 entry into, safe exit from, and rescue from, permit spaces.
(5) Evaluate permit space conditions in
					 accordance with the following Section
					 1953(a)(5)(A) through
					 (a)(5)(F) when entry operations are
					 conducted:
(A) Test conditions in the permit
					 space to determine if acceptable entry conditions exist before changes to the
					 space's natural ventilation are made, and before entry is authorized to begin,
					 except that, if an employer demonstrates that isolation of the space is
					 infeasible because the space is large or is part of a continuous system (such
					 as a sewer), the employer shall:
1. Perform
					 pre-entry testing to the extent feasible before entry is authorized;
					 and,
2. If entry is authorized,
					 continuously monitor entry conditions in the areas where authorized entrants
					 are working, except that employers may use periodic monitoring in accordance
					 with Section
					 1953(a)(5)(B) for
					 monitoring an atmospheric hazard if they can demonstrate that equipment for
					 continuously monitoring that hazard is not commercially available;
3. Provide an early-warning system that
					 continuously monitors for non-isolated engulfment hazards. The system shall
					 alert authorized entrants and attendants in sufficient time for the authorized
					 entrants to safely exit the space.
(B) Continuously monitor atmospheric hazards
					 unless the employer can demonstrate that the equipment for continuously
					 monitoring a hazard is not commercially available or that periodic monitoring
					 is of sufficient frequency to ensure that the atmospheric hazard is being
					 controlled at safe levels. If continuous monitoring is not used, periodic
					 monitoring is required with sufficient frequency to ensure that acceptable
					 entry conditions are being maintained during the course of entry
					 operations;
(C) When testing for
					 atmospheric hazards, test first for oxygen, then for combustible gases and
					 vapors, and then for toxic gases and vapors;
(D) Provide each authorized entrant or that
					 employee's authorized representative an opportunity to observe the pre-entry
					 and any subsequent testing or monitoring of permit spaces;
(E) Re-evaluate the permit space in the
					 presence of any authorized entrant or that employee's authorized representative
					 who requests that the employer conduct such reevaluation because there is some
					 indication that the evaluation of that space may not have been adequate;
					 and
(F) Immediately provide each
					 authorized entrant or that employee's authorized representative with the
					 results of any testing conducted in accordance with Section
					 1953.
(6) Provide at least one attendant outside
					 the permit space into which entry is authorized for the duration of entry
					 operations;
(A) Attendants may be assigned to
					 more than one permit space provided the duties described in Section
					 1958 can be effectively performed
					 for each permit space.
(B)
					 Attendants may be stationed at any location outside the permit space as long as
					 the duties described in Section
					 1958 can be effectively performed
					 for each permit space to which the attendant is assigned.
(7) If multiple spaces are to be assigned to
					 a single attendant, include in the permit program the means and procedures to
					 enable the attendant to respond to an emergency affecting one or more of those
					 permit spaces without distraction from the attendant's responsibilities under
					 Section 1958;
(8) Designate each person who is to have an
					 active role (as, for example, authorized entrants, attendants, entry
					 supervisors, or persons who test or monitor the atmosphere in a permit space)
					 in entry operations, identify the duties of each such employee, and provide
					 each such employee with the training required by Section
					 1956;
(9) Develop and implement procedures for
					 summoning rescue and emergency services (including procedures for summoning
					 emergency assistance in the event of a failed non-entry rescue), for rescuing
					 entrants from permit spaces, for providing necessary emergency services to
					 rescued employees, and for preventing unauthorized personnel from attempting a
					 rescue;
(10) Develop and implement
					 a system for the preparation, issuance, use, and cancellation of entry permits
					 as required by this standard, including the safe termination of entry
					 operations under both planned and emergency conditions;
(11) Develop and implement procedures to
					 coordinate entry operations, in consultation with the controlling contractor,
					 when employees of more than one employer are working simultaneously in a permit
					 space or elsewhere on the worksite where their activities could, either alone
					 or in conjunction with the activities within a permit space, foreseeably result
					 in a hazard within the confined space, so that employees of one employer do not
					 endanger the employees of any other employer;
(12) Develop and implement procedures (such
					 as closing off a permit space and canceling the permit) necessary for
					 concluding the entry after entry operations have been completed;
(13) Review entry operations when the
					 measures taken under the permit space program may not protect employees and
					 revise the program to correct deficiencies found to exist before subsequent
					 entries are authorized; and
NOTE to Section
						1953(a)(13):
						Examples of circumstances requiring the review of the permit space program
						include, but are not limited to: any unauthorized entry of a permit space, the
						detection of a permit space hazard not covered by the permit, the detection of
						a condition prohibited by the permit, the occurrence of an injury or near-miss
						during entry, a change in the use or configuration of a permit space, and
						employee complaints about the effectiveness of the program.
(14) Review the permit space program, using
					 the canceled permits retained under Section
					 1954(f), within 1
					 year after each entry and revise the program as necessary to ensure that
					 employees participating in entry operations are protected from permit space
					 hazards.
NOTE to Section
						1953(a)(14):
						Employers may perform a single annual review covering all entries performed
						during a 12-month period. If no entry is performed during a 12-month period, no
						review is necessary.