Subpart U—Blasting and the Use of Explosives
§ 1926.900 General provisions.

(a) The employer shall permit only authorized and qualified persons to handle and use explosives.
(b) Smoking, firearms, matches, open flame lamps, and other fires, flame or heat producing devices and sparks shall be prohibited in or near explosive magazines or while explosives are being handled, transported or used.
(c) No person shall be allowed to handle or use explosives while under the influence of intoxicating liquors, narcotics, or other dangerous drugs.
(d) All explosives shall be accounted for at all times. Explosives not being used shall be kept in a locked magazine, unavailable to persons not authorized to handle them. The employer shall maintain an inventory and use record of all explosives. Appropriate authorities shall be notified of any loss, theft, or unauthorized entry into a magazine.
(e) No explosives or blasting agents shall be abandoned.
(f) No fire shall be fought where the fire is in imminent danger of contact with explosives. All employees shall be removed to a safe area and the fire area guarded against intruders.
(g) Original containers, or Class II magazines, shall be used for taking detonators and other explosives from storage magazines to the blasting area.
(h) When blasting is done in congested areas or in proximity to a structure, railway, or highway, or any other installation that may be damaged, the blaster shall take special precautions in the loading, delaying, initiation, and confinement of each blast with mats or other methods so as to control the throw of fragments, and thus prevent bodily injury to employees.
(i) Employees authorized to prepare explosive charges or conduct blasting operations shall use every reasonable precaution including, but not limited to, visual and audible warning signals, flags, or barricades, to ensure employee safety.
(j) Insofar as possible, blasting operations above ground shall be conducted between sunup and sundown.
(k) Due precautions shall be taken to prevent accidental discharge of electric blasting caps from current induced by radar, radio transmitters, lightning, adjacent powerlines, dust storms, or other sources of extraneous electricity. These precautions shall include:
(1) Detonators shall be short-circuited in holes which have been primed and shunted until wired into the blasting circuit.
(2) The suspension of all blasting operations and removal of persons from the blasting area during the approach and progress of an electric storm;
(3)(i) The prominent display of adequate signs, warning against the use of mobile radio transmitters, on all roads within 1,000 feet of blasting operations. Whenever adherence to the 1,000-foot distance would create an operational handicap, a competent person shall be consulted to evaluate the particular situation, and alternative provisions may be made which are adequately designed to prevent any premature firing of electric blasting caps. A description of any such alternatives shall be reduced to writing and shall be certified as meeting the purposes of this subdivision by the competent person consulted. The description shall be maintained at the construction site during the duration of the work, and shall be available for inspection by representatives of the Secretary of Labor.
(ii) Specimens of signs which would meet the requirements of paragraph (k)(3) of this section are the following:
(4) Ensuring that mobile radio transmitters which are less than 100 feet away from electric blasting caps, in other than original containers, shall be deenergized and effectively locked;
(5) Compliance with the recommendations of The Institute of the Makers of Explosives with regard to blasting in the vicinity of radio transmitters as stipulated in Radio Frequency Energy—A Potential Hazard in the Use of Electric Blasting Caps, IME Publication No. 20, March 1971.
(l) Empty boxes and paper and fiber packing materials, which have previously contained high explosives, shall not be used again for any purpose, but shall be destroyed by burning at an approved location.
(m) Explosives, blasting agents, and blasting supplies that are obviously deteriorated or damaged shall not be used.
(n) Delivery and issue of explosives shall only be made by and to authorized persons and into authorized magazines or approved temporary storage or handling areas.
(o) Blasting operations in the proximity of overhead power lines, communication lines, utility services, or other services and structures shall not be carried on until the operators and/or owners have been notified and measures for safe control have been taken.
(p) The use of black powder shall be prohibited.
(q) All loading and firing shall be directed and supervised by competent persons thoroughly experienced in this field.
(r) All blasts shall be fired electrically with an electric blasting machine or properly designed electric power source, except as provided in § 1926.906 (a) and (r).
(s) Buildings used for the mixing of blasting agents shall conform to the requirements of this section.
(1) Buildings shall be of noncombustible construction or sheet metal on wood studs.
(2) Floors in a mixing plant shall be of concrete or of other nonabsorbent materials.
(3) All fuel oil storage facilities shall be separated from the mixing plant and located in such a manner that in case of tank rupture, the oil will drain away from the mixing plant building.
(4) The building shall be well ventilated.
(5) Heating units which do not depend on combustion processes, when properly designed and located, may be used in the building. All direct sources of heat shall be provided exclusively from units located outside the mixing building.
(6) All internal-combustion engines used for electric power generation shall be located outside the mixing plant building, or shall be properly ventilated and isolated by a firewall. The exhaust systems on all such engines shall be located so any spark emission cannot be a hazard to any materials in or adjacent to the plant.
(t) Buildings used for the mixing of water gels shall conform to the requirements of this subdivision.
(1) Buildings shall be of noncombustible construction or sheet metal on wood studs.
(2) Floors in a mixing plant shall be of concrete or of other nonabsorbent materials.
(3) Where fuel oil is used all fuel oil storage facilities shall be separated from the mixing plant and located in such a manner that in case of tank rupture, the oil will drain away from the mixing plant building.
(4) The building shall be well ventilated.
(5) Heating units that do not depend on combustion processes, when properly designed and located, may be used in the building. All direct sources of heat shall be provided exclusively from units located outside of the mixing building.
(6) All internal-combustion engines used for electric power generation shall be located outside the mixing plant building, or shall be properly ventilated and isolated by a firewall. The exhaust systems on all such engines shall be located so any spark emission cannot be a hazard to any materials in or adjacent to the plant.
[44 FR 8577, Feb. 9, 1979; 44 FR 20940, Apr. 6, 1979, as amended at 58 FR 35183, June 30, 1993]