Wash. Admin. Code § 296-809-20002 - Identify permit-required confined spaces
You must identify all permit-required confined spaces in your workplace. Use a person with the knowledge, skills, and abilities, capable of identifying actual and potential hazards related to permit-required confined spaces and with the authority to take prompt corrective action, such as an entry supervisor or competent person.
Important: Identification of Permit-Required Confined Space(s) involves a two-step process.
Step 1: Identify confined spaces.
Confined space. A space that is all of the following:
* Large enough and arranged so an employee could fully enter the space and work.
* Has limited or restricted entry or exit. Examples of spaces with limited or restricted entry are tanks, vessels, silos, storage bins, hoppers, vaults, excavations, and pits.
* Not primarily designed for continuous human occupancy.
See Appendix A Frequently Asked Questions and Examples of Confined Spaces by visiting the labor and industries web site athttp://www.lni.wa.gov/safety/rules/chapter/809/ .
Step 2: Evaluate the actual and potential hazards of each confined space to identify the permit-required confined space(s).
Permit-required confined space or permit space. A confined space that has one or more of the following characteristics capable of causing death or serious physical harm.
* Contains or has a potential to contain a hazardous atmosphere.
* Contains a material with the potential for engulfing someone who enters.
* Has an internal configuration that could allow someone entering to be trapped or asphyxiated by inwardly converging walls or by a floor, which slopes downward and tapers to a smaller cross section.
* Contains any physical hazard. This includes any recognized health or safety hazards including engulfment in solid or liquid material, electrical shock, or moving parts.
* Contains any other recognized serious safety or health hazard that could either:
See Appendix B Examples of Permit-Required Confined Space Hazards by visiting the labor and industries web site at http://www.lni.wa.gov/safety/rules/chapter/809/.
Notes
Statutory Authority: RCW 49.17.010, 49.17.040, 49.17.050, and 49.17.060. 04-03-081, § 296-809-20002, filed 1/20/04, effective 5/1/04.
State regulations are updated quarterly; we currently have two versions available. Below is a comparison between our most recent version and the prior quarterly release. More comparison features will be added as we have more versions to compare.