Permit-Required Confined Space Entry Supervisor (General Industry)

What the standard says you do

The entry supervisor is the person responsible for:

• Determining if acceptable entry conditions are present at a permit space where entry is planned
• Authorizing entry and overseeing entry operations
• Terminating entry as the standard requires

Acceptable entry conditions are the conditions that must exist in a permit space to allow entry and to ensure that employees can safely enter and work within it.

Reference: 29 CFR 1910.146(b) "Entry supervisor" · 29 CFR 1910.146(b) "Acceptable entry conditions" · 29 CFR 1910.146(j)(1)

Is it a permit space?

A confined space

A space that is large enough and so configured that an employee can bodily enter and perform assigned work, has limited or restricted means for entry or exit, and is not designed for continuous employee occupancy.

A permit-required confined space

A confined space that has one or more of these:

• Contains or has a potential to contain a hazardous atmosphere
• Contains a material that has the potential for engulfing an entrant
• 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
• Contains any other recognized serious safety or health hazard

If the workplace contains permit spaces, the employer informs exposed employees of their existence, location and danger, by danger signs or other equally effective means.

Reference: 29 CFR 1910.146(b) "Confined space" · 29 CFR 1910.146(b) "Permit-required confined space" · 29 CFR 1910.146(c)(2)

Testing the space

• Conditions in the space are tested before entry is authorized to determine if acceptable entry conditions exist. Where isolation is infeasible because the space is large or part of a continuous system such as a sewer, pre-entry testing is done to the extent feasible and entry conditions are continuously monitored where entrants are working.
• The space is tested or monitored as necessary during entry to determine if acceptable entry conditions are being maintained.
• Atmospheric testing order: oxygen first, then combustible gases and vapors, then toxic gases and vapors.
• Purging, inerting, flushing or ventilating the space is done as necessary to eliminate or control atmospheric hazards.

Reference: 29 CFR 1910.146(d)(5)(i) · 29 CFR 1910.146(d)(5)(ii) · 29 CFR 1910.146(d)(5)(iii) · 29 CFR 1910.146(d)(3)(iv)

The entry permit and your signature

• Before entry is authorized, the employer documents the completion of the required measures by preparing an entry permit.
• Before entry begins, the entry supervisor identified on the permit signs it to authorize entry.
• Before you endorse it, you verify by checking the entries on the permit that all tests specified by the permit have been conducted and all procedures and equipment specified by the permit are in place.
• The completed permit is made available to entrants at the time of entry, by posting at the entry portal or an equally effective means.
• The permit's duration may not exceed the time required to complete the assigned task or job identified on it.

Among other things, the permit identifies

• The acceptable entry conditions
• The results of initial and periodic tests, with testers' names or initials and when the tests were performed
• The rescue and emergency services that can be summoned and the means for summoning them
• Any additional permits, such as for hot work, issued for work in the space

Reference: 29 CFR 1910.146(e)(1) · 29 CFR 1910.146(e)(2) · 29 CFR 1910.146(e)(3) · 29 CFR 1910.146(e)(4) · 29 CFR 1910.146(f) · 29 CFR 1910.146(j)(2) · 29 CFR 1910.146(f)(9) · 29 CFR 1910.146(f)(10) · 29 CFR 1910.146(f)(11) · 29 CFR 1910.146(f)(15)

Attendant and rescue

• The employer provides at least one attendant outside the permit space for the duration of entry operations.
• You verify that rescue services are available and that the means for summoning them are operable.
• The permit program includes procedures for summoning rescue and emergency services, for rescuing entrants, for providing emergency services to rescued employees, and for preventing unauthorized personnel from attempting a rescue.

Reference: 29 CFR 1910.146(d)(6) · 29 CFR 1910.146(d)(9) · 29 CFR 1910.146(j)(4)

While entrants are inside

• You remove unauthorized individuals who enter or attempt to enter the permit space during entry operations.
• Whenever responsibility for the entry operation is transferred, and at intervals dictated by the hazards and operations, you determine that entry operations remain consistent with the terms of the entry permit and that acceptable entry conditions are maintained.
• Conditions in the space are verified as acceptable throughout the duration of an authorized entry.

Reference: 29 CFR 1910.146(j)(5) · 29 CFR 1910.146(j)(6) · 29 CFR 1910.146(d)(3)(vi)

Terminate and cancel

You terminate the entry and cancel the entry permit when:

• The entry operations covered by the permit have been completed, or
• A condition that is not allowed under the entry permit arises in or near the permit space.

A prohibited condition is any condition in a permit space that is not allowed by the permit during the period when entry is authorized.

Afterward

• The employer keeps each canceled entry permit for at least 1 year to help review the permit space program.
• Any problems encountered during the entry are noted on the permit so that appropriate revisions to the program can be made.

Reference: 29 CFR 1910.146(b) "Prohibited condition" · 29 CFR 1910.146(e)(5) · 29 CFR 1910.146(e)(6) · 29 CFR 1910.146(j)(3) · 29 CFR 1910.146(e)(5)(i) · 29 CFR 1910.146(e)(5)(ii)

When the program must be reviewed

Your notes on the permit feed the review of the permit space program. Examples of circumstances requiring a review are:

• Any unauthorized entry of a permit space
• Detection of a permit space hazard not covered by the permit
• Detection of a condition prohibited by the permit
• An injury or near-miss during entry
• A change in the use or configuration of a permit space
• Employee complaints about the effectiveness of the program

The program is reviewed, using the canceled permits, within 1 year after each entry and revised as necessary. The employer 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.

When the employer has reason to believe the program's measures may not protect employees, entry operations are reviewed and the program is revised to correct the deficiencies before subsequent entries are authorized.

Reference: 29 CFR 1910.146(d)(13) · 29 CFR 1910.146(d)(14) · 29 CFR 1910.146(d)(14) Note

Common test questions

What document does the entry supervisor prepare and sign?

The entry permit - it must be signed by the entry supervisor before entry begins.

Rule: 29 CFR 1910.146(e), (j)

Who is stationed outside a permit space to monitor the entrants?

The attendant, who stays outside for the whole entry.

Rule: 29 CFR 1910.146(i)

When must the attendant order everyone out?

When a prohibited condition is detected, entrants show effects of exposure, something outside could endanger them, or the attendant can't keep monitoring safely.

Rule: 29 CFR 1910.146(i)(6)

Practice these in the course