Applicable Regulations

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has put together a set of regulations to help prevent accidents in confined spaces, and if an accident does occur, deal with it promptly and properly and avoid fatality. These regulations require employers to create a safety program before entering a confined space if that space has been found to meet any of the following conditions:

• The space either has or possibly could have a hazardous atmosphere, such as those described above.
• The walls inside of the space come together in a way that could trap the entrant.
• The floor slopes in a way that the entrant could slip and become trapped.
• The space contains any other serious safety or health hazard.

Passed in 2015, OSHA 1926 subpart AA is the most recent update to the regulations involving confined spaces for the construction industry. These new additions and specifications bring the construction industry regulations to the level of other dangerous professions, such as mining and farming.

Some of the new key updates are listed next.

To learn more about Confined Spaces visit our Construction Confined Spaces Online Training web page.