OSHA Releases Fact Sheet on Confined Spaces in Residential Construction

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has developed a standard for Confined Spaces in Construction (29 CFR 1926 Subpart AA) that applies to spaces such as attics, basements, and crawl spaces. To help employers understand this standard, the agency has just released a Fact Sheet to go along with a set of FAQs. A confined space that contains certain hazardous conditions may be considered a permit-required confined space under the standard. Permit-required confined spaces can be immediately dangerous to workers’ lives if not properly identified, evaluated, tested and controlled, according to OSHA. Before beginning work on a residential homebuilding project, the Fact Sheet explains, each employer must ensure that a competent person identifies all confined spaces in which one or more employees it directs may work, and identifies each space that is a permit-required confined space.