• Any employer whose employees enter permit spaces must develop a permit space program that details the terms of entry.
• An effective permit program lays out the procedures necessary to protect employees from permit space hazards, including testing and monitoring.

Each employer who will direct employees to enter permit spaces must develop a written permit space program that establishes procedures for safe entry, including procedures for testing and monitoring for hazardous conditions. Entry into the permit space will only be permitted under the terms of this program. That employer must prevent unauthorized persons from entering the permit space and remove any unauthorized persons who do so.

Under the program, the employer must provide specified equipment to employees involved in confined space entry; have an attendant stationed outside permit spaces during entry; establish procedures to summon rescuers and prevent unauthorized personnel from attempting rescue; and develop a system for preparing, issuing, using, and canceling entry permits.

A permit space program must:

• Implement measures to prevent unauthorized entry;
• Identify and evaluate permit space hazards before allowing employee entry;
• Arrange for the atmospheric conditions in the permit space to be tested before entry operations and for the space to be monitored during entry;
• Provide an early-warning system that continuously monitors for non-isolated engulfment hazards. The system must alert authorized entrants and attendants in sufficient time for the authorized entrants to safely exit the space;
• Continuously monitor atmospheric hazards unless the employer can demonstrate that the equipment for continuously monitoring a hazard is not commercially available or that periodic monitoring is of sufficient frequency to ensure that the atmospheric hazard is being controlled at safe levels. If continuous monitoring is not used, periodic monitoring is required with sufficient frequency to ensure that acceptable entry conditions are being maintained during the course of entry operations;
• Require appropriate testing for the following atmospheric hazards in this sequence: oxygen, combustible gases or vapors, and toxic gases or vapors;
• Establish the means and procedures necessary to eliminate or control hazards for safe permit space entry operations;
• Identify employee job duties;
• Provide and maintain personal protective equipment and other equipment necessary for safe entry at no cost to the employee, and require employees to use this equipment properly;
• Ensure that at least one attendant is stationed outside the permit space during entry operations;
• Implement the procedures that any attendant who is required to monitor multiple spaces will follow during an emergency in one or more of those spaces;
• Coordinate entry operations with the controlling contractor when employees of more than one employer are working in the permit space; and
• Establish procedures for summoning rescue and emergency services and preventing unauthorized personnel from attempting rescue.

Review the permit space program at least annually.

The permit space program must also establish a system for preparing, using, suspending, and canceling entry permits, which are written or printed documents that allow and control entry into permit spaces.