Confined spaces can present severe safety hazards to the people working in them. To address these risks, OSHA created standards to make sure workers can get in and out safely, and do their jobs without endangering their health.

In construction and industry, some potential hazards visibly manifest, such as the risk of falls from heights. Others are more hidden. A confined space may not look dangerous, but workers perish each year because someone assumed the air inside was safe to breathe when testing would have revealed that is wasn’t.