Section 296-800-25005. Provide fixed stairs where required.

You must:

• Install fixed stairs where:

– Employees travel between different levels on a predictable and regular basis.

– Access to platforms is required to give routine attention to equipment under operation.

– Daily movement between elevations is required to gauge, inspect, and maintain equipment where those work assignments may expose employees to acids, caustics, gases, or other harmful substances.

– Carrying tools or equipment by hand is a normal work requirement.

• Not use spiral stairways except as secondary exit routes.

Note:	• You can use fixed ladders for climbing elevated structures, such as tanks, towers, and overhead traveling cranes, when their use is common practice in your industry.
	• You can use winding stairways on tanks and similar round structures if the structure's diameter is at least five feet.
	• You could use a spiral stairway as an exit route in a restricted area that lacks room for a conventional stairway.

Definitions:	• A stairway or fixed stairs is a series of steps and landings:
	– Leading from one level or floor to another.
	– Leading to platforms, pits, boiler rooms, crossovers, or around machinery, tanks, and other equipment.
	– Used more or less continuously or routinely by employees or only occasionally by specific individuals.
	– With three or more risers.
	• A riser is the vertical part of the step at the back of a tread that rises to the front of the tread above.
	• A tread is the horizontal part of the step. Tread width is the distance from the front of the tread to the back.

Stair Components

[Statutory Authority: RCW 49.17.010, [49.17].040, and [49.17].050. WSR 01-23-060, § 296-800-25005, filed 11/20/01, effective 12/1/01; WSR 01-11-038, § 296-800-25005, filed 5/9/01, effective 9/1/01.]

RCW 49.17.010, [49.17].040, and [49.17].050. WSR 01-23-060, § 296-800-25005, filed 11/20/01, effective 12/1/01; WSR 01-11-038, § 296-800-25005, filed 5/9/01, effective 9/1/01.