Nearly three workers die every week (as calculated over a five-year period) from exposure to electricity – a total of 739 deaths during that period. One-fifth of the victims were self-employed. Most fatalities (417) were caused by direct exposure to electricity, such as touching a live wire.
Cal/OSHA has issued citations to an outdoor advertising company for serious safety violations after a worker suffered third-degree burns when a metal pole he was using to install a sign on a billboard came into contact with an overhead power line.
From Westex by Milliken: Keep your hazard prevention process up to date
August 21, 2018
Hazards never stand still — and neither do the NFPA’s standards for preventing them. Is your company up to date on the latest requirements for arc flash and flash fire protection?
By its directive, the electrical safety standard, NFPA 70E®, calls upon employers, contractors and employees to work together and, through an expanded risk assessment, clearly define a means by which compliance can be achieved for the protection of all involved.
The total cost of safety cannot be underestimated. A life is priceless. Direct costs such as worker’s compensation, medical and legal expenses, and indirect safety costs such as training, accident investigation, implementation of corrective measures, lost productivity, equipment and property repairs add up quickly.
It seems the same questions are asked every time a new addition of the National Fire Protection Association’s 70E Standard for Electrical Safety in the Workplace (NFPA 70E) comes out.
Workers depend on the right tools to get the job done. And workers depend on their employers to ensure they’re equipped with the right tools, the right conditions, and the right processes to get the job done safely.
The 2022 NESC Revision Submission period opened April 2, 2018, with a deadline of July 16, 2018. Stakeholders are invited to submit edits, changes, and additions for the NESC in order to be considered for inclusion in the 2022 edition, which will be released in August 2021.
Training, therefore, is perhaps the most essential part of an electrical safety program, but arc flash and electrical safety training comes in many formats and lengths, so it’s essential that the training is effective for electrical Qualified Persons.
A Minnesota energy company says it will contest the $21,000 in fines leveled against it by the state’s OSHA for an incident at the company’s Becker power plant that left three workers with severe burns over large portions of their bodies.
