Almost all American workers are exposed to electrical energy at sometime during their work day, and the same electrical hazards can affect workers in different industries. Based on the analysis of these cases, NIOSH identified five case scenarios that describe the incidents resulting in 244 fatalities:
According to NIOSH, at least one of the following five factors was present in all 224 incidents evaluated by the NIOSH fatality investigation program: (1) established safe work procedures were either not implemented or not followed;
Workers exposed to 13,200 volt unguarded, live power lines
June 17, 2013
Undeterred by cease and desist orders issued by the Long Island Power Authority, three New York contractors exposed their employees to electrocution hazards from working in close proximity to power lines, according to OSHA.
Both OSHA and the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) have written standards and regulations that build on one another and help keep all workers safer from electrical hazards in the workplace. In this case, the OSHA regulations and NFPA standards work so well together it’s been said that OSHA provides the "shall" while NFPA provides the "how."
In 2004,OSHA issued citations and proposed penalties to Pieper Electric, Inc., of Milwaukee, Wis., for failing to protect workers from electrical hazards. The penalty and OSHA citations are based on an inspection initiated in September 2003 following an incident at a Racine, Wis., wastewater treatment facility where Pieper Electric was contracted to furnish and install various electrical equipment.
"Everything you are going to do is going to affect others for the rest of your life. So if you get injured, it's an impact that's going to affect everybody," says Gary Norland, a former lineman and electrical accident survivor.
