ESIS ADVISORY
THE SHOCK OF
ELECTRICAL RISKS
By Joe Lohkamp, CIH, CSP
Executive Summary
Ensuring electrical safety can be as simple as turning off electrical
installations and equipment before beginning work. If power cannot
be shut off, then personal protective equipment and other risk
mitigation measures are necessary. These two steps encapsulate
the overarching message of the National Fire Protection Agency:
(NFPA) 70E Standard for Electrical Safety in the Workplace. These
detailed recommendations form the core of Occupational Safety
and Health Administration’s (OSHA) regulations. Yet, the NFPA
regularly updates its standard, making it challenging for health,
safety and environmental professionals working to recognize, digest,
and follow best practices from numerous authorities, such as
OSHA, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
(NIOSH), the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), and the
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).
This paper explores electrical risk standards and the challenge of
staying up-to-date and safe at the workplace.
The High Cost of Electrical Accidents
More than 30,000 workers have been injured in electrical-related
accidents in the workplace over the past decade, according to the
Electrical Safety Foundation International.1 While electrical-related
accidents are not the number one workplace injury in terms of
frequency, they tend to be more severe, often leading to larger workers
compensation claims and workplace deaths.
• In March 2011, OSHA announced $49,000 in fines for a
Massachusetts-based company for workplace conditions that
“expose[d] employees to the hazards of fire, electrocution, and
electric shock.”2
• OSHA recommended $357,000 in fines for one U.S. Postal
Service plant in Boston for electrical hazards.3
December 2014
• An El Paso, Texas-based company came under OSHA scrutiny in
2010 because of the electrocution and death of an employee.4
• An Upstate New York worker was burned in an arc flash incident
when performing maintenance on 34,500-volt electrical switches.5
Arc flash burns result in more than 2,000 electrical accident-related
hospital admissions per year. An arc flash can reach temperatures of
35,000 degrees, and occurs when an electrical current passes
through air between ungrounded conductors, or ungrounded and
grounded conductors. Such phenomena are powerful enough to kill or
cause severe burns to individuals as far as 10 feet away. Workers
compensation costs for arc flash incidents can reach multimilliondollar amounts.6
In addition to protecting employees from danger, employers should
also be urged to mitigate electrical hazards because of the potential
for incurring significantly higher operational costs, such as business
interruptions from plants being shut down for extended periods of
time due to OSHA inspections, or until power can be restored.
Regulations Aimed at Prevention
The primary basis for official electrical safety rules and regulations
for employee work practices are the NFPA 70E requirements
established in 1979 at the request of OSHA to assist with the
efforts of companies and their employees to mitigate the risk of
major electrical hazards. This standard thereby reduces the number
of workplace injuries and deaths caused by electrocution, arc flash
and blast, and shock.
While OSHA leaves the details of electrical safety to ANSI and NFPA
standards, they set broad safety standards that detail why
employers should protect their workers. But the NFPA 70E standard
is the “how to” protect the workers — it informs the 29 CFR 1910
Subpart I rules on personal protective equipment, and Subpart S
for electrical safety and training rules. While NFPA and ANSI
guidelines provide the core of the regulations, they carry the weight
of the law. Employers who fail to follow OSHA standards face
citations, fines, work shutdowns, and other penalties.
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The NFPA provisions offer guidance on establishing safe electricalwork conditions, maintenance, and special equipment handling, as
well as hazard identification, risk assessment, PPE selection, and
employee training. Implementing NFPA 70E practices requires arc
flash and shock hazard analysis, removing or reducing found
hazards, a written electrical safety program, energized work permits,
job briefings, wearing of personal protective equipment (PPE),
training of personnel, and organizational and cultural adaptation. In
consideration of NFPA 70E and other electrical safety programs,
the first step toward electrical safety is avoiding energized work in
the first place: i.e., locked and tagged out and/or properly
de-energized.
The standard has been updated in 2000, 2004, 2009, and 2012,
and preparations are already underway for the next iteration.
Revisions largely affect the use of certain equipment, but the overall
purpose of the standard remains the same: to help companies and
their workers avoid worker shocks, burns, and electrocutions.
What Employers Should Do
A. Build Awareness
Although the number of electrical accidents is astonishing and their
severity is frightening, they are uncommon enough that many
professionals or even whole operations have not witnessed one.
Organizations should begin the path toward electrical safety by
increasing awareness and communicating the importance of this
issue throughout their operations. Employers should emphasize
what electrical safety means and why it is important to everyone
across their organizations.
B. Conduct Hazard Assessments
Often the greatest hurdle for employers is to understand what their
electrical exposure is. Organizations cannot properly apply NFPA
70E and other electrical safety mandates until they discover the
gaps and weaknesses in their existing safety programs.
In general, electrical hazard assessments can focus on four areas:
• Electrical system studies, such as arc flash and shock
hazard analysis.
• Examine facilities and company policies for working conditions,
equipment maintenance and repairs, tools, and testing.
• Evaluate the day-to-day work practices of employees, such as
their use of personal protective equipment, as well as how they
are trained, educated, and classified in the workplace (e.g., as
qualified or unqualified).
• Assess company procedures, rules, and guidelines for critical
aspects such as de-energizing and re-energizing, testing and
troubleshooting, safety concern reporting, performing energized
work, record-keeping, and lockout and tagout.
A rigorous hazard assessment can even uncover deficiencies in
companies with advanced electrical safety programs — the road
toward improvement is ongoing.
C. Document Electrical Safety Programs
A powerful tool to institute a culture of continual improvement is to
document an electrical safety program. A written program signals
that an organization and its leaders and employees believe
electrical safety is important. Documentation also allows an
electrical safety program to be easily replicated and filtered across
a company’s many facilities and subsidiaries.
Electrical safety program documentation typically begins with an
introduction that clearly states why safety is important to the
organization, often followed by sections that explain the purpose
and scope of the program. To raise awareness about electrical
safety, the documentation can include a glossary of terms.
A documented safety program should include clearly demarcated
responsibilities — for supervisors and managers, employees, and
risk management staff — and the procedures to be followed for all
electrical jobs. Often, the latter encompasses steps such as risk
assessment and approval, job briefing, permit seeking, and safe
approaching. A safety program should also cover requirements for
personal protective equipment, recertification, tools and materials,
alerting techniques, contractors’ responsibilities, and employee
training.
Keep in mind that live electrical work can still be conducted
provided certain criteria are met. These criteria are specified by
OSHA and NFPA and include work at less than 50V, life support
and life safety, and other situations.7
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Conclusion
Electrical hazards continue to lead to high-frequency and higherseverity workplace incidents and injuries, as well as OSHA penalties
such as fines, citations, and operations shutdowns. The NFPA 70E
Standard for Electrical Safety in the Workplace provides the
blueprint for employers to mitigate and prevent risks. To meet NFPA
70E standards, employers must conduct risk analyses, remove
hazards, document their electrical safety program, provide PPE and
other protective equipment, and develop a culture of safety
throughout their organizations.
In addition to protecting employees
from danger, employers should also be
urged to mitigate electrical hazards
because of the potential for incurring
significantly higher operational costs.
The ESIS Solution
ESIS Health, Safety and Environmental (HSE) can assist
organizations with establishing their electrical safety programs and
assist them with meeting regulatory requirements, including GAP
analysis, auditing, implementation, and training.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Joe Lohkamp is a Certified Industrial Hygienist (CIH), Certified
Safety Professional (CSP) for ESIS Health, Safety, and
Environmental. In this role, he provides industrial hygiene and
other health and safety related services for clients. His experience
includes working in foundries, mines, aerospace facilities, food
processing, welding shops, plating operations, conducting indoor
air quality investigations and working in a wide variety other
manufacturing facilities. He is also an accredited asbestos
inspector and project designer.
2 OSHA Regional News Release, Region 1 News Release: 11-410-BOS/BOS 2011108, OSHA. https://www.osha.gov/pls/oshaweb/owadisp.show_document?p_
table=NEWS_RELEASES&p_id=19491
Mr. Lohkamp is involved with a variety of organizations including
the American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA), the Georgia
Section of the AIHA, the American Conference of Governmental
Industrial Hygienist (ACGIH), the American Academy of Industrial
Hygiene and the American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE).
5 OSHA Regional News Release, Region 2 News Release: 09-1366-NEW/BOS
2009-386, OSHA.https://www.osha.gov/pls/oshaweb/owadisp.show_document?
p_table=NEWS_RELEASES&p_id=16728
Endnotes:
1 Standards and Best Practices, Electrical Safety Foundation International.
http://esfi.org/index.cfm/pid/10225
3 OSHA Regional News Release, Region 1 News Release: 10-1026-BOS/BOS 2010344, OSHA. https://www.osha.gov/pls/oshaweb/owadisp.show_document?p_
table=NEWS_RELEASES&p_id=18129
4 OSHA Regional News Release, Region 6 News Release: DOL-OSHA-10-830-DAL,
OSHA. https://www.osha.gov/pls/oshaweb/owadisp.show_document?p_
table=NEWS_RELEASES&p_id=17913
6 “NFPA 70E urges industry to turn it off or put it on,” Fluke Digital Library.
http://support.fluke.com/find-sales/Download/Asset/3034588_6003_ENG_B_
W.PDF
7 Selection and Use of Work Practices, Electrical, Regulation: 29 CFR 1910.333
(a)(1), OSHA. https://www.osha.gov/pls/oshaweb/owadisp.show_document?p_
table=STANDARDS&p_id=9910
The information contained in this publication is provided for informational purposes only and is not provided as a substitute for
advice from legal counsel regarding the content or interpretation of any law or regulation nor is it a substitute for advice from
legal counsel regarding appropriate compliance measures concerning any law or regulation. It is not intended as a substitute for
advice from a safety expert or legal counsel you may retain for your own purposes. It is not intended to supplant any legal duty
you may have to provide a safe premises, workplace, product or operation.
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