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.
Workers in the utilities sector are at a higher risk for serious injuries and fatalities (SIF) than other industries, such as construction, manufacturing and mining, according to a recent study by DEKRA Organizational Safety & Reliability. SIF is defined as life-threatening, life-altering and fatal incidents in the workplace.
Georgia Power faces $112,000 in proposed fines from OSHA after an arc flash severely burned an electrician at its Bowen plant in the fall of 2015. OSHA’s investigation of the Bowen generating facility resulted in two repeated, five serious, and two other-than-serious safety citations.
An arc flash that burned two contract workers at the Sequoyah Nuclear Plant near Soddy-Daisy, Tennessee was not was not due to any equipment or plant-related issues, according to an investigation by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA).
With warm weather here, many people will be swimming in pools or wading into water at boat ramps – both of which harbor a danger that most of us are unaware of. The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) is trying to change that, by raising the alarm about electric shock drowning (ESD), which happens when marina or onboard electrical systems leak electric current into the water.
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.
May is National Electrical Safety Month and the Electrical Safety Foundation International (ESFI) is launching its annual effort to help reduce electrically-related fatalities, injuries, and property loss. This year’s campaign theme is "Understanding the Code that Keeps us Safe," which features resources focusing on the importance of the National Electrical Code and its three year cycle.
