Adapting to the safe work practices of NFPA 70E likely means some major changes in how your electrical workers have done things in the past. Your electrical workers likely didn’t think twice about opening an energized 480 volt electrical panel. Now with standards in place, they must first determine arc flash hazard levels, PPE, safety boundaries and fill out an energized work permit.

The short answer is, yes. OSHA requires industrial plants to adhere to the arc flash standards set forth by the National Fire Protection Association in the publication known as NFPA 70E.

Safety and health professionals are intensely serious about protecting workers from the hazards of electrical arc flash and complying with industry safety standards. But it’s easy to make mistakes that create unnecessary costs (both time and money) or put workers at risk. As you comply with NFPA 70E and OSHA safety standards, avoid these common missteps:

Ron Spataro, Director of Marketing, and Steve Foutch, Vice President sales and Operations, both of AVO Training Institute, Dallas, TX (www.avotraining.com) (877-594-3156; 214-330-3522) answer questions from ISHN magazine about electrical safety training.

Electricians and all those interested in electrical safety have a new online community they can join, thanks to the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA). The new website from the NFPA, necconnect.org, is a resource for installers and contractors, designers and engineers, code enforcers, and policy makers for all things related to the NFPA 70®, National Electrical Code® (NEC®), which sets the standard for safe electrical installations in homes, businesses, industry and institutions.

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."

OSHA requires employers to protect employees from electrical hazards, including arc flash. Yet OSHA does not specifically explain how to comply with these regulations. NFPA 70E is the bridge between OSHA regulations and compliance.