Posts Tagged ‘electrical-safety’

May Is National Electrical Awareness Month!

by Andrew

Every year, the Electrical Safety Foundation International runs a month-long campaign in May to improve electrical safety in your community, organization, school or family. This year, the theme of National Electrical Awareness Month is “Decoding the National Electric Code (NEC) to Prevent Shock and Electrocution.”

 

Raising awareness about electrical safety in various settings is the first step to reducing electrical fires, injuries and – in the worst of cases – death. In fact, in the construction industry, electrocutions account for nearly 10 percent of all fatalities.

 

Though the most at-risk sector is construction, the ESFI encourages every workplace to be actively involved in the month-long campaign to increase safety around electricity. Whether you’re an employer or employee, part of your job should be to help promote safety in the workplace to ensure you – and your co-workers – are prepared in the event of a problem. According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, you should check to ensure existing work conditions meet all standards and compliance regulations as well as train your people to recognize potential electrical hazards.

 

Want to do your part to celebrate National Electrical Awareness Month? Follow these tips from OSHA:

 

  • Assume that all overhead wires are energized at lethal voltages. Never assume that a wire is safe to touch even if it is down or appears to be insulated.
  • Never touch a fallen overhead power line. Call the electric utility company to report fallen electrical lines.
  • Stay at least 10 feet (3 meters) away from overhead wires during cleanup and other activities. If working at heights or handling long objects, survey the area before starting work for the presence of overhead wires.
  • If an overhead wire falls across your vehicle while you are driving, stay inside the vehicle and continue to drive away from the line. If the engine stalls, do not leave your vehicle. Warn people not to touch the vehicle or the wire. Call or ask someone to call the local electric utility company and emergency services.
  • Never operate electrical equipment while you are standing in water.
  • Have a qualified electrician inspect electrical equipment that has gotten wet before energizing it.
  • If working in damp locations, inspect electric cords and equipment to ensure that they are in good condition and free of defects, and use a ground-fault circuit interrupter (GFCI).
  • Always use caution when working near electricity.

From our Lockout/Tagout Equipment to signs and identification products, Emedco has everything you need to improve electrical safety at all your facilities. Just give our team of professionals a call at (866) 748-5963 or visit Emedco.com to find safety solutions for every challenge.

Key Lockout Tagout Definitions Every Safety Manager Should Know

by Julianne Bass

LockoutTerms1

The power of heavy duty machinery is largely left up to speculation until a major accident occurs and its true impact is shown. Protecting workers from the powerful machines they interact with on a daily basis largely relies on the presence of an effective and compliant lockout tagout program and the proper training of all employees who will have to apply its procedures. When creating a sustainable program here is a list of 10 lockout terms, all safety managers, and workers should know.

  1. Authorized Employee: the worker that is applying the lock or tag to machines/equipment in order to perform service on it
  2. Affected Employee: A worker that may come in contact with machines or equipment on which lockout tagout procedures are applied
  3. Other Employees: All worker who are in or around the area in which lockout tagout procedures are being used
  1. Capable of being locked out: Can be locked without dismantling, rebuilding, or replacing the energy-isolating device or permanently altering its energy control capability.
  1. Energized: any piece of equipment or machinery that is connected to an energy source or may contain stored energy
  2. Energy-isolating device: A device that physically prevents the transmission or release of energy
  3. Energy source: Any source of electrical, mechanical, hydraulic, pneumatic, chemical, thermal, or other energy.
  4. Lockout: The placement of a device often in the form of some sort of lock, on an energy-isolating device, in accordance with an established procedure, ensuring that the piece of equipment the device in being place on is controlled and cannot be operated until the lockout device is removed.
  5. Servicing and/or maintenance: Workplace activities that place workers in situations where they would be exposed to unexpected startups or releases of hazardous energy  from the piece of equipment on which they are working or in the presence of.
  6. Tagout: The placement of a tagout device on an energy-isolating device, in accordance with an established procedure, to indicate that the piece of equipment is being controlled may not be operated until the tagout device is removed.

Workplace Safety News Roundup

by Julianne Bass

Workplace Safety News

Keeping track of new OSHA regulations and taking advantage of supplemental safety training and reading materials makes a big difference in the success of the programs you implement in your workplace. Seeing what others are doing both for the better and worse help mold an all encompassing safety initiative. Here is a sampling of some of the news buzzing around workplace safety this month.

Preventing Slips Trips and Falls around the Loading Dock

Workplace injuries and accidents that cause employees to miss six or more days of work cost U.S. employers nearly $62 billion in 2013, the most recent year for which statistically valid injury data is available from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and the National Academy of Social Insurance, according to the 2016 Liberty Mutual Workplace Safety Index. That is more than $1 billion per week spent on the most disabling, nonfatal workplace injuries.

Read More Here

OSHA to Delay Enforcement on Electrical Safety Rule:

Washington – Enforcement of part of OSHA’s revised rule on electric power generation, transmission and distribution installations has been delayed until at least early 2017. The original compliance date for the final rule’s revised minimum approach distances for voltages of 5.1 kilovolts or greater was April 1, 2015.

Read More Here

US Roadway deaths jump in 2015

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has announced its latest estimate of traffic deaths, which show a steep 9.3 percent increase for the first nine months of 2015. The news comes as the agency kicks-off its first in a series of regional summits with a day-long event in Sacramento, Calif., to examine unsafe behaviors and human choices that contribute to increasing traffic deaths on a national scale.

Read More Here

Are You Creating Effective Lockout Tagout Procedures?

by Julianne Bass

lock-out tag-out.jpg

Someone stealing your lunch at the office or maybe a pesky neighbor keeps coming over unannounced? What do these have to do with lockout? Well besides that fact that it sounds like you’re off to a pretty rough start to the day if the first 2 apply, but they can be solved with proper “lockout” procedures. Safety locks and tags do that on a larger scale, with much more costly problems when not used. Leaving your workers unprotected against accidental start ups lead to serious consequences. Just because someone is not in sight working on a machine, does not mean that it is okay to re-energize a machine that has been brought to complete zero.

The question is how is someone supposed to know whether work is being performed without some sort of indicator? Making sure that the proper procedures are in place to protect workers, carrying out their maintenance responsibilities, falls in the lap of business management. When the ball is dropped OSHA takes notice and steps in. Just recently a Newark gas company was fined over 50K for repeat and serious violations regarding lock-out tag-out. If given the option, most companies would probably choose not to have 50k worth of avoidable fines eating into their profits.

Although at first glance creating lock-out tag-out procedures feels like a daunting task, most companies should at least have the shell of some, especially if the work of their facility would require a program. However, if time has gotten the best of you as it does with everyone sometimes, blow the dust off of what you have and get down to business. Lock out tag out OSHA procedures make it very easy to comply with helpful resource to walk a facility through what the need to have. They provide an example of what typical, minimal procedures should look like. In Addition, they have an interactive lock-out tag-out training program, case studies, and frequently asked questions.

When you begin to look at your procedures keep these questions in mind:

  • How many workers need to be briefed on lock-out tag-out procedures?
  • Where is the pain-point or downfalls in your current system? This is a great way to get workers involved and hear their feedback.
  • Is your equipment able to be completely de-energized and locked out? If now how will you ensure that your tag-out procedures are just as effective as locks?
  • How does the communication process flow to ensure all of the necessary parties are notified when a machine is locked out?
  • Do you have proper lockout tagout devices and signage posted in plain sight to act as a first line of notification to all entering into a hazardous area?
  • What are employees required to do before, during, and after a machine is locked out, as the person carrying out the maintenance, and as the workers working around the locked out machine?

Do you think there are holes in your lockout tagout program that should be addressed? Make it a point to start improving your procedures and the safety of your employees this National Safety Month. Start Using LoTo safety locks and tags today!

Preventing Facility Hazards: Electrical Safety Tips You Need to Know

by Julianne Bass

electrical safety

Three of the top ten OSHA electrical safety violations are electrical in nature; in addition 5% of all on the job fatalities are due to improper interaction with electricity, proving that electrical hazards are a literal force to be reckoned with and require the proper attention from safety managers when assessing facility safety programs.

Here are 10 electrical safety tips to keep in mind when protecting your workers from electrical hazards.

  1. Electrical Safety is important, any workplace and position can be affected by electricity. Before you begin your day make note of any electrical equipment you may come in contact with and ensure that it is properly grounded before use.
  2. Standing in any type of wetness while using an electrical device of any kind is not a good idea. Try to avoid it whenever possible, this includes power tools, tablets, mobile phones, etc.
  3. Assume power lines are always energized whenever your works brings you to an area where you need to be around them. Use non-conductive materials, and tools when near them.
  4. A standard operating procedure in electrical safety to bring any machine being worked on to complete zero, fully de-energized before beginning repair or services.
  5. After bringing a machine to complete zero for servicing, always use proper lock out protocol to prevent co-workers from re-energizing a machine while it is being worked on.
  6. Never wear rings, watches, wristbands, or use metallic pencils or rulers while working with electrical equipment.
  7. Ask can this job be completed with one hand? Only using one hand to work reduces the chances of electricity going through the chest cavity in the event of an accident.
  8. If a spill happens on or near a machine do not try to clean it up. Shut the machine down completely and unplug it.
  9. Never touch electrical equipment unless you are specifically instructed to do so. It is advisable to consider the use of electrical safety signs, and make sure your hands are not wet or sweating and as precaution use the back of your hand if possible.
  10. The NFPA 70E Requirement were just made in 2015, refer to the changes to see what your facility should now be doing differently to ensure maximum workplace electrical safety.

NFPA 70E 2015 Updates in Your Workplace

by Julianne Bass

NFPA 70E updates

NFPA 70E standards,  developed on the request of OSHA help protect against the dangers of arc flash, arc blast, direct current hazards, electrical design and provide informational guidance on the personal protective equipment available. Due to the rapid advances in technology in the workplace not only do the work processes get smarter but also the need to have more sophisticated plans in place for defending against the dangers that come along with them.

NFPA 70E standards make it easier to ensure an electrically safe facility and comply with OSHA 1910 Subpart S and OSHA 1926 Subpart K.

In order to keep up with ever-changing demands the NFPA has released updated to the 70E for 2015. Updates are usually made every 3 years, making the 2015 edition an update to the 2012 edition.

4 Key changes were made in this edition including:

  • Terminology
  • Coverage requirements
  • Elimination of HRC 0
  • Arc Flash / PPE Category Tables

 These 2015 updates further the effort of trying to ensure clarity around electric safety and where employee/employer responsibilities lie.

**Due to changes in the standards this does mean that some FR manufacturers will need to modify the labeling of their clothing to reflect the new terminology.

For more specific information regarding these changes click here .