# Changing Electrical Safe Work Practices



## brian john (Mar 11, 2007)

Other that working at OSHA's VA headquarters the only OSHA I have seen in the last 22 years is the Atlantic, Pacific and Artic..HOPE it stays that way.

OSHA has done loads to improve safety as have the insurance carriers I just do not need the head aches.


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## Mountain Electrician (Jan 22, 2007)

Its a pretty hot issue around here in the industrial arena. Lots of training, lots of discussion. The larger manufactures and paper mills have already adopted the NFPA 70E requirements for arc flash safety, including a comphrensive electric safety plan, personnel training, conducting electrical safety analysis which includes calculating the bolted fault current available at each OCP, figuring the level of PPE required for indivdual jobs, (i.e.; resetting breakers and heaters, replacing fuses, checking voltage, etc.) determing arc flash boundries and labeling all electrical equipment with this info. 

Most of the medium and small manufactures and mills here are kind of hanging back waiting for their insurance companys to start pushing. The cost of hiring a firm or buying software to do the arc flash calcs is high, and most smaller companys are waiting untill they have to to spend that money. Lots of them are buying insulated tools, arc flash suits and labeling the equipment with a generic "Danger Arc Flash Hazard - Follow all NFPA 70E safety requiremants" sticker. This is a bare minimum, but at least a sign they are trying to achive compliance.

Having to wear bulky and restricting PPE to do even the most simple and common place electrical tasks makes the electricians job tougher and more time consuming. In a high speed manufacturing enviroment where down time is a big issue, this can make a big impact on production and the bottom line. With rubber and leather gloves and an arc blast hood, a simple control troubleshooting job like a bad stop switch could take 15 minutes to fix rather than 7 or 8. 

My take on the whole thing is simple. Don't work anything hot, and when you have to, (troubleshooting, etc.) if current limiting circuit breakers or fuses are installed, the arc flash is much lower and the required PPE is much less. The problem there is obviously it is expensive to retrofit existing systems with current limiting OCPs. Either way, I believe that this is changing the way we do electrical work in industry. I can see this thing growing and heading into commercial (maybe it is already - I don't do much commercial) and residential work.

I am curious how other areas and markets are handling this and what kind of impact it is making on the way you do business?


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