Electrical Safety: Protecting your ‘Unqualified’ Workers

Almost 3 million workers in the United States are at risk every day from uncontrolled energy when servicing equipment—there are roughly 3,600 disabling and 4,000 nondisabling electrical contact injuries every year. Injuries include electrocution (causes death), electric shock (nonfatal), burns, and falls.

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All the safety training you need in one program: 25 subjects, one low price. It’s BLR’s Safety Training Presentations. Try it at no cost. Click for details.

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OSHA’s electrical safety rules for general industry workplaces (29 CFR 1910, Subpart S) cover electrical safety requirements that are necessary for the practical safeguarding of employees in the workplace. These include:

• Design safety standards for electric utilization systems (all electric equipment and installations used to provide electric power for workplaces); and
  
• Safety-related work practices for both “qualified” and “unqualified” employees.

BLR’s Safety Training Presentations explains that a “qualified person” is a person familiar with the construction and operation of the electrical equipment and the hazards involved. “Unqualified” workers are those such as machine operators, operators of powered industrial trucks, construction workers, and others who are not qualified to perform electrical work, but who need to know important information about the hazards of electricity and how to prevent serious injury.

The electrical safe work practice rules cover work practices for both qualified persons and unqualified persons working on, near, or with:

• Premise wiring (i.e., installations of electric conductors and equipment within or on buildings or other structures and on other premises such as yards, parking and other lots, and industrial substations)
  
• Wiring for connection to supply
  
• Installations of other outside conductors on the premises
  
• Installations of optical fiber cable where such installations are made along with electric conductors

The safe work practice rules do not apply to work performed by qualified persons on or directly associated with:

• Generation, transmission, and distribution of electric energy (including communication and metering)
  
• Communications installations (see 29 CFR 1910.268 for such installations)
  
• Vehicle installations
  
• Railway installations

Unqualified persons who are at risk of electric shock must be trained in:

• Electricity-related safety practices
  
• Any electricity-related safety practices not specifically addressed in the OSHA rule but that are necessary for their safety

Safety Training Presentations explains that most safe work practices for working around electricity are really common sense rules. These include:

• Only qualified persons—generally, though not always, trained electricians wearing the right protective equipment—are allowed to work on or near exposed electrical equipment or wiring.
  
• Don’t wear clothing that can conduct electricity when working with electric-powered equipment. This includes anything with metal, such as metal-rimmed glasses or wire-mesh gloves.
  
• The work area should be well-illuminated so that you can see if there are any electrical hazards present.
  
• Don’t use conductive liquids such as water—or for that matter, any conductive items—anywhere near exposed electrical equipment.
  
• Do not defeat or try to circumvent electrical interlock devices.
  
• Finally, use nonconductive ladders for working anywhere near electrical equipment. Generally, this means wooden ladders only.

Safety Training Presentations includes 25 separate PowerPoint® prewritten safety meetings, each one responsive to either an OSHA training requirement or to other key causes of accidents. All are customizable so you can add your specific hazards or safety policies. In addition to Electrical Safety, the topics covered include:

–Bloodborne Pathogens
–Back Safety
–Emergency Action
–Ergonomics
–Fire Prevention
–PPE
–Welding/Cutting/Brazing
–Portable Power Tool Safety
–Scaffolds
–Hazard Communication
–Lockout/Tagout
–Forklift Operator Safety
–Confined Space Safety
–Fall Protection
–Respiratory Protection
— and more!

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Try Safety Training Presentations at no cost and no risk. Click for details.

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What’s more, Safety Training Presentations uses varied formats, not just slide presentations. Each lesson also includes interactive exercises, quizzes, completion certificates, sign-in sheets, evaluation forms, and training records. In short, everything you need to motivate, reinforce, retain, and transfer new knowledge—and document that you did.

Of course, training needs change as OSHA introduces new requirements or as new work practices and technologies bring new hazards. To cover this, you receive a new CD every 90 days you’re in the program, each containing 5 additional or updated topics.

Just as important, for those on a budget (and who isn’t these days?), the cost of these presentations averages under $20 each.

We’ve arranged for Advisor subscribers to get a no-cost, no-obligation look at Safety Training Presentations for 30 days. Feel free to try a few lessons with your own trainees. Let us know and we’ll be glad to set it up.