A Case for Electrical Safety

When people think about THE electrical code, normally they refer to NFPA 70.  Written on a 3-year cycle by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), THE National Electrical code is imbued with the force of law when it is adopted by states and municipalities.

NFPA 70 (Installation), 70B (Maintenance), 70E (Safety) Cycle

However, NFPA 70 mainly concerns itself with the safe installation of electrical systems.  Often overlooked is the maintenance and the protection of people who work with or near the electrical systems.  Enter into the fray NFPA 70B and 70E.  Both standards are considered consensus standards, and voluntary in nature.  While that may be a cue for some to hit the ignore button and stop reading, ignorance of these standards can still have financial repercussions for a business through OSHA actions. Never mind the lost productivity and machine downtime.

To some clients, maintenance and safety need no sales pitch, the benefits are self-evident.  However, more often than I would care to admit, OSHA violations are cheaper than safety, and maintenance is taking things to the point of failure.  For many, electricity is a vague concept more than a reality, and even fewer appreciate how fast and catastrophic things can turn. 

In very real terms things can go from normal to temperatures hotter than the surface of the sun literally at the speed of light.  There is no ducking, running away, or thinking, “Shit where did I go wrong?”

Accidents are rarely, if ever, a single causal event.  On average, it takes (3) things to go wrong to create an accident.  Poorly maintained equipment, breakers that no longer open as fast, and missing safety PPE can lead to a fatality.

A fatality is usually the end result of a chain of risky behaviors, near misses, recordable injuries, and lost time injuries.  Simply stated, fatalities do not happen in a vacuum and if you look hard enough, their inevitability is foreshadowed.

Who cares if the inevitability is foreshadowed?  The electrician has insurance, and it is their employee, not mine the cynical client might wonder.  How does an electrician’s lack of safety affect me, if it’s not my employee?  The answer is OSHA’s Multi-Employer Worksite Policy (#not legal advice).  Under this policy, employers are classified as Creating, Exposing, Correcting, & Controlling.  If you invite an unsafe contractor into your facility, you may be a controlling employer with responsibilities.  If your employees wander into somebody else’s hazard, you might be an exposing employer regardless if you created the hazard in the first place.  The ultimate answer is that one sloppy employer can have knock on effects for other employers and employees both in the present and in the future.

So, where does this leave us?  All too often cost is the only concern, not just the first concern.  If you are looking at bringing in an electrician, understand that not all electricians are the same.  Beyond looking at the final number, you want to know about safety records, financial health, and overall knowledge.  I have seen the good, the bad, and the ugly and sometimes their messes can become your mess too. For everyone’s health and safety respect the pipes filled with angry pixies.  If you don’t, they will come to visit with fiery and catastrophic results.