Shedding Light On Electrical Safety In The Workplace BY MARY DRAIN
OSHA looks to the requirements of NFPA 70E to fulfill the performance-based requirements included in its stan- dards. NFPA 70E outlines ways to comply with OSHA’s electrical safety requirements. NFPA typically publishes updates to their standards every 3-5 years. A fact sheet created by NFPA addresses some of the major changes for the 2021 edition. These include: • Article 110 : Some requirements in Article 110 have been reorganized for a more logical progression, including moving general principles of lockout/tagout from Sec- tion 120.2 and general principles of an electrically safe work condition and energized work requirements from Section 130.2. New subsection 110.5(K) requires that an employer’s electrical safety program include a policy on establishing an electrically safe work condition. • Article 130 : Sections 130.1 and 130.2 have been rewrit- ten to accommodate the relocation of information from former Sections 130.2(A) to 110.3 and to keep the focus of Article 130 on requirements related to work involving electrical hazards.
The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) recently released the 2021 edition of their 70E Standard for Elec-
trical Safety in the Workplace. The standard includes recommenda- tions for safe work practices to protect personnel by reducing ex- posure to major electrical hazards. NFPA 70E helps companies avoid workplace injuries and fatalities due to shock, electrocution, arc flash, and arc blast. And it assists
Mary Drain
in complying with the Occupational Safety and Health Ad- ministration’s (OSHA) 1910 Subpart S and 1926 Subpart K.
• Table 130.5(C) : Revisions have been made to Table 130.5(C), which can be used to help estimate the likelihood of oc- currence of an arc flash incident, including a new entry for the initial circuit breaker or switch operation and again after mainte- nance, as each has a higher likelihood of an arc-flash event. • Section 350.9 : Energy thresholds for electrical equipment and systems in lab- oratories have been revised to accurately reflect the data in the Informational Note’s resource document, and the capacitive circuit threshold has been deleted to pre- vent duplication and potential confusion with new Article 360. • Article 360 : This new article on the safe- ty-related requirements for capacitors has been added For those who need to keep tuned-in to electrical safety in the workplace require- ments, Industrial Safety & Hygiene News (ISHN) will be holding a free webinar on Oc- tober 29, 2020. Presenters will identify the important changes, define why the changes were made and help you create an action plan for your workplace to begin the process of implementing the changes. Registration is available at onlinexperiences.com . Updates in the electrical industry are im- portant, so take the time to familiarize your- self with the new edition and be a resource for your company – lives depend on it. Mary Drain is the Director of Technical Ser- vices at the Fibre Box Association (FBA). Reach her at mdrain@fibrebox.org.
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John Kelley President at Dusobox We have achieved 98% machine availability, and significantly reduced machinery downtime from days to minutes. We have been able to maintain such reliability at a cost of 4% of net replacement value; much lower than expected for professionally managed assets and more.
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November 2, 2020
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