Electrical Safety and Arc Flash in the Industrial & Commercial Environment

There are two basic hazards associated energized electrical equipment – shock and arc flash and blast. Governments have established minimum standards of safety care through occupational health and safety legislation. However, legislation is seldom specific enough to provide guidance as to how to meet those standards of care. NFPA 70E Electrical Safety in the Workplace and the soon to be released parallel Canadian document CSA Z462 provides the how-to knowledge for electrical safety. This tutorial will discuss the development and current state of these two standards, including some of the challenges facing the committees involved in the current revision cycle. The tutorial will explain the key safe work practices contained in these documents: qualifying the electrical worker, job planning, establishing an electrical safety program, creating an electrically safe work condition, shock and arc flash hazard analysis, shock and arc flash protection boundaries. These work practices will be framed in the context of occupational health and safety legislation.