| Every year, dozens of workers are injured in arc | | | | - Create safe zones or boundaries for workers to |
| flash incidents from overloaded electrical | | | | protect them from flash and shock. |
| equipment. These explosions happen instantly with | | | | - Provide employees with protective clothing and |
| pressure that can cause deafness or blindness | | | | equipment that meets government standards. |
| and a fireball that can cause devastating injuries | | | | - Label equipment susceptible to arc flashes upon |
| and even death. The pressure is so intense from | | | | failure. |
| these flashes that injury to those around the blast | | | | Other precautions that can be taken include: |
| can result from flying, molten debris. The risk of | | | | - Limiting the fault current with devices that |
| arc flash incidents can be significantly decreased | | | | improve grounding and bring the current down to |
| by taking recommended safety precautions and | | | | no more than 5 amps, faults have nowhere to go |
| wearing protective gear. | | | | and extinguish. This also disables multi-phase faults. |
| According to an IEEE report, electric arc burns are | | | | - Setting protective devices for lower target |
| responsible for the majority of the injuries from | | | | controls during maintenance periods. |
| electrical malfunctions. The arc's incredibly high | | | | - Avoiding the use of people altogether for very |
| temperatures, about four times that of the | | | | high-risk work. By using non-human operators, the |
| surface of the sun, can cause fatal burns within | | | | risk to people is almost completely eliminated. |
| five feet and major burns within just ten feet. | | | | However, some work requires people and not |
| It is the responsibility of both employers and their | | | | robots to be completed properly if it is a |
| employees to do their best to create a workplace | | | | highly-complex operation. |
| for electrical workers that is not just safer but | | | | While many standards groups working together to |
| puts in place the best possible processes and | | | | keep the workforce safe (OSHA, IEEE, NFPA) and |
| procedures that are fully understood, practiced | | | | have made great strides in standardizing safety |
| and enforced for optimal results. | | | | procedure, it's still not possible to eliminate all arc |
| Employers are required to do several things to | | | | flash incidents. Employees in high-risk jobs must |
| help ensure their employees stay safe on the job. | | | | be vigilant about their surroundings and regularly |
| They must: | | | | monitor their equipment for faults. Through both |
| - Conduct an analysis of their workplaces to | | | | assessment and arc resistant technologies, |
| assess risks for arc flashes. | | | | worker safety continues to improve. |
| - Safety train employees. | | | | |