Accidents electrical hazards

Protection from electrical hazards is one way to prevent accidents. Protective methods include insrdation, electrical protective devices, guarding, grovmding, personal protective equipment (PPE), and safe work practices. 

Electrical accidents on construction sites are almost always caused by unsafe equipment and/or installations, unsafe workplaces caused by environmental factors, or rmsafe work practices. Protection from electrical hazards is one way to prevent accidents. According to OSHA, protective methods that may be employed on your jobsite include insulation, electrical protective devices, guarding, grounding, personal protective equipment (PPE), and safe work practices. 

Electrical hazards of one kind or another are present in all labs. Using UL-certified equipment, not overriding safety measures, and using extra vigilance around sources of water usually prevents electrical accidents. Extremely high-voltage sources must be used with extra care. 

Safety signs, safety s5rmbols, or accident prevention tags where necessary to warn employees about electrical hazards which may endanger them, as required by 1910.145. 

While the majority of our efforts, as a health and safety eormmmity within the semieonductor industry, have been aimed at the control of hazardous materials, some of our most significant safety exposures eontinue to be those associated with electrical hazards. Historically, electrical accidents have been the leading cause of serious injuries and fatalities in the semiconductorindustry. Ironically, electrical safety is an area where we have the least amoimt of technical and practical expertise available to us as an... 

Electrical hazards occur when multiple levels of guarding or protection surrounding the energized electrical system are lost through action or omission. People do not plan to find electrical hazards nor do they plan to have an electrical accident. People assume that the electrical system is enclosed, and if they can be exposed, that it is de-energized. 

To get the attention of the people in your organization who are exposed to electrical hazards or who you want to have a greater awareness, there must be examples to which they can relate. Some trainers like to use graphic pictures of electrical injuries for the shock potential others would rather use interactive discussion of accidents that co-workers have experienced. The reality of explaining the human effect of electrical shock and bum is probably a composite of showing what may happen and encouraging discussion of electrical hazards and electrical hazard management. It is probably important to emphasize all of the other potential results of electrical contact and state that death is, conceivably, a worst case. 

Situations like those above impair accident/incident reporting systems, but they do occur. If you want to know about your electrical shocks, go out and find out what is really happening. Work with the people who are exposed to the electrical hazards. 

Many workplaces have high accident incidence and severity rates because they are hazardous. Hazards are dangerous situations or conditions that can lead to accidents. The more the hazards present, the greater the chance that there will be accidents. Most hazards are from the direct release of some form of energy (i.e., mechanical, electrical, thermal, etc.). The control of hazardous energy sources is the main avenue for prevention of incidents that could result in injury, illnesses, or death. Unless safety procedures are followed, a direct relationship will exist between the number of hazards in the workplace and the number of accidents that will occur there. 

The very nature of working in a workplace with hazardous chemicals makes emergencies very real possibilities. These emergencies strike suddenly and unexpectedly and require immediate response. Although it is the accidents with hazardous materials that are most likely to lead to emergency response situations in the workplace, other possible emergency situations must also be taken into account. For example, fires, storms (hurricanes and tornadoes), earthquakes, electrical shock, power failure, and medical emergencies are real possibilities (these events may be related to [in the case of fire and medical problems] or compounded by hazardous materials, but not in every situation). 

Steams, Patrick. Electrical Safety Shouldn t Be An Accident. Occupational Hazards. January 1998, pp. 73-74. 

Electrostatic charges are also geaerated whea Hquids move ia coatact with other materials, Hquid or sofld, eg, duriag pumping of gasoliae. Serious iadustrial hazards caused by static ia chemical and related fields have been described (28), and a study of accidents ia the chemical iadustry revealed that 115 out of 1600 accideats, or 7%, were ascribed to static electricity (29) (see Plant safety). 

Before entry is allowed into a vessel or other confined space, the vessel should be isolated from sources of hazardous material by slip-plating or physically disconnecting all pipelines and by isolating all supplies of electricity, preferably by disconnecting the cables. On the whole, these precautions seem to be followed. Accidents as the result of a failure to isolate are less common than those resulting from a failure to remove hazardous materials or from their deliberate reintroduction as described in Sections 11.1 and 11.2. However, the following are typical of the accidents that have occurred. 

Accidents have occurred because hot water was not treated with respect. Five men were killed when a plastic hot-water tank split along a seam [14J. On another plant, a man, about to make some tea, caught his sleeve on the tap of an electric water heater. The heater fell over, 2 gal of hot water fell on him, and he died in the hospital five days later [15]. The heater should have been fixed to the wall. If it had contained a hazardous chemical, it would have been secured, but no one thought hot water was hazardous. Chemicals are not the only hazards on a plant. 

Electrical accidents appear to be caused by any one or any combination of tlirec possible factors unsafe equipment, unsafe installation, or both workplaces made unsafe by the emiromiicnt and misafe work practices. Possible ways to protect people from the hazards caused by electricity include insulation, guarding, grounding, nieclnuiical devices, and safe work practices. These are detailed below. 

The key to safety in explosives manufacturing is to use isolated high-velocity nitric acid reactors that have only a veiy small hold up at any one time (that is, only a small amount of dangerous material is held up inside the reactor at any time). Units are widely spaced, so any accident involves only small amounts of explosive and does not propagate through the plant. Fire and electrical spark hazards are rigorously controlled, and manpower reduced to the absolute minimum through automation. 

Other inspection services available include the examination of steel structures (new and existing), electrical wiring installations, containers (to meet Statutory Instm-ment No. 1890), dangerous substances (carriage by road in road tankers or tank containers) to meet Statutory Instmment No. 1059, examination of second-hand plant prior to purchase, plant undergoing repair or modification, the Control of Industrial Major Accident Hazard Regulations (CIMAH) Statutory Instmment No. 1902 and Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH) and Pressure Systems Regulations. 

Concern with the hazards associated with the use of flammable and toxic chemicals in the laboratory often causes the dangers from electrical equipment to be overlooked. However, many accidents are caused by the malfunctioning of electric appliances and by thoughtless handling. 

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