Handbook of International Electrical Safety Practices

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• Publisher: Wiley-Scrivener
• Year: 2011
• Print ISBN:
  9780470625897
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781118031780
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• Subtopic: Electrical Engineering & Telecommunications
• Index: Technology & Engineering

A valuable and comprehensive safety reference for any organization working with or around electricity.

This comprehensive guide informs working professionals in multiple industries, such as manufacturing, processing, or energy, about safety procedures that should be used on the job. It informs the reader about the hazards in the work place and what to do to make sure he/she is protected.

The Handbook of International Electrical Safety Practices presents readers with the proper organizational skills needed to avoid hazardous injuries, details environmental monitoring techniques, and discusses how to ensure that proper protection is used on the job. The authors cover not only obvious electrical safety considerations, such as exposed wires and evacuation plans, but everything related to electrical safety, such as air quality, sound level, and radiation. This reference provides the most comprehensive coverage for any company to keep employees informed and to keep their work environment safe.

The Handbook of International Electrical Safety Practices:

• Contains working plans and templates for evaluating safety proceduresand conditions in the plant

• Covers common hazards and how to avoid them, such as radiation, noise, air quality, fire, and electric shock

• Gives a comprehensive view of workers' rights and international regulations

• Goes beyond regulations and laws to provide a workable blueprint for creating a safe industrial environment

1

How to Evaluate Safety Programs

1.1 Introduction

This chapter provides a roadmap for both employers and employees to creating a safe working environment. While the standards in chapters 2 through 6 are organized and presented in a highly prescriptive format, this first part provides workers within the industry an overall orientation to the philosophy, tools and corporate culture that the international community has adopted as a part of best management practices.

At the same time, this chapter of the standards explicitly defines the rights of workers to be kept informed of the hazards associated with their job assignments, to be provided with knowledge, engineering and management controls that eliminate unsafe working conditions, along with the actions that workers may take in order to ensure that they are never placed in situations that pose either immediate or long-term risks to their health and well-being.

Employees generally have little or no control over their working environment and must accept whatever environment employers offer. Employers and their designated corporate representatives have both a moral and legal obligation to ensure that both workers and the public at large are kept insulated from the hazards associated with the industry sector.

1.2 Creating a Culture of Safety

The design of a safe plant layout is beyond the responsibility of individual employees, but it nevertheless is essential for good power production practices and safe working conditions. Narrow aisles, blind intersections, insufficient overhead space and limited access for equipment repair and maintenance all are detrimental to a safe operating environment.

The National Safety Council in the United States has estimated that work-related accidents in the private sector in 1988 cost industry an average of $15,100 per disabling injury. Based on this figure and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — which reported that in 1988 private U.S. Industry, employing 90 million workers, had 6.2 million job-related accidents and injuries was in excess of $93 billion. Approximately, half of this total ($46 billion) was for such visible costs as damaged equipment and materials, production delays, time losses of other workers not involved in the accidents and accident reporting.

Similar statistics have been reported in the United Kingdom (UK) and in the European Community. The statistics support the premise that it is the responsibility of every employer to take a strong, proactive stance to ensure their employees’ safety.

Designing for safe work environments also means proper scheduling of work activities. It should not be the operator’s or worker’s responsibility to determine the proper routing of work in process. To make this type of decision a worker’s responsibility unfairly shifts to what is truly management’s responsibility directly to the worker. It is management’s responsibility to ensure that tight work standards are not only defined for each operating facility, but to ensure that procedures and policies are adopted and enforced. Establishing fair work standards through work measurement or some similar technique is, without question, a prerogative and a right of management. Establishing and enforcing tight work standards has resulted and will continue to result in operators taking dangerous short cuts while completing tasks. These short cuts often result in industrial accidents and injuries. By the same token, managers should use standards to ensure a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work, but they should not use them as a whip to achieve maximum productivity through coercion.

Pressure placed on employees to meet tight production schedules results in the same type of problems as with tight work standards. Reasonable schedules based on reasonable capacity determinations and work standards eliminate the pressure and work-related stress placed on employees to overproduce because of unsafe short cuts.

Having a corporate culture that promotes and makes safety and environment a priority should be the goal of the industry. Creating a culture of safety first requires site-specific work practices and working environments to be carefully assessed with a focus on identifying high-risk areas, and then developing concrete plans for improved occupational and process safety performance. Management must focus on using employee insights to prevent costly and potentially deadly accidents before they occur, creating a safer workplace by taking into account both the environment in which employees work and the culture that drives their daily work experience.

As an employer, it is your responsibility to provide a safe work environment for all employees, free from any hazards, and complying with legal and recommended best practices defined in the standards. Health and safety in the workplace is about preventing work-related injury and disease, and designing an environment that promotes well-being for everyone at work.

Knowledge is the key ingredient in providing a safe work environment. If everyone knows the correct procedures, accidents and injuries will be kept to a minimum.

Both employers and employees should:

• Ensure that the way work is done is safe and does not affect employees’ health.
• Ensure that tools, equipment and machinery are safe and are kept safe.
• Ensure that ways of storing, transporting or working with dangerous substances is safe and does not damage employees’ health.

Employers must:

• Provide employees with the information, instruction and training they need to do their job safely and without damaging their health.
• Consult with employees about health and safety in the workplace.
• Monitor the work place regularly and keep a record of what is found during these checks.

Policies should be developed in consultation with employees, both with and without disability. It may be necessary to organize support persons or interpreters so that all employees may participate in the consultation.

Occupational Health and Safety (OH&S) procedures must be implemented wherever the work is being conducted, be that in an office, factory, construction site, substation, along transmission line work or home. As an employer, it is your responsibility to ensure all employees have access to information about safety procedures, and for any reasonable adjustments to be made.

It is crucial that new employees be:

• Briefed of all new staff on OH&S policy at induction.
• Be provided training on all safety procedures, including evacuation and other emergency procedures.
• Provided access to information about safety procedures, in appropriate formats.

It is crucial the existing employees:

• Have access to information in appropriate formats.
• Be provided with regular information updates and re-training sessions.
• Be provided access to information about safety procedures.
• Conduct relevant training on any new equipment or machinery.

The following are some anecdotal facts that can serve to raise a culture of safety among workers and management:

Factors That Make New Workers More Accident Prone:

• Lack of safety training;
• Don’t ask questions;
• Unaware of hazards;
• Assume employer is responsible for safety;
• Don’t understand rights/responsibilities;
• “It can’t happen to me” attitude; and
• Fatigue.

Major Causes of Injury:

• Slips, trips and falls;
• Improper use of equipment;
• Faulty use of equipment;
• Improper lighting;
• Not turning off power while repairing equipment (lock out procedures);
• Entering unsafe confined spaces that do not normally accommodate people; and
• Improper use or storage of chemicals and other hazardous materials.

The Employer’s Responsibilities:

• Provide a safe workplace.
• Ensure adequate training of workers.
• Keep written records of training: who, when and what type.
• Establish and maintain a comprehensive occupational safety program, including a written safety policy and an accident investigation program.
• Support supervisors, safety coordinators, and workers in their safety activities.
• Take action immediately when the worker or supervisor tells you about a potentially hazardous situation.
• Initiate an immediate investigation into accidents.
• Report serious accidents to the HSO (Health and Safety Officer) or to the Corporate Prevention Division.
• Provide adequate first aid facilities and services.
• Provide personal protective equipment where required.
• Make available to all workers copies of Industrial Hygiene Policy.
• Post Health and Safety Regulations and all other regulations.

The Supervisor’s Responsibilities:

• Instruct new workers on safe work procedures.
• Train workers for all tasks assigned to them and check their progress.
• Ensure that only authorized, adequately trained workers operate tools & equipment and use hazardous chemicals.
• Ensure that equipment and materials are properly handled, stored and maintained.
• Enforce safety regulations.
• Correct unsafe acts.
• Identify workers with problems such as drugs or alcohol that could affect their performance, and follow up with interviews and referrals where necessary.
• Formulate safety rules and inspect for hazards in your own area.

Worker’s Responsibilities:

• You have an obligation to make your workplace safe.
• Know and follow safety and health regulations affecting your job.
• If you don’t know how, ask for training before you begin work.
• Work safely, and encourage your co-workers to do the same.
• Correct or immediately report any unsafe conditions to your supervisor.
• Report any injury immediately to a First Aid attendant or supervisor.
• Take the initiative; make suggestions for improved safety conditions.

Site Orientation:

• All new employees should have a site orientation from their supervisor and be given a brief on safety procedures including: the layout of the section, a safety orientation, fire exit locations and procedures, emergency equipment and location of first aid facilities or services.
• Always be aware of your surroundings;
• Look up for falling objects;
• Be mindful of up/down traffic;
• Be cautious of structural inadequacies;
• Do not rac...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Acknowledgements
• List of Contributors
• Abbreviations
• Preface
• Chapter 1 - How to Evaluate Safety Programs
• Chapter 2 - Meters and Monitors
• Chapter 3 - General Safety Practices
• Chapter 4 - Safe Use of Equipment
• Chapter 5 - Electrical Safety
• Chapter 6 - Worker Safety Rules
• Chapter 7 - Recordkeeping, Training and Inspections, Accident Investigation and Reporting
• Chapter 8 - Risk and Vulnerability Assessments
• Appendix A: Chemical Exposure Tables
• Appendix B: Forms
• Index