Electrical Association

The Best Gift We Can Give our Families is “Safety Education”

Written by John Kuntz

Since New Years is the traditional time for setting and renewing important goals, it seemed like a good time to share what Joe Gatewood, one of MEA's excellent trainers, said at a recent code class:

"Electricity does not have respect for us. It will hurt us if we do not have the discipline to assure our safety. The discipline of following safe work practices and using personal protective equipment consistently is what will bring us home to our families at the end of the day."

NEC...Contractors know that the NEC is the minimum standard for safeguarding people and property from the hazards arising from the use of electricity. As contractors, we regularly go beyond those minimum standards as the circumstances warrant in order to provide safe and secure installations for customers. While we know the importance of NEC training, it is interesting to see that the NEC refers to its sister standard, the NFPA 70E, when talking about competent persons.

NFPA 70E...The newest edition does the best job yet of clearly presenting the requirements for what contractors and companies need:

• to cover and document when providing electrical safety training/programs;
• to know to determine what Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to use for specific tasks;
• to identify hazards and determine the safest practices required for that work
• and much more.

Included are requirements about how to keep electricians safe from arc flash and other hazards when working with panel boxes, switch gear and more. OSHA and the courts look to the NFPA 70E for guidance when determining standard industry practice so it is important that electrical contractors implement training on the many changes in the newest edition. MEA has the new NFPA 70E for sale and is working with MN OSHA Consulting to bring training to electrical contractors throughout Minnesota.

AWAIR...stands for A Workplace Accident & Industry Reduction program. MEA and the safety experts at Federated Insurance have tools to help you update your AWAIR program regularly and train employees.

MN OSHA Consulting...Jim Collins and his team of consultants (Andy Smoka, Bob Durkee and others) do an excellent job of providing free training when you gather a minimum number of attendees on topics like OSHA 10-hour, NFPA 70E and more. You can call them directly or work through the MEA staff.

Thank you to Jim Collins and Andy Smoka of MN OSHA Consulting...for joining with MEA in an innovative partnership in 1994 that brought AWAIR training to hundreds of electrical contractors throughout Minnesota with excellent safety results.

(See page 3 for an article reprinted from the front page of CEE NEWS). It was one of the first such partnering programs in the United States, and we are fortunate to have such visionary people at this agency.

If you have an accident, the consequences are stiff in terms of human suffering and penalties. Please make sure you take advantage of the training, tools and information made available by OSHA Consulting, MEA, and others.

Have a successful and happy 2009.