#72 Electrical Safety: A Shockingly Fresh Take On Training, Programs & Inspections

We've all seen the boiler-plate electrical safe work practice & electrical awareness training.  This isn't that.  In this episode, we're challenging your program, what's covered in training, who gets training, and even your routine safety inspections to give you a fresh way to view electrical safety at your facility.  If this helped you, please support us by liking and sharing the episode and thank you for listening!  Full episode description below:

This episode dives deep into common electrical hazards overlooked during inspections and audits, highlighting critical gaps in personal protective equipment (PPE), voltmeter use, and general facility maintenance. By emphasizing real-world scenarios, the hosts discuss how to strengthen electrical safety programs through collaborative efforts with electricians, maintenance and utilities departments. The episode is packed with actionable advice and key insights for improving electrical safety.

Key Points:
1. Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Gaps:
 Improper use of arc flash clothing and untrained staff wearing non-rated clothing.
Specific Concerns: Workers rolling up sleeves, incorrectly washing arc flash clothing, and mismatches in PPE due to gaps in supply and policy oversight.

2. Voltmeter Training and Misuse:
Untrained or insufficiently trained personnel using voltmeters improperly, leading to dangerous arcing incidents.
Training Gaps: Inconsistent policies on who should use voltmeters and when they should check for power.

3. Environmental Hazards in Electrical Rooms:
Water and Corrosion: MCC rooms often have water ingress issues due to poor drainage, condensation, or wet cleanup areas.
Impact: Water and chemical exposure can cause equipment failures and create shock hazards.

4. Dust and Explosive Risks:
Dust accumulation near electrical equipment (e.g., mills, conveyor systems) increases fire risk from ignition sources such as motors, bearings etc.

5. Safety Program Ownership:
 Many safety programs are unclear and too vague or overly complex, with safety teams managing areas outside their expertise resulting in programs outlining processes the facility does not actually do.

6. Importance of Accurate Labeling:
Incorrect labeling of electrical panels and disconnects can lead to dangerous situations where hazard levels are misunderstood.

7. Collaborative Risk Assessments:
Engage electricians, maintenance staff, and safety teams in collaborative reviews and risk assessments tailored to specific locations.

Keywords:
Electrical safety hazards
PPE gaps in electrical work
Voltmeter safety training
Lockout/tagout electrical safety
Arc flash protection
MCC room maintenance
Electrical hazard inspections
Housekeeping for electrical safety
Dust explosion prevention
Industrial electrical safety program

This video is intended for educational purposes.  Solutions offered are not designed to take the place of an attorney or medical professional, and should not be taken as legal or medical advice.  It is recommended that viewers consult a safety consultant, medical provider or an occupational safety legal team as applicable to help navigate their specific circumstances.  

  Specific job tasks shown are being completed by trained professionals, and should not be attempted without proper training and equipment under the supervision of a professional.  Viewer discretion is advised.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
today's episode.
I think it's coming out aroundvalentine's day, so I'm just
doing my part okay, all theshock and all that's what I'm
going for with my todayelectrical hazards here we go,
that's the day welcome back,happy february yeah, electrical

(00:22):
hazards, electrical safety,whatever you want to call it was
.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
People ask about this , all right.
So first one is I'm wearing abeautiful art class shirt
Because the clothing's one ofthe biggest ones we see.
Clothing's one of the biggestones we see.
Or they want to wear this thickart class shirt, 100 degrees
and they never do electrical allday.

Speaker 1 (00:40):
Yep, then they have a heat stroke so you gotta look
at the ppe.

Speaker 2 (00:44):
I'm wearing a dry fit underneath the shirt okay did
you get promoted?
Again?
My dry fit.
We appreciate you, but thatdrive is not flesh rated.
And if you don't have thepullover or you don't have
something else, yeah, there'syour gaps.
So we start.
We're seeing more and more ppegaps.

Speaker 1 (01:01):
I'm just going there right quick and look at that, or
I'm just gonna walk to walk by.

Speaker 2 (01:04):
That's great.
I'm going to validate it, orwhatever.

Speaker 1 (01:06):
Yeah, evaluate what's going on, just check on things.

Speaker 2 (01:09):
You got to make sure the clothes are right.
We've also seen where peoplewill get issued art flash
clothing on a Monday becausethey're new.
All the other uniforms willtake two weeks, so they take
that one home every night andwhat if there's a special way
that it needs to be treated ornot treated?

Speaker 1 (01:23):
what can be used to clean it or not, but they're
doing job shadowing every day.

Speaker 2 (01:27):
People don't let to go work.
That's why they have the arcflash clothing.
So that's what's our kind ofweird one.
To start with, you got to watchyour pp yep and uh please
please.
Oh, why'd you roll yours up?
Because it's hot out today well, because I like cheetah okay uh
, but my policy for arc flashjust says you need to have it on
, yeah, so.
So how did you end up gettingburned?
You're wearing it, wearing arcflash.

(01:48):
I bought it.
I gave it to you because ourpolicy didn't say folded down.

Speaker 1 (01:51):
Maybe the gloves only go to here, yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:53):
Your policy didn't say folded down button.
Those are your quick PPE gaps.

Speaker 1 (01:57):
Absolutely Well, I've got more.
No idea what he's going tocover, so we'll see if he gets
all of them let's talk about uh,it's a voltmeter hazard for
electrical safety and me.
Yeah, we've been using it.

Speaker 2 (02:10):
Yeah, we've seen yeah , we've seen people do it right
in front of us yeah, I've hadtraining, I know what's going on
and I turn literally around tokeep managing the drill.

Speaker 1 (02:19):
I think they've got it and I'm gonna let them do
their role.
Something shiny happens likewell, that's not how you use
that.
That's not the.
It should not arc when you testfor power volt meter training.

Speaker 2 (02:32):
Yeah right, style, how to take for known source all
that kind of stuff?
You gotta have some training onit yeah, well, and so here's
the other.

Speaker 1 (02:39):
Let's just tie this in really quick with last week,
where we said trends right.
We said trends of procedureswere a gap lockout, specifically
.
A lot of times we'll say oh,you need to check for power, how
am I using?
A volt meter, and that's wherethis comes in.
We have folks that don't haveelectrical training using volt
meters because we are requiringthem to check for power and
there may not be another meansto do it.

Speaker 2 (02:59):
that not everything has a push button right, or or
our policy just says we're notsure when you got to use the
meter, I'm not sure when you gotto use the glove, or we don't
say anything, or we don't sayanything at all.
So you got to figure it out.
You got to.
Oh, is it under 50 volts or 50volts?
You shouldn't have to figurethat out.
To wear it, and who needs to betrained is something that we do
need to have, so that's anothergap because you could also say

(03:21):
well, I'm a machine operator, orI'm a utilities person, I'm a
refrigeration person.

Speaker 1 (03:26):
We only allow electricians to use volt meters.
That's great.
So am I just standing down?

Speaker 2 (03:31):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (03:32):
And what is that doing to my downtime and based
on how many electricians I haveto get to what, wherever that
person is, quickly?
Are we really just giving thema incentive to not lock out, not
check for power, which is notgreat when we talk about
specifically within our industryon the ag side and the meat

(03:54):
production side, where we washeverything down?

Speaker 2 (03:56):
Also there's another one Everything's wet,
everything's wet.
It seems like where we go.
So if it's, wet, it's fail.

Speaker 1 (04:03):
Stuff in there, kind of melts together and they have
been known to fail.

Speaker 2 (04:07):
Yeah, chemicals.

Speaker 1 (04:08):
You just eat them up.
They corrode.
Yeah, I mean we wash everythingdown on a meat plant floor with
corrosives every night.
But you think about how manyyou can say well, we know what,
we bag, it put back, we put bagson it and that's great.

Speaker 2 (04:21):
That does I think help a little bit, it still gets
condensation.

Speaker 1 (04:24):
It's condensation, Every.
Why are we wiping condensation?

Speaker 2 (04:28):
Put a chlorine puck in there and not worry about it.

Speaker 1 (04:30):
Oh, we could.

Speaker 2 (04:31):
That way it deteriorates.
That way it deteriorates and wehave issues sometimes with that
yes absolutely so it's a wet.
What's the next category?
So the wet is one.
We see a lot where people standin something and they'll have,
or they'll get wet and they godo a task.
Your clothing is wet, you'vegot to go change now.

Speaker 1 (04:48):
In the morning sweeping out with a squeegee out
of mcc rooms because correctthere's so much water all the
water came in and there was nolift all right.

Speaker 2 (04:56):
Another one is the mills.
You got to have a goodhousekeeping program.
I don't mean housekeeping likeit makes you feel good and we're
gonna clear once while.
I mean like a real one yeah so.

Speaker 1 (05:07):
So yeah, not everyone is required to have certain
levels.

Speaker 2 (05:15):
But you can have dust in a mill, you can have dust in
a farm, you can have dust in aspice room.
I mean there's a lot ofdifferent things you can have.
So housekeeping for theelectrical.

Speaker 1 (05:25):
So even if explosion proof stuff does not pertain to
you, there is still an increasedlikelihood when you have a lot
of dust particulates or productparticulates in the air right
that fires can occur, and thisis including anything even
that's outside, but theequipment is enclosed.

Speaker 2 (05:46):
So I'm thinking of like enclosed conveyors here
well, you can get stuff withbearing equipment that moves
product and it gets one littlehole in the guarding.
Now all that product piles uparound the motor, yeah, around
the shaft seals absolutely well,all right.
And then my last one here is um, is the program real?
See a lot of programs and we'relike it's real thin for

(06:08):
electrical with these massive,really thick, and no one really
knows what's in it.
You got to make the programwhat you can actually do and you
got to tell people hey, this iswhat our rules are here.

Speaker 1 (06:19):
Yeah, so this is going to make all the safety
people probably really excitedwhen, I say this, but AB
Electrical, you're just astakeholder in managing that
program.

Speaker 2 (06:27):
Let maintenance manage it.
Yeah, maybe it really theelectrician engineering
electrical department.

Speaker 1 (06:33):
It needs to lie with them.
If you have maintenance andutilities, maybe you're just a
stakeholder and you advise andsupport and you work together
with them, but you don't ownthat program, correct, and so
you kind of turn over some ofthat to them.
Now again, you want to workwith them, you want to make sure
it makes sense, you want tomake sure that they're getting

(06:53):
their gloves changed out and allof those inspections are
happening, but you don't have areally, really in-depth
understanding of the electricalsystem at your facility.
The electrical in general may bebetter and actually safer to
have that program live withsomeone else in terms of the
review and the update and makingsure that it's reflecting what

(07:14):
you're actually doing, as wellas current fpa 70 standards a
lot of people say we're notreally sure as to how our
contractor.

Speaker 2 (07:21):
There's nothing wrong with that.
We've seen failures with thecontractor side.
So when we talk about program,we mean like how you're going to
manage it there?
Yeah, what's your checks andbalances?

Speaker 1 (07:32):
Who is qualified, who's not qualified?
Who's getting training?
Who's getting the PPE?
What kind of PPE?
Where do they need to stand?
Who's even doing the labelingof the stickers in the MCC?
room that's correct and do theyhave a clue of what's going on?
I know a lot of locations wantto save money by doing that, but
if you don't have a qualifiedperson that really knows what's
going on doing that, it makes ithard to read those one lines.

(07:53):
They don't really know whatthey're looking at.
And now you've got stuff that'slabeled dangerous.
That's not.
And you've got stuff labeled asa cat zero that actually should
be labeled dangerous and it'sjust very chaotic and confusing.
Yeah, that's.

Speaker 2 (08:06):
That's not great either so electrical safety, a
little bit of arc flash, alittle bit of floors, a little
bit ppe, some volt.
You just gotta look at yourprogram.

Speaker 1 (08:13):
Yeah, you got to really take time overhaul,
because I think, that's one thata lot of safety folks it kind
of gets pushed over there likeyeah like we, that's not
necessarily most safety folkscore, you know, competency,
along with, like the psm side.
It's like the electrical andPSM stuff we're just going to
shove over here and kind ofright.
And so maybe just really sitdown with the, the other

(08:37):
affected people at your location.
Like I said, utilities, they'rethe experts, electricians,
they're the experts.
And together in a room.
Just sit down in a roomtogether and just work through
it.

Speaker 2 (08:46):
These are our opinions and just work through
it.
These are our opinions.

Speaker 1 (08:49):
These are our opinions.
Do a thorough risk assessmentof what makes sense to your
location.
These are our opinions, so takeit for what?
you want.
If you want more support, theevaluations I don't love the
word audit because it's notreally what we do and if you
want a safety audit, a safetyevaluation, some baseline
information on where you are,wwwhelen-safetycom is a great

(09:11):
resource.
We walk you through real lifesolutions that you can actually
do.
This is not going to be anevaluation sitting in an office.
We don't do that.
So all floor-based production,area-based, and then otherwise.
If person stuff's not in thebudget, this year head over to
allensafetycoachingcom.
Got over a hundred differentvideos for training over there.
That's a great resource and youalso get free email-based
coaching with Joe and I, sothat's a huge incentive.
So if you want some support buttight's not in the budget,

(09:35):
that's a great in-between tokind of help get you through.
And until next time.

Speaker 2 (09:39):
Thank you for being part of our channel.
Thank you, guys.

Speaker 1 (09:43):
We appreciate it.
So take care everybody.
Have a safe week and we'll seeyou next time.
Thank you for listening to Safe, efficient, profitable a worker
safety podcast.
If you're looking for morein-depth discussions or
step-by-step solutions on all ofthe different safety and
regulatory topics, please visitus at wwwallensafetycoachingcom
for web-based virtual coachingand training, or at

(10:05):
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