Page 18 - Occupational Health & Safety, December 2017

PROTECTIVE APPAREL
Four Parties Affected by NFPA 70E Updates in 2018
The updated NFPA 70E can be explored through the lens of parties impacted. Through analyzing party responsibility, safety engineers and managers can make informed decisions to comply.
BY SCOTT FRANCIS
As an industry standard, NFPA 70E outlines elements of an electrical safety program to protect workers from high-risk electrical hazards they come into contact with, day in and day out. OSHA clearly states the “what,” that em- ployers shall protect their employees from electrical hazards, and NFPA 70E frames “how.”
Electricalworkersfaceanumberofhazards—arc flash hazards being one of the major ones—so NFPA 70E helps to foster safer environments for these work- ers. Through proper understanding and application, NFPA 70E helps to reduce the frequency and severity of such electrical hazards.
NFPA published the latest edition of NFPA 70E in September 2017. While many of the changes spe- cifically relate to employers, there are also updates
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impacting employees, contactors, and manufacturers and suppliers of PPE. It is critical to understand how the changes to NFPA 70E pertain to you.
At its core, the latest update reiterates and rein- forces the concept of an electrical safety program and highlights the importance of the hierarchy of risk controls. The 2018 edition continues to advo- cate implementation of safety-related programs and procedures and still mandates arc-rated cloth- ing and PPE when working energized. Working de-energized is still the clearest path toward hazard elimination. Energized work is an option only when it is either infeasible or when de-energizing creates additional hazards and risks.
It is worth noting that the process of de-energizing a system is energized work. Until the absence of volt-
18 Occupational Health & Safety | DECEMBER 2017
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