Page 14 - Occupational Health & Safety, June 2019

ELECTRICAL SAFETY
be operated until the tagout device is removed.”
Lockout/Tagout Training
Training is a component of any LOTO program because it helps provide the information and equipment teams need to begin im- plementing an effective program. When it comes to lockout/tagout training to adhere to NFPA 70E, three types of employees need to be covered:
■ Authorized Employees are responsible for implementing energy control procedures and performing the required servicing or maintenance. Training for Authorized Employees includes de- tails about the type and magnitude of the hazardous energy sources present at the facility and the methods for isolating and control- ling these energy sources. Authorized Employees also must receive training on machine-specific procedures.
■ Affected Employees operate equipment or work in an area in which an energy control procedure is being implemented. Af- fected employees are not themselves responsible for locking and tagging out, and they are not authorized to do so.
■ Other Employees include office or warehouse personnel who may work in an area where an energy control procedure is utilized.
The responsibilities of Affected and Other Employees are to recognize when energy control procedures are being implemented
and to understand the purpose of these procedures. They must not attempt to start up or use equipment that has been locked or tagged out and must relay all such requests to the Authorized Employee on duty.
OSHA states that employees need to be trained to ensure that they know, understand, and follow the applicable provisions of the hazardous energy control procedures. The training must cover at least three areas: aspects of the employer’s energy control program; elements of the energy control procedure relevant to the employee’s duties or assignment; and the various requirements of the OSHA standards related to lockout/tagout.
Retraining is required when jobs, machinery, or energy control procedures change or inspection reveals program inadequacies. There are consultants and companies that offer LOTO training that help employers comply with OSHA requirements.
Unfortunately, lockout/tagout standards do not cover longshor- ing, construction, or agriculture. OSHA states that adequate training would be difficult for transient, short-term workers often employed in these settings. Additionally, energy control procedures might vary widely from one work site to the next, and a construction worker could be employed at several sites in a single year. And main- tenance work on construction equipment requires the potentially hazardous positioning of buckets, blades, and vehicle body parts— safety issues beyond the scope of general industry energy control.
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