Page 48 - OHS, June 2020

ELECTRICAL SAFETY
The Dog That Didn’t Bark
Essential workers’ hazards when it comes to working in a pandemic.
BY MIKE ENRIGHT
Many people have heard of the famous Sherlock Holmes mystery about the “dog that didn’t bark.” It’s a short story from 1892 called “Silver Blaze” and it’s about
the disappearance of a famous racehorse and the mur- der of the trainer. Holmes solves the mystery, in part, by recognizing that no one interviewed remembered hearing a barking watchdog during the night. The fact that the dog did not bark when you would expect it to led Holmes to the conclusion that the criminal was someone the dog recognized. Holmes drew a conclu- sion from a fact (barking) that did not occur, which can be referred to as a “fact, absent from the record.”
This classic story reminds me of how the Coronavirus pandemic has caused people to finally see another “fact, absent from the record,” which is who the hidden heroes of the world are: our essential workers. Our lives would quickly start to unravel without essential workers like nurses, doctors, military, police, paramedics and fire fighters. There is no question that electrical workers are also part of this core group of essential workers.
The pictures and videos of healthcare workers putting their lives at risk to care for people who have contracted the COVID-19 virus are amazing, and millions of people around the world have expressed their appreciation to these heroes. We’ve also seen many other types of essential workers continue to face this threat head-on by going to work every day to make sure our food supply, medicine and, yes, even our toilet paper continues to flow into stores throughout the country.
Recognizing All Essential Workers
However, there is another important “fact, absent from the record” that I wanted to briefly cover. There’s no question that Americans take electricity for granted and, much like the dog that didn’t bark, if the lights turn on when they’re supposed to, it goes largely unnoticed. As an example of this, I doubt many people have noticed that there haven’t been any major electrical outages during this pandemic. I also don’t think many people realize the tremendous problems that would be caused if our electrical sup- ply suddenly stopped.
Can you imagine if every electrician in a city con- tracted the virus and couldn’t work? What would hap- pen to that city? Yet, unsurprisingly, most people don’t even think of it, nor do we thank the people respon- sible for keeping the lights on.
Today, in addition to facing the common “every-
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day threat” of electrical arc flash and shock hazards, they also must face this new threat from a potentially deadly virus. They do all this important work quiet- ly, so all of the other essential workers can see what they’re doing and rely on life-saving medical equip- ment to operate properly when it’s called upon. With- out a doubt, these essential electrical workers are also in the hero category.
Electrical Safety PPE Hazards
A few years ago, I did some traveling throughout the states to learn more about the pain points associated with electrical PPE. I was surprised by how many of these workers were required to share electrical PPE suits, hoods and gloves. It would be unfathomable to think of a nurse taking off their personal medical PPE at the end of the day, put it in a gear bag overnight— without washing or disinfecting—and then have a different nurse open the bag and don the same PPE the next day. Surprisingly, this is what is exactly what’s happening in the electrical PPE world.
The COVID-19 pandemic is putting this question- able practice under scrutiny, and most people agree that it needs to change—for good. Many safety profes- sionals this past month have asked for guidance on how to properly clean and disinfect electrical PPE, so it can be issued to a different user without the risk of uninten- tionally transferring the virus. The CDC has provided some helpful guidelines on how cleaning and disinfect- ing can be effective in removing the COVID-19 virus.
This is good news; however, it would take a mi- nor miracle for a company to effectively manage a program that requires all of the PPE to be thoroughly washed and disinfected before every use. Someone would have to be responsible to pull them out of the service, dismantle the face shields from the hoods, wash the fabric portion of the suits and hoods in laundry machines while manually cleaning the face shields and other hard surfaces with soap and wa- ter. They would also have to use disinfectant wipes to make sure the PPE storage bag is properly disin- fected. Obviously, the easiest and preferred practice is to issue each electrical worker with their own per- sonal electrical PPE kit. While the PPE should still be washed, it would be for hygienic and odor reasons, not to protect people from contracting deadly viruses. We asked dozens of safety professionals how, when and why this practice of sharing electrical PPE started in the first place. The short answer is after the NFPA 70E standard was updated in 2000, companies wanted to provide their workers with the proper electrical