ESW Spring Issue Publisher’s Note

April 22, 2021|Electrical Safety Month, News & Headlines

It’s May―which means its National Electrical Safety Month. To commemorate the occasion, we compiled a brief reference guide from the NPFA to help you stay up to date with all the latest information and resources, to reduce the number of electrically related fires, fatalities, injuries, and property loss.

Get up to speed with changes to NFPA 70E®, Standard for Electrical Safety in the Workplace®, with real-time classroom training in an all-digital environment. The 2021 NFPA 70E Live Virtual Training (LVT) delivers a convenient and effective way to learn to identify, understand, and implement changes to the standard. This engaging, web-based program not only provides quality instruction on each change but also breaks down why edits, revisions, and additions were made and, most importantly, how the change might affect you in your work.
OSHA requires employers to provide their employees with a working environment that is free from known and recognized hazards. For the electrical world, an employer must develop an electrical safety program. In Derek Vigstol’s NFPA blog, “Saving Lives by Following the Law and Electrical Safety Program,” he discusses the basic principles of an Electrical Safety Program.
Go by the book without the book. Introducing NFPA LiNK™, providing digital access to NFPA codes and standards, at your fingertips.
Across the world, dozens of people each day suffer injuries from electrical hazards such as shocks and arc flashes. Survivors of these incidents list a range of devastating symptoms, from burns and chronic pain, to insomnia, muscle spasms, depression, and various other mental health issues. Many of the full effects of these injuries are still not fully understood. On a recent episode of the NFPA Podcast entitled “The Mysteries of Electrical Injuries” an NFPA electrical expert speaks with three renowned doctors from the Chicago Electrical Trauma Rehabilitation Institute about what a powerful shock can do to the human body, the treatments available, and how our understanding of these injuries is evolving.
Download the NFPA 70E Fact Sheet for a general overview of how the NFPA 70E®, Standard for Electrical Safety in the Workplace®, is a critical document to help provide a working area for employees that is safe from unacceptable risk associated with the use of electricity in the workplace.
The latest NFPA 70B fact sheet available for download, provides a general overview of the purpose of NFPA 70B “Recommended Practice for Electrical Equipment Maintenance”, which is to provide guidelines for creating an effective electrical preventive maintenance (EPM) program. NFPA 70B details what an effective EPM program consists of, why it is necessary, and how to develop a program that implements viable safety measures and maintenance methods.
Check out the blog, “Electrical “Cycle of Safety” Keeps People and Property Protected in an Electrical World” which highlights how the NFPA is steadfast in providing codes and standards such as NFPA 70®, National Electrical Code® (NEC®), NFPA 70B®, Recommended Practice for Electrical Equipment Maintenance®, and NFPA 70E®, Standard for Electrical Safety in the Workplace® and how these NFPA documents are dependent on one another as well to ensure an electrical “Cycle of Safety.”
Adopted in all 50 states, the National Electrical Code (NEC) from the NFPA, is the benchmark for safe electrical design, installation, and inspection to protect people and property from electrical hazards. Stay connected and up to date with the NEC by following the NEC Facebook Page, where you will find ongoing posts and weekly Facebook Live events.