Don’t Be Shocked: Enforcing & Maintaining NFPA 70E Compliancy

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The National Fire Protection Agency (NFPA) is a big deal when it comes to knowledge of electrical hazards and how big of a risk they present for potential fires. When successfully running any construction job or site, it’s important to comply with any and all regulations presented by the NFPA, as they apply to your situation.

In order to avoid injury or death by electrical shock, it’s imperative to comply with the 70E NFPA regulation, which outlines standards the industry should be routinely enforcing for preventing electrical shock in the workplace. Your employees will benefit greatly from an NFPA 70E training course, focusing on electricity hazards and the harm they can inflict. Continue reading to get a better understanding of how both your employees and business can benefit from an NFPA 70E compliant training course. 

Importance of NFPA 70E Training

Your employees will take away quite a bit of knowledge from a 70E training course and though not mandatory by law, they should be mandatory within your workplace. Complying with these standards will help your company and job sites to run on a whole new level of safety efficiency. Knowing your workers are educated in the prevention of electric shock brings peace of mind and fewer accidents.

  • Identify Electrical Hazards: By the end of a 70E compliant course, your employees will be able to identify electrical hazards and causes of electrical shock within the workplace without question. It’s necessary they recognize these hazards right away and on their own, because not every electrical danger comes with a warning sticker. Knowledge like this can save lives.
  • Cause Identification: Independently identifying the cause of electrical fires, shock and arc flashes (electrical explosions or discharges) commonly found with the use of machinery on construction and manufacturing sites is huge as this is a best practice for prevention-if workers can see a potential cause for an accident before it happens, they can create a safer environment to begin with.
  • Recognizing the Effects of Arc Flashes: On a biological level, arc flashes have great potential to do more damage than electrical shock. Typically, arc flashes are the result of human error or machinery malfunction, happening without warning. Injuries resulting from this vary and include severe burns, blindness, hearing loss, shrapnel injuries and poisonous gas inhalation.
  • Selecting Appropriate Protective Equipment: By identifying potential hazards of their work spaces, employees will be able to correctly select the protective equipment they should be wearing every day on the job. So often electrical injuries, especially to the face, are much worse than they would have been if correct protective gear had been worn in the first place.

Too many people are injured by electrical shock within manufacturing and construction companies annually. It’s important to the welfare of your employees and the reputation of your company standards suggested by the NFPA are taught and enforced.

Just a bit of knowledge can change the outcome of an electrical accident. It can be the difference between blindness and sight, or even life and death.

If you’re ready to brush your employees up on NFPA 70E, contact Construction Safety Experts today at (866) 463-0669 or (919) 463-0669!