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productivity, and during the rehiring and retraining of

new employees. So, how can you keep your employees
safe? Lets take a look at a few diferent methods for
doing just that.
Arc Flash Safety and Prevention
Labeling Equipment: Labeling equipment is an
important step in arc fash safety and prevention. When
equipment is properly labeled, employees are aware
of the possible hazards of using the equipment or just
simply being around equipment which could pose a
risk for an arc fash. An industrial label maker (such
as this one) can make the job of creating labels easy,
efcient, and even fun. An Industrial label maker can
print heavy duty industrial strength labels which are
capable of withstanding the harsh environments within
the industrial work settings. Tese types of labels help
to enhance overall safety and communication when
it comes to protecting your employees.
Elimination/Substitution: One
one of the best ways of tackling
electrical risks is by removing them
altogether. Tis can seem tricky, but,
given some thought, you may be able to use it in
your own business. Elimination involves fnding places
in your operations where workers are unnecessarily
exposed to risk. For example, look at the time of day
that certain energized electrical systems need to be
running, can they be turned of during worker shifs?
Can processes be conducted in cycles so that workers
dont need to be around when components are on/
running? Perhaps a risk is created by an old piece of
equipment. In this case, upgrading it to a newer, safer
model might be expensive in the short term, but an
extremely smart long term investment. Taking a current
system and ensuring that it has proper grounding can
also help to make sure it wont arc and become a safety
a hazard.
Testing/Inspection: Of course, even knowing which
components present arcing risks in the frst place can be
a challenge on its own. Luckily, the NFPA, or National
Fire Protection Association, provides guidelines
Arc Flash
Explosions &
Prevention
Most commonly, the hazards we associate with
electricity and exposed electrical equipment are those
due to direct contact. In these cases, a worker might
accidentally touch an uninsulated wire or piece of
electrical equipment, and momentarily become a
conductor themselves. Severe burns and arrhythmia
or stoppage of the heart can occur. What most people
dont know, however, is that another type of fairly
common electrical hazard exists, known as an arc
fash. In short, arc fashes are
exposed fashes or bolts of
electricity that occur when two
energized systems overcome
the resistance between them;
electricity then visibly arcs
between the two components, not
only burning the air between them
but causing an electrical explosion
upon termination of the arc (which
happens extremely quickly). Tese explosions can
cause heats burns, lob dangerous molten droplets a
considerable distance, and damage equipment beyond
the point of no repair.
Startlingly, these arc fash explosions occur a reported
fve to ten times each and every day in the U.S.
Unfortunately, these numbers mask the real risk factor
of such conditions, as they are reported via special burn
unit hospitals when an electrical arc explosion is the
cause of injury or death. Other incidents, where injuries
are less severe, where only equipment is damaged,
or where a close-call/near miss occurs, are not even
reported. Tis is all to say that arc fash explosions are
a very real and very serious problem; they can result in
lost time and wages (only partially covered by workers
compensation), disability and inability to reintegrate
into the workforce, as well as exorbitant costs on
the part of the employer during lawsuits, for lost
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on exactly how one can go about assessing the risk
associated with any piece of energized equipment.
Not-so-luckily, the process involves some semi-complex
equation work that could potentially be intimidating
to the layperson. If youre not confdent in your ability
to accurately conduct this assessment, you need to hire
a risk assessment organization who can do it for you
(many of them exist and even specialize in electrical
hazards). Te results of this analysis will give your
various systems a category number, each of which
has diferent requirements (usually dictating a certain
associated PPE outft).
In addition to initial assessment, regular inspections
of your systems are vital. Worn insulation and parts
are a leading cause of arc fash explosions and fres,
so make sure that all parts are up to their respective
tasks. Additionally, your maintenance workers should
be specifcally trained to inspect energized electrical
equipment, and all such systems should be completely
powered down and grounded before inspection, or the
inspectors themselves may be put at risk.
Personal Protection Equipment
According to OSHAs document on Understanding
Arc Flash:
But wait! What if an employee isnt wearing his or her
PPE?! you might protest. Tis happens all the time, and
is still, ultimately, your responsibility. While you cant
control individual behavior in the moment, properly
encouraging compliance and working around any mental
or physical hangups that are causing employees to not
wear their PPE falls on you. Your training programs need
to make the importance of safety with regards to arc
fash explosions clear to your employees. Additionally,
if gear is not being worn, you should engage employees
as to why its happening. I forgot, is only an acceptable
excuse a few times before managers should take punitive
action this keeps the situation in your control. When
other answers arise, you might fnd underlying problems
(like gear not ftting right, or gloves inhibiting a
workers ability to perform a task), in which case, again,
youre responsible for addressing these in a timely and
efective manner. Even tasks which workers are the ones
conducting on the ground level, inspecting their own
PPE for defects, for example, should be double-checked
at regular intervals by management to ensure you
maintain control of the process and that no corners are
being cut.
As a brief guide, arch fash PPE equipment (which you
kind fnd here) for various NFPA arc fash electrical risk
levels are fairly straight forward. Lower risk categories
simply require a full body bufer of cotton clothing,
while higher risk categories require users to wear rubber
insulated clothing and fre-resistant pants, shirts, overalls,
and face masks.
Employees must follow the
requirements of the Arc Flash
Hazard label by wearing the
proper personal protective
equipment (PPE), use of
insulated tools and other
safety related precautions. This
includes not working on or
near the circuit unless you are
a qualifed worker.
www.osha.gov - Understanding Arc Flash
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About the author
Antonio Ferraro
On behalf of Creative
Safety Supply based
in Portland, OR,
I strive to provide
helpful information
to create safer and
more efcient industrial
work environments. My
knowledge base focuses
primarily on practices such as 5S, Six Sigma,
Kaizen, and the Lean mindset. I believe in being
proactive and that for positive change to happen,
we must be willing to be transparent and actively
seek out areas in need of improvement. An
organized, safe, and well-planned work space leads
to increased productivity, quality products and
happier workplace
Keep Out!
One of the best ways to keep workers out of harms
way is to keep workers out of harms way literally.
Electrical panels and equipment that are exposed should
be housed behind locked frames. Larger transformers
that dont necessitate regular worker access should be
locked behind chain link fences to ensure employees
dont accidentally get too close. Work tasks should be
structured in such a way that workers are at risk or near
energized equipment for as little time as possible, if at
all. Make sure you label all of these panels, gates/fences,
and any arc fash risks with proper warning signs and
labels that identify them and advise workers to keep their
distance.
Afer youve taken these action steps, look to training
and employee education to further your electrical safety
program. Even when its your responsibility, the success
of any safety program or element thereof comes down to
your employees and how responsive they are to what you
teach and ask of them. Keep that in mind, and you wont
ever fnd your business or your workers represented on a
chart of arc fash explosion statistics!
10 Astonishing Facts about Arc Flash
Sources: NFPA 70E - 2012 Edition, Rockwell Automation (www.rockwellautomation.com), Falcon Engineering Consultants (www.falconengr.com)
AMAZING FACTS ABOUT
ARC FLASH
ASTONISHING
An Arc Flash is an energy discharge that forms when a fault occurs in an electrical circuit. The arcing
fault results in a tremendous amount of energy released as current fowing through ionized air. It is
not necessary to touch live components to sustain an arc fash injury. Arc Flash is NOT SHOCK.
5 10
to
ARC EXPLOSIONS occur in
electric equipment in the U.S.
EVERY DAY.
+
2000
people
M
o
re
t
h
a
n
are treated
ANNUALLY in BURN CENTERS
with ARC FLASH INJURIES.
x100
DEATHS
ARC FLASH
Electrical arcs produce some of the HIGHEST TEMPERATURES
the temperature of the
SURFACE OF THE SUN!
35,000F
9,000F
which is
known to occur on EARTH. Up to
4X
4X
HOTTER
All known materials are at this temperature,
VAPORIZED
SUDDEN EXPANSION OF AIR.
Arcs spray DROPLETS OF MOLTEN METAL at speeds that exceed
which causes a
BLAST SHRAPNEL CAN
PENETRATE THE BODY
2
1
3
4
5
6
700 mph
10 ft Molten metal from an arc can be propelled for distances up to
7
8
FATAL BURNS
Clothing can be ignited from 10 FEET away. Clothed
areas can be burned more severely than exposed skin.
Even when several feet from the arc,
can occur.
Blast pressure waves have THROWN WORKERS across rooms.
The arc blast can have a SOUND MAGNITUDE
at a distance of 2 feet from the arc,
resulting in HEARING LOSS.
140dB of
What?
9
10
can be caused by something as simple as a RODENT, tool or other element
in the breaker area that compromises the distance between
ENERGIZED COMPONENTS.
ARC FLASH
electrical injuries are a result of
INAPPROPRIATE ACTION
of a WORKER.
2 3
out of
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As your ARC FLASH LABELING EXPERTS, we have all the tools you need to properly label equipment
for Arc Flash Hazard. We also carry Lockout/Tagout products and PPE. Take the proper precautions,
be standards compliant, and reduce the risks of injury and death. We are the leaders in visual safety!
each year. *
* The actual number of deaths due to arc fash is not reported well. What IS known, is that deaths
from Arc Flash incident have been steadily on the decline due to safety training, regulations, PPE
and PROPER LABELING of equipment.
causes numerous