Electrical Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment

A&E Training Services is proud to offer an Electrical Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment training program to our comprehensive course portfolio.

Working with electricity is one of the most dangerous jobs in our industry. There are 600 to 800 electrical accidents in Canada every year – not to mention related deaths. To help reduce that number, the Canadian Standards Association has come out with a new standard that deals with electrical safety.

The Z462 and the NFPA 70E standard, Workplace Electrical Safety, applies to contractors and electrical workers, and provides guidance to employers on what qualifications are required for electrical work – and cautions against allowing non-qualified people inside hazard boundaries.

Electricity is toxic energy. It takes about 10 milliamps (mA) for your skin to start burning and blistering. At about 20 mA, your breathing becomes laboured and you can’t let go of the tool giving you the shock, while 75 mA will cause ventricular fibrillation, which is a rapid, irregular heartbeat that can cause death in minutes. Above that, you’ll suffer severe burns and muscular damage – a few amps will cause irreversible body damage. While human beings are only designed to handle 5 or 6 mA, the lowest over-current at which a typical fuse or circuit breaker opens a circuit is 15,000 mA.

New to our industry, but not so new to the use of electricity is the presence of an Arc Flash and Arc Blast during and electrical accident. This ever so dangerous event can cause temperatures surrounding the arc event to rise as high as 35,000 deg. F. Radiant heat energy can reach 6,000 deg. F and cause damage to unprotected workers many feet away from the arc flash. The blast pressures can reach dramatic levels that can cause immediate danger to live and health.

To be successful in our job or task we must perform a Hazard Assessment and Risk evaluation for every task, document the results and communicate through training. The standard provides a template for electrical safe work planning, and steps including, identification of all hazards, quantification of those hazards, selection of personal protective equipment and tooling based on the assessment, and documentation and communication through training.

This training program will focus on the requirements to perform a Hazard Assessment and Risk Analysis using the CSA Z462 and or the NFPA 70E Workplace Electrical Safety Standard as our guide and reference manual.

From this training session you will learn;

What is Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment
Who has the responsibility to perform the Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment
Hazard Identification Process
Risk Assessment Process
Initial Risk Estimation
Parameters used in Risk Estimation, (Severity, Frequency,Likelihood of Occurrence of Harm, Likelihood of Avoiding or Limiting Harm)
Risk Reduction Strategies
Risk Evaluation
Risk Reduction Verification
Documentation and Communication Process