Electrical and Arc Flash Safety » OSHA Fines for Arc Flash Incident

December, 2003 AZ OSHA Cites City of Scottsdale, AZ for Arc Flash Incident

Hugh Hoagland — Fri, 28 May 2010 17:53:38 +0000

This is another older citation from December 2003 to show how OSHA has been incorporating NFPA 70E into the precedents. The HVAC worker was burned badly in an arc flash. No clothing ignition so the energy level was fairly low but I understand he received second and third degree burns on his arms.

Click Here to Read the ADOSH Citation of the City of Scottsdale, AZ for an arc flash of an HVAC Worker.

Share and Enjoy:

March 2000 OSHA fined Ford Hamburg, NY $57,125 for alleged serious & repeat violations. Two injured in arc flash.

Hugh Hoagland — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 17:27:05 +0000

This is an older story but a good one to see when OSHA started working to enforce more on electrical safety surrounding arc flash. Up until 2000, OSHA really only addressed arc flash in electric utilities. The 1994 law 29 CFR 1910.269 came out then and OSHA really started focusing on arc flash in utilities. The utilities really helped write much of the standard but the arc flash portion came from OSHA direct from testimony from ASTM’s Allen Bingham. Bingham (a personal friend) had been doing research while at Georga Power with Dupont’s Dr. Tom Neal (also a personal friend) at Duke Energy’s Challenger Lab with ASTM. Their results and Dupont history indicated that arc flashes often ignite clothing and cause burns of fatalities. Duke’s Alan Privette had done a lot of the research up until that point spurred by accident history and Ralph Lee’s paper on arc flash.

The 2000 version of NFPA 70E picked up clothing. In 1995 the main focus was on shock protection but the idea of arc flash boundary was introduced based on Ralph Lee’s 1982 paper. Ralph created a simple model adapted from an explosion model and assumed arc flash released mostly infrared radiation (partially true). This was seminal work that is still used in some circles today though it goes off quite a bit at higher voltages.

OSHA’s citations since 2000 have been mentioning NFPA 70E more and more in the abatement wording.

For the record. Ford Motor implemented safety changes to prevent these types of injuries. GM had been on the committee actively involved and Ford was partially represented by Drake Drobnick from the Visteon division. The Visteon program implemented after this accident was among one of the best we have seen. Drake now works with e-Hazard doing electrical safety training and consulting.

Click here to read the OSHA press release on this citation.

Click here to read the original citation in PDF.

http://bit.ly/aQDm1j

Share and Enjoy:

No arc flash or electrical safety training. MSHA cites Old Castle Materials subsidiary for electrical fatality of supervisor.

Hugh Hoagland — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 16:39:50 +0000

Another example of lack of training. Larger companies buy smaller companies but if they don’t assure the smaller companies have adequate training and policies in place they can have negative consequences.

Click here to read the MSHA report.

Share and Enjoy:

Company faces $88,200 in OSHA fines for 34kV arc flash May 18 on North Campus of the State University of New York at Buffalo, NY

Hugh Hoagland — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 21:39:30 +0000

Click here to read the story.

Share and Enjoy:

Electrical Safety Authority (ESA) for Ontario Canada releases its new Electrical Safety Report

Hugh Hoagland — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:48:20 +0000

I love to read this because Ontario has ONE authority over electrical safety and they have excellent stats. It is among the best in the world.

Click here to see all the linked reports.

Share and Enjoy:

What does OSHA ask in an audit on the subject of electrical, arc flash safety and training?

Hugh Hoagland — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 16:07:06 +0000

This article is written by J&B publishers who print for NFPA.

OSHA is making a real push on Electrical Safety.

Read the EH&S article…

Share and Enjoy:

Electrical Safe Work Practices part of OSHA Fine

Hugh Hoagland — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 02:08:47 +0000

Another OSHA fine based in part on electrical safe work practices.

Read the story…

Share and Enjoy: