“In addition to proposing a $191,000 penalty for the Kansas City, Kan., facility, the Labor Department’s complaint asks the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission to order the Postal Service to correct electrical violations at all of its facilities nationwide.

The Postal Service responded that it has been working since January to correct many of the electrical safety issues.

“The plan provides for electrical risk assessments, training, personal protective equipment, enhanced safe electrical work practices and insulated tools,” the Postal Service said in a prepared statement.

The response already has included 123,000 hours of training for more than 20,000 maintenance employees and continuing distribution of more than $2 million in protective gear such as safety glasses, face shields and flame-resistant gloves, lab coats and coveralls.

The Labor Department said the complaint “marks the first time OSHA has sought enterprise-wide relief as a remedy.”

DOE is one of the toughest on electrical safety.  Bechtel has a good rep too.  Shows improvements can happen anywhere and that programs can slip when training slips. Click here to read the story about an arc flash in the Knoxville News Sentinel.

Wearing the right PPE is critical but other provisions to prevent arc flashes and lower incident energies in incidents are part of CSA Z462 and NFPA 70E.  These provisions prevent many of the incidents in the workplace. Click here to read the story of the arc flash fine in Canada at OH&S Insider.

More and more USPS facilities are being fined by OSHA.  These include many willful citations.  Inside sources claim the postal service making claim they are not covered by NFPA 70E but it is unlikely OSHA cited them on NFPA 70E. They usually recommend NFPA 70E for abatement of arc flash or electrical hazards but the [...]

The Associated Press FRANKFORT, Ky. — The Kentucky Public Service Commission has fined South Kentucky Rural Electric Cooperative in an accident that injured two contract workers.

The PSC assessed a fine of $9,250 dollars, saying RECC violated safety regulations in an August 2008 incident in Casey County.”

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 [...]

Following CSA Z462 will prevent most of these injuries and almost all the fines.  The standard came out in 2008 but many in Canada had been using the US, NFPA 70E before the Canadian version came out.  I’m a member of Z462 and a big supporter of the methodology to prevent injuries and fatalities.  Most [...]

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.  [...]

“An electrical contractor has been convicted and fined on Wednseday over an electrical accident involving a trainee.

In 2007, ICE Engineering and Construction Pty Ltd had engaged the then 17-year-old man as a trainee. Sometime around April of that year, the trainee was assigned to a local business to help with work on a circuit distribution board.

He was using an insulated copper to touch a circuit breaker’s live part when an arc flash resulted.

The young man was knocked to the ground and suffered burns to his neck, face, and arms.”

“OSHA said the company failed to label electrical equipment with voltage and other ratings information and failed to provide electrical safety training to employees.”