Improve Electrical Safety in the Plant Environment with a Prevention through Design Program
Workplace safety is always top priority on the job and in the plant environment, but even with this focus and mindset, accidents can still happen. That’s why it is important for leadership and managers to implement a proactive Prevention through Design (PtD) program to mitigate electrical safety hazards and protect workers in their plant.
Performing work without turning off power and verifying that a de-energized condition exists is a leading cause of electrical injuries. The Electrical Safety Foundation International statistics show that there were 2,210 nonfatal electrical injuries in 2017, an increase of 35% over 2016. Shocks accounted for 1,330 nonfatal electrical injuries, while burns accounted for 900. In a study of electrical burn patients, researchers found that none of the patients followed all appropriate safety measures. It has been estimated that finding a better way to verify the absence of voltage on low-voltage systems could lead to as much as a 20% reduction of electrical injuries in the workplace, which equates to nearly 10 fewer injuries per week in the U.S. alone.
Typically, the response to these accidents is to propose more safety training, but training alone is not enough. It is crucial to begin with design-first thinking to improve workplace electrical safety.
The Significance of Prevention through Design (PtD)
Prevention through Design (PtD), as a principle, is an achievable solution to improve worker health and safety. Designing to reduce hazards, before any electrical exposure happens in the workplace, should be a top priority for industry safety professionals. PtD includes all efforts to prevent injuries by reducing exposure to hazards primarily through design efforts rather than just administrative controls or personal protective equipment. It applies not only to products and equipment, but also processes and procedures used in the workplace.
It is a concept that is firmly taking hold within the safety and plant engineering community and efforts are being made to increase its adoption through inclusion in standards. Every manufacturing process has many inherent safety risks, so it’s important to identify and minimize potential hazards from the very beginning.
With PtD, new technologies and products reduce human exposure to hazards to achieve higher levels of safety, and it makes electrical infrastructure safer to anyone entering the facility for the duration of its lifecycle. Product development by way of PtD can also simultaneously increase productivity, as it limits worker exposure to electrical hazards during routine maintenance and work activity while making the process faster and less complicated.
How PtD Reduces Workplace Injuries
PtD begins with the process of identifying potential risks within a process or environment with the ultimate goal of eliminating that risk whenever possible. In cases where the elimination of the risk is impossible or impractical, substitution (replacing the hazard) or engineering controls (isolating people from the hazard) is the most effective means to reduce workplace Injuries. Several PtD product Innovations have been developed as a means of replacing or isolating people from the hazard such as permanently mounted voltage indicators, voltage portals, data access ports, infrared (IR) windows for thermal Inspection, and absence of voltage testers (AVTs).
The process of de-energizing and verifying equipment in an electrically safe work condition before beginning work can help prevent electrical incidents. AVTs are permanently-mounted testing devices specifically designed with this in mind. The first and only full-featured AVT to meet NFPA 70E 120.5 (7) Exception 1 is the Panduit VeriSafe AVT. The VeriSafe AVT determines if a circuit part is de-energized prior to opening panels or removing covers to access and maintain electrical equipment. AVTs help improve electrical safety by way of a PtD approach and are an ideal preventative option for maintenance and reliability professionals, their staff, and safety professionals.
Introducing Panduit Verisafe Absence of Voltage Tester (AVT)
It’s beneficial to examine whether voltage testing can be optimized using PtD methodology because of how frequently it’s done in the manufacturing workplace. Every safety manager’s top priority is to provide a workplace free from serious safety and health hazards and to ensure the workplace is fully in compliance with all applicable standards, rules, and regulations to maintain safety in their manufacturing facility. Safety managers today are challenging electrical infrastructure suppliers to create dependable methods of identifying and verifying de-energized electrical equipment, and new products like the Panduit VeriSafe AVT are improving electrical workers’ ability to safely verify electrical equipment is in a de-energized state.
Utilizing an AVT device not only simplifies the voltage verification test to validate the absence of voltage, but it also helps meet the standards for electrical safety in the workplace. With the use of an AVT, qualified personnel mitigate electrical hazard risks by performing an absence of voltage test before equipment is accessed. The single push of a button on the AVT negates the traditional use of hand-held test equipment for this process. The AVT not only reduces the risk of exposure to electrical hazards, but also reduces a time-consuming process to a reliable, single push-button action.