Page 41 - IEC Insights Jan-Feb2019

The electrical worker has to recognize the floor there’s no electrical hazard. There Merriam Webster defines risk as the
electrical hazard and also know how to are other hazards you have to think possibility of loss or injury. NFPA 70E,
create an electrically safe work condition. about like getting cut on the box or on the other hand, defines risk as
The electrically safe work condition dropping the package on your toe and “a combination of the likelihood of
exists when the state of the electrical more but the electrical hazard is not occurrence of injury or damage to health
circuit parts have been disconnected there because there is no energization and the severity of injury or damage
from energized parts, locked/tagged in of the product. The electrical hazard to health that results from a hazard.”
accordance with established standards, becomes real once that product is
tested and verified to be absent of installed and connected to a source So 70E breaks risk into the combination
voltage and if necessary temporarily whether or not that source is turned of these two components:
grounded. When the proper steps are on or kept off, the potential is there. 1. “...likelihood of occurrence of
taken, the hazard can be mitigated. injury or damage to health...”

In my opinion we have to separate the 2. “...severity of injury or
hazard from the object. What I mean RISK damage to health...”
by that is that the exposed bus of a You may not realize it but these two
panelboard itself is not an electrical On the other side of this coin we have steps are taken a lot on a daily basis.
hazard. When you take a new panelboard the concept of risk. Here is where words In my opinion we process risk in our
or residential loadcenter out of the box like possibility, chance, and likelihood are subconscious where we identify the
in your office and set it on the table or used. In addition severity is considered. hazards, the likelihood of getting injured

www.ieci.org | January/February 2019 | Insights Magazine 39