Tag: Safety Management

Voice of Experience: Why Did I Do That?

Written by Danny Raines, CUSP on February 18, 2014. Posted in Safety Management.

I have often wondered why people – myself included – do the things they do. If you have ever investigated an accident or been the first one on the scene, you know it does not take much more than a quick glance to identify the most obvious contributing factors that led to the situation. The questions asked always lead to the causal factors, and you have to dig really deep to identify the root cause, but these things still don’t fully explain why the accident occurred. A 10-year NIOSH study of utility workers has indicated a disturbing trend – the failure of workers to follow training and the...

2013 USOLN Safety Award Winners Announced

Written by Kate Wade on December 20, 2013. Posted in Safety Management, Leadership Development.

During the iP Utility Safety Conference & Expo held earlier this year in Louisville, Ky., representatives from the Utility Safety & Ops Leadership Network presented the 2013 John McRae Safety Leadership Award to Jim Vaughn, CUSP, and the 2013 Carolyn Alkire Safety Advocate Award to Michael Getman, CUSP. The John McRae Safety Leadership Award was created to honor John McRae, a fourth-generation lineman who enjoyed an inspiring 42-year career before passing away on July 27, 2010. He was active in the military reserves for nearly 30 years and instrumental in establishing the...

What OSHA’s Proposed Silica Rule Means to You

Written by Matt Edmonds, CUSP, CHST, CET on December 20, 2013. Posted in Safety Management, Worksite Safety.

Airborne crystalline silica has long been discussed as a health hazard in the workplace. When inhaled, very small crystalline silica particles referred to as “respirable” particles are known to cause silicosis, a fatal lung disease, as well as other respiratory-related diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and lung cancer. Exposure to respirable particles can occur anytime dust is produced by cutting, grinding, drilling, sanding or crushing materials such as stone, rock, concrete, brick or blocks. It should be understood, however, that being in an area where...

The Power of an Effective Field Observation Program

Written by Lee Marchessault, CUSP on December 20, 2013. Posted in Safety Management.

Electric utilities are among the most hazardous industries in which to work. This was recognized in the early days of electric power distribution when extremely high fatality rates occurred. Since those days, utilities have examined injuries and fatalities to learn how to prevent others. The examination process has included analyzing possible hazards, mitigating the identified hazards to a safe level of acceptable risk, creating policies and procedures, developing and providing protective equipment, and making the workplace as safe as it can be … or has it? Unless we make a conscious...

Voice of Experience: The Globally Harmonized System is Here

Written by Danny Raines, CUSP on December 20, 2013. Posted in Safety Management.

Creating one global standard to classify and label hazardous chemicals has been a topic of international negotiations since the process began in Brazil in 1992. Now, the long-awaited and much-discussed Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labeling of Chemicals (GHS) is beginning to appear in the American workplace. December 1, 2013, was the deadline for the initial required employee training about the changes the GHS will bring to OSHA’s Hazard Communication Standard (HCS), which is used to ensure chemical safety in the workplace. The GHS will affect current HCS labeling...

Safety Management During Change

Written by Claudia Hendricks on September 19, 2013. Posted in Safety Management.

Safety champions Louisville Gas and Electric and Kentucky Utilities companies have created a culture of safety excellence with consistently low injury rates and hundreds of national and international awards to their employees’ credit. A key factor in LG&E and KU’s success has been a top-led, employee-driven approach to safety, which includes a concentrated effort to identify hazards and issues and proactively address them before they become injuries. Safety professionals know that even the most exemplary performance can turn upside down in a split second due to any number of factors....

Transitioning to FR Clothing

Written by Jim Boyd, CUSP on September 19, 2013. Posted in Safety Management.

Since Tacoma Power’s creation in the 1890s, its employees have worked on or around energized conductors and have been exposed to the hazards of electrical arcs and flames. For most of that time, electrical workers wore natural fiber clothing to reduce the risk of injury if involved in a situation that could result in an arc flash. Injuries from burning clothing can lead to permanent disabilities and death. The utility launched a project in 2009 to transition to protective clothing that would provide an even greater level of protection. Flame-resistant (FR) clothing promised a much higher...

Train the Trainer 101: Why You Need More than 1910 and 1926

Written by Jim Vaughn, CUSP on September 19, 2013. Posted in Safety Management.

OSHA, like MSHA, publishes regulations for the employer to follow to promote safety in the workplace. The methodology of the regulations is to establish performance goals. Regulations do not establish procedures according to OSHA, even though they may occasionally require certain actions. One example is requiring barricades and equipotential mats at grounded equipment to protect workers from voltage gradients. When I teach about OSHA, I like to demonstrate the difference between rule and procedure using rule 29 CFR 1910.23(e)(3)(v) regarding guardrails. Where guardrails are required, they...

Ergonomics for Lineworkers

Written by Steve Hedden, CUSP on August 19, 2013. Posted in Safety Management, Worksite Safety.

I am not an ergonomics expert. I am, however, a former lineman now in my 50s, experiencing aches and pains from many years of working in the field. I became interested in how ergonomics – the field of study that fits the job to the worker rather than the worker to the job – could improve line work after reading an article that explained how We Energies, an electric service provider headquartered in Milwaukee, had conducted a study in conjunction with the Electric Power Research Institute and Marquette University to determine why their employees were suffering so many hand, shoulder, knee...

Train the Trainer 101: Live-Line Tool Maintenance Program

Written by Jim Vaughn, CUSP on August 19, 2013. Posted in Safety Management.

Around 2009, a hot-line crew working in the Southwest had a transmission phase suspended under a hot stick while replacing a suspension string. The observer on the ground was the first to spot it. The crew was warned and looked up to see their rated hot stick smoking, all the more urgent because at the time they had no safe place to land the phase. The day was freezing and windy, not uncommon for that part of the Southwest. The wind was picking up dust and then mixing with sleet. The sleet started to adhere to the stick, creating a path to the steel crane line. Thinking quickly, the crew...

The Authority to Stop Work

Written by Bart Castle on June 21, 2013. Posted in Safety Management.

Since its founding in 1984 as an electric utility contractor company, co-founder Steve Standish has always considered Standard Utility Construction an organization concerned about safety. Specifically, Standard responded to a fatality in 2003 by developing formal safety processes and documents. These included assigning employees to full-time safety-related work; increased emphasis and time devoted to safety meetings and incident response; deepened training and even more extensive use of appropriate PPE, often before an item was formally required by regulation; working toward formal OSHA...

Foundation Drilling Safety: The Aldridge Electric Story of Success

Written by Gary Coleman, CHST, CSP, CUSP, OHST, STSC on June 21, 2013. Posted in Safety Management.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, between 4,500 and 5,000 people are killed in the U.S. workforce each year. Approximately 20 percent of those workplace fatalities are in the construction industry. According to OSHA, the four leading hazards that contribute to fatal injuries in construction are falls, electrocution, struck by object and caught-in/between. In construction, especially in drilled shaft foundations, these four hazards are present each and every day. It could be argued that drilled shaft foundations are potentially one of the most hazardous types of construction work...

Voice of Experience: Training for the Qualified Employee

Written by Danny Raines, CUSP on June 21, 2013. Posted in Safety Management, Voice of Experience.

Training is required by OSHA and all employees should follow proper training, but the unfortunate truth is that doesn’t always happen, resulting in accidents, contacts and fatalities. OSHA is very specific about defining what qualifies employees to work on and near energized conductors and equipment energized at greater than 50 volts. To be qualified to work on systems considered primary voltages greater than 600 volts, the mandated training is markedly more intense because of the requirements for such things as knowledge of component specialization, procedures such as insulate or...

Voice of Experience: The Cost of Business

Written by Danny Raines, CUSP on April 29, 2013. Posted in Safety Management, Voice of Experience.

Sadly, accidents in our industry continually occur even though they are avoidable. I have spent the better part of 46 years teaching safe work practices, rules and regulations in an effort to prevent accidents from happening. However, in all the time I spent on the job, from my start as a helper on a line crew until I was promoted to line crew supervisor, I never really considered the costs of injuries or property damage. Due to the culture of the industry, the costs were seen as just part of doing business. In this article, I want to take a few minutes to share with you the costs of...

Train the Trainer 101: Arc Hazard Protection

Written by Jim Vaughn, CUSP on February 18, 2013. Posted in Safety Management.

You have read and heard about all of the related standards for arc flash protection and you still don’t have a program or even a plan for a program, right? In this installment of “Train the Trainer 101,” I will sift through the rules so you can begin a practical approach to creating an effective and compliant program. Obviously, we want to protect employees and well-developed programs accomplish that, but this article primarily focuses on the administrative side of compliance. The BasicsArc flash is a recognized hazard and as an employer, you must evaluate the risk and respond...

Voice of Experience: The Definition of Personal Protective Equipment

Written by Danny Raines, CUSP on February 18, 2013. Posted in Safety Management, Voice of Experience.

I can remember a day when I would ask employees to name the five topics of a job briefing and why personal protective equipment (PPE) is the fifth point on the list of topics. Since the second part of the question was always a greater challenge for everyone to understand, I’d like to take some time to discuss the differences between protective equipment and PPE. Employees sometimes consider PPE to be system safety grounds, cover-up equipment, traffic vests and other equipment. As you can see in the excerpt below, 29 CFR 1910 Subpart I defines and identifies PPE as well as the body parts...

Are You Prepared for the Next Generation of Lineworkers?

Written by Emily Wilkins, CSA, CUSP, and Ryan Schenk on December 13, 2012. Posted in Safety Management.

The next generation of lineworkers is beginning to step in to fill the shoes of retiring baby boomers and most utilities haven’t even begun to think about what it’s going to take to train and educate these new apprentices. Is your company prepared for the next generation? This article offers suggestions for the training planner to consider as you prepare your updated training plan. Strategic PlanningYour organization needs a plan that identifies training goals and the steps that will be taken toward accomplishing those goals. Developing the training plan is usually best accomplished using a...

Voice of Experience: Are You Ready for the Big Storm?

Written by Danny Raines, CUSP on December 13, 2012. Posted in Safety Management, Voice of Experience.

Now that Superstorm Sandy is over, there are fewer news stories about the destruction left in her wake and more media coverage of other topics. That is the nature of the news, but the truth is that Sandy cleanup will take months to complete. Many homeowners now have to cope with the new normal; their lives have been forever changed by the storm. When looking back on Sandy from a utility perspective – when you are scrutinizing what went well, what didn’t and the lessons learned – please consider the following points. Utility systems, neighborhoods and lives take years to build, and they can...

Raising the Bar, Lowering the EMR

Written by Jesse Hardy, CSP, CIT, CUSP on October 11, 2012. Posted in Safety Management.

Today, many contracting companies in the maintenance and construction industries are facing mounting pressure from utility owners to rethink their health, safety and environmental (HSE) cultures and work practices, which in turn can lower their common HSE indicators. Those companies that fail to meet client demands often find themselves excluded from bid lists while they search for a catalyst of cultural change. In this article, we will explore how Supreme Industries – a contracting company that specializes in right-of-way (ROW) clearing, environmental and sedimentation controls, access...

Voice of Experience: FMCSR Compliance: Driver Qualification Files

Written by Danny Raines, CUSP on October 11, 2012. Posted in Safety Management, Voice of Experience.

As I travel around the country to audit driver qualification files, I often find that requirements found in the federal motor carrier safety regulations (FMCSR) are misunderstood by many companies. In this article I will focus solely on driver qualification files and the most common FMCSR compliance failures I see when I audit those files. Regulation 49 CFR 391.11 requires that a person must be qualified before he or she may drive a commercial motor vehicle (CMV). A CMV as defined in 49 CFR 390.5 is a vehicle, or the combination of a vehicle and towed unit, weighing 10,001 pounds or...

Performance Improvement: Barriers to Events

Written by Kathy Ellsworth, CUSP on August 8, 2012. Posted in Safety Management.

For anyone who has worked toward improving the safety performance of an organization, you are consistently led back to the fact that people keep making errors. If we could just stop people from making mistakes, we wouldn’t have all these accidents, right? Right. It’s true. If people didn’t make mistakes, we would have far fewer accidents and events. What is also true is that people are fallible, people make mistakes, and people will continue to make mistakes regardless of how much we wring our hands and tell them to be more careful. Without understanding and accepting these truths, there...

Safety and Human Performance: You Can’t Have One Without the Other

Written by David W. Bowman on August 8, 2012. Posted in Safety Management.

Safety and human performance professionals have spent a lot of time trying to find that one nugget, that one silver bullet, that one thing that – if we used it – would stop people from getting hurt. I’ve always been a firm believer that safety and productivity can coexist at the same time. The gap between the two is a lack of focus on behavior. Companies hire people, show them how to use personal protective equipment and then teach them how to perform the tasks they were hired to do. They typically do not train employees on ideal work behaviors, those attitudes they want workers to have...

Formal vs. On-the-Job Training

Written by Rick Tobey, CUSP on June 11, 2012. Posted in Safety Management.

I have been doing a lot of training and evaluation work over the past few years, and I have started to notice a trend. The workers who have had a formal in-depth training experience have a better perspective about the theories behind why they are performing certain tasks. Workers that are trained on the job are good at the tasks, but do not really understand why they perform the tasks that way. The Formal Training Process Let’s look at the training process that goes with a formal program. The worker is trained – via both classroom and hands-on training – on theories of electrical...

How S.A.F.E.T.Y. Brought Bluebonnet Through the Fires

Written by Emily Wilkins, CSA, CUSP on June 11, 2012. Posted in Safety Management.

It was Labor Day weekend of 2011, around 2 p.m., when I received a call that there was a fire in my hometown. A big part of Bastrop County, Texas, was burning and thousands of people were being evacuated – friends, co-workers, neighbors and me. Details were scarce, but there were poles and transformers on fire and lines on the ground. My employer at the time, Bluebonnet Electric Cooperative, believes in working and living its six foundation values: safety, courage, respect, reliability, community and love. Work got under way quickly, responsibly and safely. Bluebonnet’s emergency action...

Strategic Safety Partners

Written by ET&D Strategic Partnership Task Team IV on April 17, 2012. Posted in Safety Management.

In 2004, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) entered into the Electrical Transmission & Distribution (ET&D) Strategic Partnership agreement with six electrical contractors: Asplundh Tree Expert Co., Henkels & McCoy, MDU Construction Services Group, MYR Group, Pike Electric and Quanta Services; one union: the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW); and two trade associations: the National Electrical Contractors Association (NECA) and Edison Electric Institute (EEI). The primary objective of this partnership is to improve worker safety in the...

The Intersect: A Practical Guide to Work-Site Hazard Analysis

Written by Jim Vaughn, CUSP on April 17, 2012. Posted in Safety Management.

A hazard is essentially a condition or activity that, if left uncontrolled, may result in an accident or a serious injury. To effectively identify hazards, the observer must develop a means of recognizing a hazard exposure. What I see repeatedly in the field are hazard lists like “wear PPE, stay out of the bite, watch for cars, cover up well.” What I don’t see is an effective approach to identifying hazards. I had occasion to investigate a 4-kV contact in a metal-clad breaker where the worker brushed his hand against a control power transformer that had not been identified or tested. For...

Safety Rules and Work Practices: Why Don’t They Match Up?

Written by Jeremy Adcock and Pam Tompkins, CSP, CUSP on February 9, 2012. Posted in Safety Management, Worksite Safety.

What do safety rules mean to the organization? To the worker? Does having a safety rule mean it has to be followed 100 percent of the time, part of the time or not at all? Most employers and employees would say 100 percent of the time. So why do safety rules and actual work practices not match up every single time? Is the rule not known or not understood, does it not fit the application or has it always been done that way? In a recent survey by an electric utility, employees affirmed that there were often violations of safety rules, they did not always believe the safety rules were...

Hearing Conservation: An Interesting Challenge

Written by Gretchen Erga on December 16, 2011. Posted in Safety Management.

Helen Keller has been quoted as saying that blindness separates you from things, but deafness separates you from people. While noise in the workplace usually does not produce the profound deafness that Helen Keller had, it can contribute to permanent hearing loss. As the quality of hearing aids has improved immensely over the years, people with mild to moderate hearing loss can often expect significant benefit from them. However, hearing aids usually do not improve hearing as effectively as glasses correct vision. On two occasions, I have witnessed men breaking into tears after learning...

Arc Flash Exposure Revisited: NESC 2012 Part 4 Update

Written by Pam Tompkins, CSP, CUSP on October 20, 2011. Posted in Safety Management.

The 2012 edition of the National Electrical Safety Code (NESC) hit the streets August 1. The updated code adds a new dimension to electric utility arc flash implementation with the inclusion of voltages from 50-1000V. Previous editions have required employers to assess voltages over 1000V for potential electric arc flash exposure and to provide clothing or a clothing system with an effective arc rating for the anticipated arc energy. Major ChangesNESC 2012 requires employers to assess low voltages, 50-1000V, for electric arc flash exposure. Many utilities are currently using NESC 2007’s...

Safety Circuitry: The Power in the Brain

Written by Michelle Brown on October 20, 2011. Posted in Safety Management, Leadership Development.

“What was he thinking?!” This frustrated question of supervisors, managers and safety professionals speaks directly to the future of safety in utilities. What are workers thinking when performing unsafe acts or walking past hazards, if indeed they are thinking at all? For companies to realize their goal of zero incidents, an understanding of thought, attention, motivation and decision-making is a must. They must now enter the realm inhabited by psychologists for decades, the world of the human brain. It has been said that while we are all born with a brain, no one gets an instruction...

What’s Your Seat Belt IQ?

Written by Jim Vaughn, CUSP on August 15, 2011. Posted in Safety Management.

Seat belt use – or the lack of seat belt use – continues to be an issue on the road and on our job sites. It is obvious that some of our employees and even some of our supervisors don’t get it. Seat belt use is a mandatory Department of Transportation safety rule and it does not matter whether the truck is used on a roadway or right-of-way. OSHA 1926.601, which covers vehicles that operate within an off-highway job site, requires seat belts. If the legal argument is not convincing, maybe statistics will be. Not coincidentally, states with the highest crash fatality rates also rate low in...

Competition for a Cause

Written by Kimberlee Craig on August 15, 2011. Posted in Safety Management.

Every June, a forest of 45-foot power poles suddenly sprouts in scenic Walla Walla Point Park along the Columbia River in central Washington state. It’s a sign that the best power linemen in the Pacific Northwest will soon head to Wenatchee for the annual Andrew York Lineman Rodeo. Entering its eighth year, the rodeo is hosted by the employees of five public utility districts (PUDs) and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 77. It is held to honor Andrew York, a Chelan County PUD journeyman lineman who died in 2000 after being struck on the job by a drunken driver. Proceeds...

Employee Training: How Hard Can It Be?

Written by Pam Tompkins, CSP, CUSP on June 8, 2011. Posted in Safety Management.

We all know high-quality training must take place to ensure the overall development of employees. Does having a well-trained employee mean the employee only attends a monthly safety meeting to gain training knowledge? Certainly not. Training should provide employees with a continual understanding of job task requirements, task-associated hazards and the appropriate abatement strategies for their safety. A monthly safety meeting may help validate these issues, but it cannot be the sole delivery method for training. Unfortunately, many employees receive no additional training beyond...

Challenges & Successes

Written by William Bosch on April 11, 2011. Posted in Safety Management.

Remember when getting that new customer powered was the main issue? How many weeks out were our construction crews and how to deal with customers wanting power yesterday? Those were the good old days; money was rolling in and yearly budgets were more of a joy than they are today. One thing is for sure, the utility business never stays the same for long and the challenges of today will be the failures or successes of the future. It all depends on making the right decisions to keep us ahead of the curve. Let’s talk about some issues that just might be similar in your operation. The City of...

Behavior Safety: A Safety Program’s Missing Link

Written by Michael S. Haro, Ph.D., CBSS on April 11, 2011. Posted in Safety Management.

Behavior safety is gaining recognition as a significant safety resource in many industrial companies. In recent discussions, however, safety professionals representing traditional and fundamental safety programs have made me aware that acceptance, understanding and the status of behavior safety are still in question. These discussions brought back early challenges, in particular the claim that behavior safety is just good common sense or another flavor of the month. The value of being a behavior safety educator is knowledge, but only if used accurately. Exploring issues and getting...

Northeast Utilities Takes Safety Off-Road

Written by Bruce Elfstrom on February 15, 2011. Posted in Safety Management.

Nobody likes getting stuck in mud, rock, sand, snow or anything for that matter. As a company that maintains more than 1,600 miles of transmission lines in all kinds of terrain, Northeast Utilities (NU) understands this fact all too well. Environmentally it can be a nightmare, logistically it can affect job completion estimates and from a safety perspective it can put employees in harm’s way. It was these reasons, along with a proactive approach to safety, which led NU to invest part of its safety budget into a 4×4 training and recovery techniques program for its transmission line...

A92.2: The 2009 Standard

Written by Seth Skydel on December 17, 2010. Posted in Safety Management, Equipment Operations.

The Accredited Standard Committee (ASC) A92.2 Subcommittee for Vehicle Mounted Rotating and Elevating Aerial Devices of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) has issued the long-awaited 2009 edition of the American National Standard for Vehicle Mounted Rotating and Elevated Aerial Devices. Design and construction requirements of the original 1969 edition of A92.2 and its appendix were made a part of OSHA in 1970. Since then, the standard has been reissued in four editions in 1979, 1990 and 2001, and most recently in 2009. The 2009 Draft of the Standard was balloted twice by the...

Procedure for Reducing Injuries

Written by Tyrone Tonkinson, Ph.D., P.E. on December 17, 2010. Posted in Safety Management.

Step 1: Turn on Brain. Step 2: Start Working. I wish it were that easy. While reducing injuries is a very appropriate goal, making it happen with your workers is a challenge. This article will review a few proven ways that we can get our workers actively thinking about the potential hazards involved in the work they are performing. Why review this topic? Let’s start with complacency – the “silent killer.” Job experience is a good thing; it allows our workers to be more efficient and do their tasks correctly. However, when workers are too comfortable, they lose their sharp edge. A healthy...

Crane & Derrick Compliance

Written by Kate Wade on November 2, 2010. Posted in Safety Management, Equipment Operations.

New OSHA standard becomes effective November 8, 2010 OSHA’s new Crane and Derrick standard has a little something for everyone, including some unexpected compliance issues for the electric utility industry. Known as Subpart CC, the standard was years in development, pushed heavily to completion in the last years by serious and highly publicized crane accidents. For a standard this complicated, OSHA usually publishes compliance directives known as CPLs, for Compliance Safety and Health Officers (CHSO). CPLs are procedural and enforcement guides that the industry can use a tool toward...

Solid Footing

Written by Jim Vaughn, CUSP on August 1, 2010. Posted in Safety Management.

In a few years I’ll be 60. I’ve been in the business now for 37 years, but no one ever talked to me about how to care for my feet until I finally had to go to a podiatrist a few years ago. When he looked at my X-rays he said, quite confidently, “You are a lineman right?” It seems he had seen the picture several times before. The bones and connecting tissue and ligaments that make up your feet and legs, as it turns out, are fairly malleable. For the first 20 years of my career, I worked in an older city area where just about every distribution pole was in a backyard, so I climbed almost...

LOTO vs. Switching and Tagging

Written by Pam Tompkins, CSP, CUSP on August 1, 2010. Posted in Safety Management.

Electric utilities have unique issues that are not easily addressed in a traditional LOTO program. Traditional programs typically address equipment and system designs that rarely change. This is certainly not true with electric utility Transmission and Distribution (T&D) programs. LOTO procedures are dynamic, changing from day to day and sometimes from hour to hour. So the question arises: What is the difference between traditional LOTO and switching and tagging programs? Several key differences are equipment source and load conditions that constantly change; various types of switches...

Is Your Company Ready for the Next Disaster?

Written by Tommie Jones on June 1, 2010. Posted in Safety Management.

The BP Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion and ongoing spill is only the latest in a series of dramatic high-profile disasters. A decade that began with the devastation of 9/11 has also featured Hurricane Katrina, massive flooding and destructive wildfires in the U.S.; high magnitude earthquakes in China, Haiti, and Chile with the resulting Tsunami in Malaysia and Thailand; the H1N1 epidemic; terrorist attacks or attempts worldwide; and mass killings by lone gunmen at Ft. Hood, Texas and Virginia Tech. If there is one lesson these horrific incidents clearly demonstrate, it’s the critical...

Best Practices

Written by Matt Dell on April 1, 2010. Posted in Safety Management.

Prior to 1950, sources report that 30 percent of all linemen were electrocuted on the job. As a result, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics has ranked “Lineman” as one of the 10 most dangerous jobs. Since then, insulated equipment such as fiberglass tools and rubber goods, along with well-documented safety techniques and work standards, have improved safety dramatically. Also, mandated periodic safety tests help to keep tools and equipment in working order. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) regulates how most electrical equipment is tested. OSHA’s regulations...

Error-Free Performance: Part II

Written by John Boyle on March 3, 2010. Posted in Safety Management, Leadership Development, Tailgate Topics.

This month we continue with the remaining tools that will help you with error-free performance. First, a quick recap: • Human error is normal, but can be provoked by practices found in the workplace and by traps in organizational processes, procedures and culture. • When applied in the moment, a series of techniques called “tools” will catch errors or help avoid error traps. • A tool can be used alone or multiple tools can be used depending on the complexity of the task. • The challenge is developing the habit to routinely use tools. They are used every day by emergency room personnel, 911...

People Focused Safety

Written by Lee Marchessault, CUSP on February 2, 2010. Posted in Safety Management.

Workplace safety is not an exact science. We can determine hazards, measure risks, provide protective equipment, implement policies and procedures – and then inject corrective actions when needed – but may still fall short of stellar performance. An uncontrollable variable that hinders our best efforts are the work practices of employees. Everyone acts and reacts differently to situations we face each day based on our knowledge, compassion, personality type and current events in our daily lives. People-focused safety considers traditional behavioral techniques and adds empowerment, making...

Error-Free Performance

Written by John Boyle on January 19, 2010. Posted in Safety Management, Leadership Development, Tailgate Topics.

Have you ever: • Driven through a stop sign without realizing it because you were deep in thought? • Lost your place while reading a book? • Gotten distracted while performing a task and ended up having to do it again? • Found yourself writing the wrong year on a check in January? • Taken direction over the phone only to realize you’re lost when you attempt to follow what you wrote down? • Built or assembled something only to find out you have to rebuild it because there are leftover parts? Human error is natural, but can be provoked by workplace practices and traps in organizational...

Confused About Arc Flash Compliance?

Written by Pam Tompkins, CSP, CUSP on December 1, 2009. Posted in Safety Management.

If you’re in a quandary over arc flash compliance, you’re not alone, according to Incident Prevention’s recent survey. Are you confused concerning arc flash compliance? Join the crowd of electric utility professionals who are struggling to understand arc flash implementation issues. A recent survey conducted by Incident Prevention indicated there is no standard method for developing and implementing electric utility arc flash implementation plans. In particular, survey participants identified four areas of uncertainty: • Selecting and utilizing appropriate engineering software to calculate...

A FULL Commitment

Written by Patricia Seeley, CPE on October 1, 2009. Posted in Safety Management, Worksite Safety.

We all know the data. Typically, one third to one half of our field injuries are musculoskeletal disorders such as strains and sprains, rotator cuff syndrome, lower back disorders and tendonitis. Workers’ compensation costs for these injuries far exceed those for acute incidents such as burns, cuts and even fractures. Sometimes we conclude that a lot of these injuries are essentially non-work related, weekend-athlete and Mr. Fixit events. Sometimes we have to admit that when our field workers see their private physicians for long-term lower back and other disorders, that there is at least a...

NESC-2012-Part 4: Summary of Change Proposals

Written by Pam Tompkins, CSP, CUSP on October 1, 2009. Posted in Safety Management.

NESC-2012 change proposals have been published and are available for comment through May 1, 2010. Subcommittee 8, Work Rules Sections 40-44, is responsible for the changes to Part 4 of the NESC. The main change proposal includes a requirement for employers to determine potential electric arc exposures for employees who work on or near lines, parts or equipment 50- 1,000 volts. NESC-2007 does not specifically require employers to perform an arc hazard analysis on low-voltage systems so this will be a major change for 2012. According to the 2012 proposals, NESC Subcommittee 8 established a...

Root Cause Analysis

Written by Donald F. Fritz, CSP, CSHM on October 1, 2009. Posted in Safety Management.

Even the safest among us will occasionally veer off the road to safety excellence and encounter an incident. When this happens, the best management practice is to identify and correct the cause(s) so that you can get back on track and avoid future mishaps. The process we employ for doing this is called Incident Analysis. At the heart of Incident Analysis is the problem-solving method known as Root Cause Analysis. Root Cause Analysis, like a bastion on the road to safety excellence, is the most effective method available for identifying and fortifying gaps in your safety defenses and...

Soil Resistivity Testing & Grounding System Design: Part II of II

Written by John Howard on August 2, 2009. Posted in Safety Management.

The sole purpose of the design exercise for grounding systems is to make the performance predictable upon installation. For ground system designs, there are several options for the design process or the method of manipulating the data by formulas, spreadsheets, or software. Likewise, there are alternatives for the design result or the actual instructions showing locations, models and quantity of grounding electrodes required to achieve the grounding system performance indicated by the design. The data required for a grounding system design is the soil resistivity information, the ground...

Huge Steps

Written by Terrell A. Davis on August 1, 2009. Posted in Safety Management, Equipment Operations.

If you’ve tuned into the news in the last two years, you have undoubtedly seen reports of crane accidents that have occurred across the country. There have been many injuries and in some cases fatalities due to the highly populated areas in which these events have taken place. As a result, the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) has taken an active role in analyzing different aspects of crane setup, inspection, operation and operator qualifications, and has now proposed a rule change to current guidelines. OSHA is currently working diligently on this proposal and new rules...

Making Safety a Core Value

Written by Carla Housh on June 1, 2009. Posted in Safety Management.

E.ON U.S. recently introduced its next phase of safety development at its Operation Safety Summit. “Safety excellence” is more than a catch phrase at E.ON U.S., a natural gas and electric distribution and generation company based in Louisville, Kentucky. For more than a decade, the company has consistently achieved next steps in safety excellence, and today it is highly ranked in safety among energy companies in the U.S. and the world. However, always seeking ways to improve, E.ON U.S. recently launched the next phase of safety development at its Operations Safety Summit on April 22. It...

Soil Resistivity Testing & Grounding System Design: Part I of II

Written by John Howard on June 1, 2009. Posted in Safety Management.

For utilities designing site-specific grounding systems, soil resistivity testing is an absolutely necessary step. Soil resistivity data is required for the ground system to meet a specific performance requirement. With resistivity data, the design becomes predictable so that you know the final ground resistance to expect after installation. Soil resistivity testing literally collects data on how well (or how poorly) the local earth conducts electrical current. Since we expect the grounding system to dissipate electrical current to the earth, it makes sense that we would utilize resistivity...

Incident Analysis

Written by Donald F. Fritz, CSP, CSHM on April 1, 2009. Posted in Safety Management.

The essence of safety is preventing incidents from having the opportunity to occur. When they do occur, it is usually the result of one or more safety systems failures. Failures, however, are the seeds of opportunity. Incidents provide us with opportunities, albeit unfortunate, to improve our safety systems and prevent future incidents. The process used to identify what improvements are needed is called Incident Analysis. Oftentimes, we in the utility industry treat safety events like plant events, such as unit trips, and only perform a surface level incident analysis on them. Such was the...

Moving from Operations into Safety or Training

Written by Bart Castle on February 2, 2009. Posted in Safety Management.

Over the past 50-plus years in production settings of all types, training has been largely made up of new employees spending either specified or unspecified periods of time with more experienced employees. At the end of that period, the experienced employee was responsible for pronouncing the new employee “trained.” Sometimes, these practices produce an effective safety or training professional. It has been our experience in over more than 20 years of observing and discussing moves from operations to safety or training with several hundred organizations in a number of production...

What’s in a Number?

Written by Donald Brignac on December 1, 2008. Posted in Safety Management.

Does it really mean anything if the RAI (Recordable Accident Incident Rate) for your non-payroll workers (hereafter referred to as “contractors”) is 6.2? At Entergy, where our most important value is to “Create and Sustain a Safe Working Environment,” numbers like those can be very important. Utilities that utilize a large number of contractors realize how tall an order it can be to address the magnitude of challenges associated with contractor safety. The types of contractors used and the level of institutional safety controls applied by contractors can vary dramatically. So where does an...

Strategies for Safety in the Wind Industry

Written by Kate Wade on December 1, 2008. Posted in Safety Management, Worksite Safety.

For the wind power industry, practicing safety has always been more than a mission—it’s required. After all, a wind technician may be working in a space the size of a bathroom located on a tower 80 meters tall, surrounded by massive mechanical and high voltage electrical equipment, in a harsh climate, far from medical services. Today, while the need for safe practices is just as great, the stakes are even higher. Wind has become an established source of power generation, providing enough electricity to serve the equivalent of more than six million homes. With the significant growth in the...

Keeping Things Safe in the Field and the Office

Written by John Boyle on October 9, 2008. Posted in Safety Management, Tailgate Topics.

All employers should ensure that there are programs in place with written instructions to provide guidelines for the inspection, testing and maintenance of safety equipment located on the premises or supplied to employees. Along with a vigilant approach to inspection, recordkeeping must be in compliance with company and government regulations and requirements. Each location must have a written safety equipment inspection, testing and maintenance program that identifies the equipment and responsible parties. Necessary training must be provided to people performing inspections and tests...

Safety Culture Success

Written by Kate Wade on August 2, 2008. Posted in Safety Management.

Organizations rely on numerous metrics—from incident rates to absenteeism—to help quantify and evaluate safety performance. But as lagging indicators, such metrics tell us little about the root causes of safety. Do employees truly buy into the organization’s safety policies and procedures?� Do workers get actively involved in the safety reporting process?� These are questions that are critical to understanding why a culture succeeds or fails in meeting its safety goals. Unlocking the Potential of Employee Opinions For good reason, organizations are turning to employees to gain powerful...

Managing Safety

Written by Carl Griffith on June 2, 2008. Posted in Safety Management.

There’s no magic to safety; it’s management. Just as you manage productivity, quality or any other part of your company, safety management takes planning, organizing, leading, controlling and evaluating. You or your managers will be inspecting, investigating, recording, analyzing and reporting. How you make all this happen is through a safety program that gives you the policies, procedures and monitoring systems to make safety happen. With time and resources in short supply, a safety program has to be approached in a practical and effective manner. How do you assure its...

Passion for Safety

Written by Steve Owen on April 1, 2008. Posted in Safety Management.

We have a responsibility to care for ourselves. In the utility business, for example, safety is about using proper personal protective equipment and approved safe work methods in a controlled environment. When we have a true passion for safety, we not only care for ourselves, but also take responsibility for influencing others in the use of safe practices. Passion for Safety is a management system that uses tools to develop communications and help interpret information. Each time information is interpreted, some of it is altered due to influences in our lives such as personal interest,...

Managing Safety Rule Violations

Written by Tyrone Tonkinson, Ph.D., P.E. on February 1, 2008. Posted in Safety Management.

This is the question I am asked most frequently at conferences and when delivering training. The short, direct answer is “Yes.” So, if an individual violates a safety rule, should he or she be punished? It depends. I know that sounds like a consultant’s answer, so let’s discuss what I mean. We can start by considering human nature. We all choose our behaviors based on expected consequences. What are the consequences of taking shortcuts on the job? While there are possible negative consequences, like rework or an injury, these problems are few and far between. One...

NESC 2007 FLAME RESISTANT CLOTHING

Written by Hugh Hoagland on February 1, 2008. Posted in Safety Management.

The NESC 2007 standard sets forth quite a challenge to electric and communication utilities in the area of clothing. The new standard, which becomes law in several states, says, “The employer shall require employees to wear clothing or a clothing system that has an effective arc rating not less than the anticipated level of arc energy.” This compliance is required by January 1, 2009. The following challenges will require strategies and decisions by utilities to comply with the NESC standard. Challenge 1: What about face protection? The standard doesn’t address this at...

Bridging Communication Gaps

Written by Parrish Taylor on April 1, 2007. Posted in Safety Management.

As a safety professional, it’s your responsibility to protect your firm’s human capital. As a safety professional, it’s your responsibility to protect your firm’s human capital. The gaps continue to grow. Yes, GAPS, plural—as in two. The “generational gap” is one, in which, as a safety professional you have a personal responsibility. The “organizational gap” is the other, in which you have the power of influence. As it pertains to the organizational gap, you know first hand the paradox (two opposing views working against each other). The ideal...

Dreams Can Become Reality: SDG&E Flex Center

Written by Seth Skydel on April 1, 2007. Posted in Safety Management.

Just as classroom training helps people acquire necessary knowledge, SDG&E’s FLEX Center prepares them for the physical aspects of their jobs. ‘The thing that clicked for me was the similarity of training professional football players while in training camp. The professional, whether on the gridiron or on a pole, needs the same focus on development. We had the classroom, the top-notch instructors and the practice field, but not the physical training facility to prepare workers properly for optimum performance.’ – Keoki Kamau, Field Safety Advisor Spring and...

Making Safe Choices

Written by Rick Tobey, CUSP on February 1, 2007. Posted in Safety Management.

In the high-risk world of utility operations, safety depends greatly on the choices that are made at all levels of an organization. The decisions that are made as to how we will handle a particular situation determine how safe everyone involved will be. In utility operations especially, when a situation occurs that is governed by safety procedures, the person in charge and the people performing the work must take those procedures into account when making the decision as to how to perform. Unfortunately, this is where breakdowns in safety normally occur. In 2005, according to the Bureau of...

NESC-2007 Update

Written by Pam Tompkins, CSP, CUSP on December 1, 2006. Posted in Safety Management.

The 2007 edition of the National Electrical Safety Code may pose significant work rule changes for electric utilities. The updated code, which is detailed in the NESC-2007 handbook, covers the following areas. CLOTHING AND CLOTHING SYSTEMS Effective January 1, 2009, the updated code requires each employer to perform an arc hazard assessment for employees who work on or near energized parts or equipment. If the assessment determines a potential employee exposure greater than 2 cal/cm2, the employer will be required to provide clothing/clothing systems that have an effective arc rating not...

Dissecting an OSHA Inspection

Written by Michael Beckel on October 1, 2006. Posted in Safety Management.

While catastrophes and fatal accidents are obvious inspection triggers, almost half of OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Admini- stration) visitations are complaint-driven. Therefore, the best way to avoid an inspection-and potential fines and penalties-is to eliminate complaints by employing preventive measures, including: . Participate in an OSHA voluntary compliance program. . Ensure that potentially serious or willful regulatory violations are identified and aggressively eliminated. Regular safety and compliance inspections by knowledgeable personnel provide a mechanism for hazard...

Dramatic Results

Written by Seth Skydel on June 1, 2006. Posted in Safety Management.

By employing an advanced project monitoring and analysis solution, Oregon Electric Group is achieving significant safety improvement success. There is widespread dedication to safety at Oregon Electric Group (OEG), notes Gary Young, Safety Director for the Portland, Oregon electrical contractor. “With more than 400 employees,” he says, “OEG has an ongoing commitment to having an injury-free workplace and to reducing insurance expenses. “In the past,” Young continues, “we monitored project safety through a behavior-based program that tracked observations...

Keeping the ‘Fighter Pilots’ of Your Company Safe

Written by Jeff "Odie" Espenship on April 1, 2006. Posted in Safety Management, Leadership Development.

A consistent, clear safety message backed by unwavering actions is what is takes to keep your employees flying straight. Most fighter pilots are 25-years-old and full of vinegar. Sure, they’re smart, but most have a lot of velocity, and often very little vector. There’s no way they can keep themselves from harm. Therefore, peacetime training losses are acceptable. This is the way military leadership used to think. Back then (1988), old school commanders honestly believed that if we were going to train (fly) like we were going to fight, a few losses were to be expected and...

Taking Safety to the Next Level

Written by Nancy St. Hilaire, MS on December 1, 2005. Posted in Safety Management, Leadership Development.

A look at the common denominator in companies that have successful safety programs. Nobody wants to get hurt. No supervisor wants to take an employee to the emergency room. No manager wants to tell a family that their loved one was hurt on the job. Then why do accidents happen even when a solid safety program is in place? First, you need to understand that 100 percent compliance does not equal 100 percent safety. The OSHA standards, along with other safety regulations, cannot account for every situation your workers might face. So, where do you go beyond compliance? Over the 14 years that...

Leadership Influencing the Culture

Written by Don Groover, CIH, CSP on October 1, 2005. Posted in Safety Management, Leadership Development.

Learn how to best use all your resources as a safety leader and get the most out of your workers. Safety excellence requires the true engagement of leadership. Leaders effective at creating and sustaining change actively embrace their role in safety, take ownership of the results, and understand the safety mechanisms essential to achieving outcomes. That’s easy to say. The reality is that getting things done through others (the basic task of management) can be a tightrope walk under the best of circumstances. Leaders are at once coaches, directors, enforcers and advocates. When...

What It Takes to be a Safety and Compliance Leader

Written by Ken Flechler, CUSA on April 1, 2005. Posted in Safety Management, Leadership Development.

A successful safety and compliance team member cannot always be the most liked or the most popular, but must always be well respected. They need to be able to talk to senior management, front line supervisors and employees and be open and honest about what needs to be done to ensure employee safety and regulatory compliance. Over 250 safety and compliance team members attended Comcast’s most recent Safety and Compliance Conference. In preparing my remarks for the conference, I thought I would talk about what it takes to be a great safety team member. As I reviewed the attendee...

Injury Free Change

Written by Carl Potter, CSP on April 1, 2005. Posted in Safety Management, Leadership Development.

Paradoxically, change is a permanent part of life. Yet it’s no excuse for neglecting safety. Tune into your emotional responses to change and become a ‘change agent’ for safety in any environment. Change is here to stay! Companies are merging, divesting, selling, and changing names. Unions and companies are in negotiations. There is pressure to produce more with less. All of this makes it a challenge for employees to focus on safety. Often employees think the company no longer cares about safety. But, who is the company? A company is made up of its employees. Whether you...

Eliminating Excuses

Written by Carl Potter, CSP on February 1, 2005. Posted in Safety Management.

“Management is pushing us, customers are pushing us and we don’t have enough help.” This excuse for taking short cuts is becoming more prominent in the workforce. When I hear it, I cringe! We must take personal responsibility and not let other factors distract us from having safety on our minds. No one can make you do anything you don’t want to do unless you give him or her permission. The supervisors, crew leaders and linemen who attend my seminars consistently tell me that they need more help In most cases I agree with their assessments; however, it doesn’t...

Lessons Learned, Successful Implementation of Behavioral Safety Coaching

Written by Dr. E. Scott Geller, PhD on December 1, 2004. Posted in Safety Management, Leadership Development.

Previously, we discussed the power of behavioral safety coaching (BSC) to prevent injuries and fatalities in the utilities industry. To this end, we introduced 10 key practical guidelines for creating and maintaining successful BSC as gleaned from three decades of empirical research and 20 years of practical experience with our clients. Once again, here are the 10 guidelines for creating and maintaining an effective BSC process: 1. Teach Principles First 2. Activate Empowerment and Ownership 3. Enable Choice 4. Solicit Management Support 5. Make the Process Non-Punitive 6. Use Non-directive...

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