OSHA Enforcement of NFPA 70E

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1 OSHA Enforcement of NFPA 70E In response to an inquiry to OSHA s stand on arc-flash hazards, Richard S. Terrill, the Regional Administrator for Occupational Safety and Health, US Department of Labor for the Northwest Region at Seattle, concluded the following: Though OSHA does not, per se, enforce the NFPA standard, 2000 Edition OSHA considers NFPA standard a recognized industry practice. The employer is required to conduct an assessment in accordance with CFR (d)(1). If an arc-flash is present, or likely to be present, then the employer must select and require employees to use the protective apparel. Employers who conduct the hazard/risk assessment, and select and require their employees to use protective clothing and other PPE appropriate for the task, as stated in the NFPA 70E standard 2000 Edition, are deemed in compliance with the Hazard Assessment and Equipment Selection OSHA standard. WHAT DOES THIS MEAN TO YOU? Is Compliance with NFPA 70E mandatory? No, NFPA 70E is a national consensus safety standard published by NFPA primarily to assist OSHA in preparing electrical safety standards. Can I be cited for not complying with NFPA 70E? Yes, the employer must assess the workplace for electrical hazards and the need for PPE under 29CFR (a)(1)(i). Details on how to comply with this standard is up to the employer. The employer is expected to use the best means available to comply with this requirement, and that is done through consensus standard NFPA 70E. In the event of an injury or death due to an electrical accident, if OSHA determines that compliance with 70E would have prevented or lessened the injury, OSHA may cite the employer under the general duty clause. In 2003 a Standards Interpretation letter OSHA stated 70E can be used as evidence of whether the employer acted reasonably. VOSH is already referencing NFPA 70E 2004 edition and is currently reviewing the new updates in the 2009 version. As Virginia has a state run program VOSH has the option for a review period and that is why Virginia is not already enforcing NFPA 70E 2009 edition. Federal OSHA has already adopted the newer updates and it is likely only a matter of time before VOSH follows suit. In other words, what the above quote does is establish arc-flashes as a recognized hazard by OSHA. This gives inspectors a broad scope to cite under the General Duty Clause. Also as the quote mentions, employers must provide proper PPE and complying with NFPA 70E will keep employers in compliance. OSHA evaluates compliance with its electrical safety regulations, OSHA 1910 Subpart S and OSHA 1926 Subpart K, using the information in NFPA 70E. While OSHA tells you what to do to avoid electrical dangers, this standard tells you how. TO WHOM DOES THIS STANDARD APPLY? NFPA 70E applies to employees who work on or near exposed energized electrical conductors or circuit parts. This includes electrical maintenance personnel, operators, troubleshooters, electricians, linemen,

2 engineers, supervisors, site safety personnel, or anyone exposed to energized equipment of 50 volts or more. For these workers to be considered in compliance they must be qualified. This requires employees to have the skills necessary to distinguish exposed live parts from other parts of electronic equipment, determine nominal voltage of exposed live parts, the clearance distances (shock distance). Training on both OSHA Subpart S and NFPA 70E will accomplish this. NFPA 70E 2004 vs. NFPA 70E 2009 NEW ARC FLASH LABEL REQUIREMENTS New NFPA 70E Article 130.3(C) requires arc flash warning labels to include, at a minimum, the arc flash incident energy or required level of PPE. Up to this point, putting a generic label on equipment warning workers of potential arc flash hazards would fulfill the requirements of the 2004 NFPA 70E and the National Electrical Code, both which state that all equipment that might be worked on while energized must have an arc flash warning label. According to NFPA 70E, if you work on live equipment operating at 50 volts or more, then you must perform an arc flash hazard assessment. Even if you always de-energize equipment before working on it, an arc flash hazard assessment should be performed to determine the type of PPE to use when verifying that power is off. Under the new edition of the standard, it no longer is possible to get away with postponing an arc flash hazard analysis until some unspecified future date, or to leave panels unlabeled under the assumption that no one will work on them while they're energized. MAKE THE LABEL COMPLETE Putting only the minimum required information either incident energy or required level of PPE on the label is short sighted, because it may leave workers without essential information. If the label on a panel says simply 18 cal/cm2, for example, the worker would be required to know that this level of incident energy corresponds to hazard risk category 3, which, in turn, requires the appropriate PPE for that hazard risk category. While some questions could be answered by placing a poster in the dressing room, it makes more sense to put all the information incident energy, hazard risk category, required level of PPE and the particular items of PPE required right on the label. This information usually is gathered during an arc flash hazard assessment, and although it's not specifically required, some engineering service firms provide labels that include the complete information. It's a good practice to also include shock and flash protection boundaries, available fault current and voltage level on the label. Figure 1 shows a label that provides the minimum required information.

3 Fig. 1: Recent changes to NFPA 70E require that equipment be labeled with incident energy or required level of PPE. It is preferable to put complete information on the label to meet documentation requirements, prevent confusion and contribute to worker safety. PERFORMING AN ARC FLASH HAZARD ANALYSIS Since equipment must now be labeled with the incident energy and required level of PPE, someone must conduct an arc flash analysis before work is done on energized equipment. This is an important change. There is only one exception to this requirement: the 2009 Edition of NFPA 70E states that an arc flash analysis is not required if the circuit is rated 240 volts or less and is supplied by a single transformer rated less than 125 kva. It is important to point out that, although an arc flash assessment is not required under this exception, shock hazards remain that must be guarded. A shock hazard analysis must be performed if workers could be exposed to energized circuit parts. The shock hazard analysis determines the voltage of the live parts, shock protection boundaries (limited, restricted and prohibited) and proper shock protection PPE to be used. CHANGES TO REQUIRED PPE OSHA, in 29 CFR (d), indicates that the employer must assess the workplace for hazards. If hazards exist that require PPE, the employer must select the right PPE for the worker, must communicate that selection process to the worker and must select the type of PPE that properly fits the worker. In OSHA subpart S, which covers electrical workers in general industry, (a)(1)(i) requires the employer to provide the electrical PPE and also requires the employee to use it. Separately, NFPA 70E Section 130.7(A) Personal and Other Protective Equipment requires that employees working in areas where electrical hazards are present be provided and use protective equipment that is designed and constructed for the specific part of the body to be protected and for the work to be performed. It is worth noting that the PPE requirements of 130.7(A) consider only the thermal effects of arc flash, and do not necessarily provide protection from other physical trauma that might be caused by blast waves, high-speed projectiles, etc.

4 CHANGES TO HAZARD RISK CATEGORY 1 PPE Most of the changes in PPE requirements apply to Hazard Risk Category 1. In an average manufacturing facility, an estimated 80 percent of electrical work will be done in Hazard Risk Category 1 or lower. One significant change is that standard blue jeans no longer are acceptable for use when Category 1 risks are involved. In the 2004 version of NFPA 70E, a worker was allowed to use a long-sleeved fire-resistant (FR) shirt rated for 4 calories and standard blue jeans if they had a certain weight per square yard. No one ever paid any attention to the fabric weight of the material, and fabric weight certainly wasn't marked on the blue jeans at the store. Under the 2009 edition of the standard, for Category 1, workers must wear long pants that have a rating of 4 calories or more, and that are verified by ANSI as FR pants and labeled accordingly. When it came to headgear, under the 2004 edition of NFPA 70E, a worker could walk up to a panel and open it as long as he or she was wearing a hard hat and a pair of safety glasses. Under the 2009 edition, the worker also must wear a face shield rated for 4 cal/cm2 or higher, which attaches to the hard hat and covers the face down to the chin, or an arc-rated flash suit hood. In the 2004 edition of NFPA 70E, hearing protection and leather gloves were required for Hazard Risk Categories 2 and higher. The 2009 edition of NFPA 70E now requires hearing protection and leather gloves for all hazard risk categories. The 2004 edition of NFPA 70E states that for PPE in a 2 situation, in addition to all the other requirements for Category 2, the worker had to wear a double-layered flash suit hood and hearing protection. The 2009 edition allows the flash suit hood to be replaced by a balaclava (sock hood) in combination with a face shield rated for 8 calories or more. CALCULATING FLASH PROTECTION BOUNDARIES The 2004 edition of NFPA 70E said that the flash protection boundary was 4 feet (the default value) as long as the product of the number of cycles it took the upstream protective device (fuse or circuit breaker) to open and the available fault current did not exceed 300 ka cycles. For example, if the available fault current were 100,000 amperes, the maximum clearing time of the upstream protective device could not exceed 3 cycles (300 ka cycles). Most companies tended to assume that the value for the panels in their facilities was less than 300 ka cycles, and that was often a good bet. But under the 2009 edition of NFPA 70E, the maximum allowable product is reduced to 100 ka cycles to assume that the flash protection boundary is 4 feet. Some existing studies and labels may not be accurate and other methods of calculating the flash protection boundary distance must now be used. CHANGES TO WORKER TRAINING An addition to Article (C) requires that employees be trained in CPR and recertified annually. Article 110.6(D)(1)(d) requires that employees be retrained before performing any tasks that are performed less

5 often than once per year. Article (D)(3) requires that an employee must be retrained or receive additional training under any of the following circumstances: If the supervisor observes, or annual inspections reveal, that the employee is not following the rules and regulations. If new technology, new types of equipment or changes in procedures necessitate the use of safetyrelated work practices that are different from those the employee would normally use. If the employee must use safety related work practices that are not normally used during his or her regular job duties. Another new requirement, 110.6(E), requires that all training must be documented and employees must show proficiency, and that the documentation must be maintained for the duration of the employee's employment. Summary If you have not been cited for not complying with NFPA 70E then it is only a matter of time. There is a big push from OSHA to get workplaces into compliance with NFPA 70E. Remember OSHA tells you that you must avoid certain electrical hazards while the NFPAE tells you how to avoid those electrical hazards. Now that arc-flashes are a recognized hazard the General Duty Clause and the PPE standard will be used to cite employers that do not comply with NFPA 70E. Currently Virginia is following the 2004 version of NFPA 70E so the changes outlined above will not affect any of our members. However, it is reasonable to believe that this will not be the case for long. Virginia, as a state run plan, must be at least as strict as Federal OSHA and eventually could be more strict then Federal OSHA. The reason that Virginia has not already adopted this newer version of NFPA 70E is because as a state run plan they have the option to review any changes before implementing them to determine if they want to enforce the standard as is or add to it. Complying with the NFPA 70E standards now will be time consuming and there will be a cost involved, there is no way to avoid that fact. Regardless this is the direction that VOSH is likely heading and starting the process of compliance now will save time, money, and quite possibly the life of you or your employee.