Isolation Saves Lives

Every year, maintenance operations lead to serious injury and death in Northern Ireland. Every year, there are serious injuries to electricians as a result of failure to isolate apparatus.

Isolation is one of the three keyhazards that the “SafeMaintenance – saves time, savesmoney, saves lives” campaign isfocusing on. The awareness raising campaignwhich is being delivered by theHealth and Safety Executive forNorthern Ireland in partnershipwith Northern Ireland’s 26 DistrictCouncils, aims to reduce thenumber of workers who areexperiencing ill health, beinginjured or tragically killed as aconsequence of inadequate andunsafe maintenance activities. Isolation is about keeping peoplesafe from all sources of energywhilst carrying out work andensuring that during that work thepreventative measures in placeremain effective in all thecircumstances. For electricians and electricalengineers the most common risksthey face are death and injuryfrom electric shock and burns.The procedures for preventingdanger through proper isolationare well known: • Locate/identify the correct isolation device for the circuit. • Check condition and suitability  of voltage indicating device.

• Confirm voltage indicating device is operating correctly.

• Switch off circuit to be worked on. • Verify that no voltage is present at the point of work.

• Reconfirm voltage indicating device is functioning correctly.

• Lock off the isolation device.

• Post a warning notice. A maintenance electricianreceived serious burn injuries tohis hands when he touched a livebus bar that he thought had beenisolated. Investigation revealedthat the circuit was incorrectlyidentified at the switchboard. A test at the point of workwould have identified this. In another accident an electricianreceived extensive flash burnswhen he switched back on asupply he had previouslyswitched off for maintenancework. He had not fitted a lock orwarning device. These two incidents amplyillustrate the importance that allthe steps in the isolationprocedure are followed.

It is perhaps easy for electriciansto become blasé, ignore the basictraining they will have had as anapprentice and take short cuts.After all many electric shocks donot give rise to serious injury. But remember, the severity of anelectrical incident can be largely amatter of chance. Skin resistanceof an individual (wet or dry),whether or not they are wellearthed and the precise nature ofthe contact will determine theoutcome. The only way to avoid the riskof a serious injury or fatality is to ensure you do not risk any type of electric shock.

Another important aspect isdeciding the extent of theisolation required.

It is all too common forserious flashovers to occurwhilst working on electricalpanels which still containlive apparatus.

Usually the particular circuitbeing worked on will havebeen switched off, butinadvertent contact is madewith an adjacent live circuit,typically by a screwdriverslipping and bridging on to alive part.

Trying to avoid theinconvenience or cost ofstopping production for aperiod would not beconsidered reasonablejustification for failing toisolate the completepanel.

There must also berecognition of other dangerswhich can remain even if theelectrical supply is isolated.

A maintenance electrician in ameat plant was carrying outrepairs to a movable platform. Hewas crushed to death when heinadvertently operated acompressed air fed ram.

He had correctly isolated themachine from the electricitysupply but had not ensuredthat the air supply was off andthe stored energy in the systemwas dissipated.

So whether you are an employer,self employed or an employee,make sure that when you areworking on apparatus that needsto be isolated for safety you checkthat:

• Procedures are in place

to ensure that all apparatus

is routinely isolated before

work.

• Persons are adequately

trained and supervised to

ensure that procedures

are followed.

• Suitable equipment, locks,

danger notices and

test equipment is provided.

After a serious accident at workthere is a devastating effect onthe employer, the workforce andmost importantly the victim andhis family. The one thing younever want to have to do is toexplain to someone’s family thattheir loved one will not be cominghome from work that day becauseof an accident that could havebeen prevented by some basicprecautions.

For more information on safemaintenance in the workplacedon’t hesitate to contactHSENI’s Information andAdvice Centre on Tel: 08000320 121, or by email:mail@hseni.gov.uk.

Further information and advicerelating to the “SafeMaintenance – saves time,saves money, saves lives”campaign is also available atthe campaign website:www.hseni.gov.uk/safemaintenance