Background

After Congress passed the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, the newly formed agency known as OSHA needed to develop standards to implement the law. Congress told OSHA to use existing “national consensus standards” for this purpose. What\'s a national consensus standard? A standard from a nationally recognized standards-producing organization that considered diverse views and was agreed upon by persons interested and affected. Some examples of organizations that publish national consensus standards include NFPA and ASTM.

For its electrical safety regulations the Secretary adopted the national consensus standard NFPA 70, better known as the NEC ® (National Electrical Code ®). However, OSHA encountered several problems utilizing the latest editions of the NEC. NFPA thus created a new committee to develop electrical safety standards that would serve the needs of OSHA. This committee reports through the NEC ® technical committee and is called the Committee on Electrical Safety Requirements for Employee Workplaces - NFPA 70E.

The first NFPA 70E standard was published in 1979, but it wasn\'t until the fifth edition in 1995 that many of the current workplace safety requirements were included. The 2004 NFPA 70E is actually the seventh edition.

What Is NFPA 70E?

According to NFPA\'s catalog, “70E covers the full range of electrical safety issues from safety-related work practices to maintenance, special equipment requirements, and installation. In fact, OSHA bases its electrical safety mandates – OSHA 1910 Subpart S and OSHA 1926 Subpart K – on the comprehensive information in this important Standard.”

The 2004 edition of NFPA 70E has an introduction, four chapters and thirteen annexes. Here\'s an overview:

Chapter 1 - Safety–Related Work Practices.

This is the meat of the document. It covers training requirements for Qualified and Unqualified persons, which determines who is permitted to work on or near exposed energized parts. It requires an Electrical Safety Program and covers what shall be included in it. Requirements for LOTO (Lockout/Tagout) are covered as are the procedures for the three levels of LOTO control – Individual, Simple, and Complex.

Chapter 1 is also the home of the “hot topics”: Electrical Hazard Analysis for Shock and Flash, Energized Electrical Work Permits, Approach Boundaries for Shock, Arc-Flash Boundaries, and selection of PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) for electrical safety.

Chapter 2 - Safety-Related Maintenance Requirements

This chapter basically requires that electrical components, wiring, and equipment be maintained in a safe condition. Most electricians will find that this chapter only documents what they already know as good electrical maintenance.

Chapter 3 - Safety Requirements for Special Equipment

This chapter covers batteries, lasers and power electronic equipment that may have hazards different than the common shock and flash hazards. Many facilities now use lasers in laboratories and in workshops, and batteries are common for many uses including in UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) systems. Included in chapter 3 is a section on Safety-Related Work Practices for Power Electronic Equipment which specifically includes such things as electric arc welding equipment, and process equipment that have rectifiers and inverters such as: motor drives, UPS systems, and lighting controllers.

Chapter 4 – Installation Safety Requirements; is a very truncated version of the NEC ®

This chapter is based on applicable sections of the NEC ® , but is not intended to be used in lieu of the NEC ® .

Annexes A - M

These annexes include very useful information such as defining approach boundaries, how to calculate flash protection boundaries, a sample LOTO procedure, a simplified method for selecting flame-resistant clothing, and a sample Energized Electrical Work Permit.

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