Electricity Today T&D Magazine

Lineman Safety Standards are designed to create a safer work environment for linemen and communication workers. It is an ongoing mission for those of us who serve on the National Electrical Safety Code (NESC), so it’s worthwhile to highlight changes embodied in Part 4 of the recently released 2017 edition.

Workers may familiarize themselves with these revisions and it’s important that employers align their safety programs with the Lineman Safety Standards and changes to them. It’s also beneficial when the public grasps that when linemen and communication technicians work safely, the public is safe.

The effort to protect workers and...

How Ontario regulation can improve electrical safety

BY BILL KHASHFE, London Hydro

According to an Ontario Electrical Safety Report, 35 percent of the province’s electrical-related fatalities in the past 10 years were attributed to power-line contact. Equipment specifications and electric utility construction plans within Ontario’s power industry, only a few decades ago, lacked regulation. Each utility developed its own policies.

Currently, the global economy has created a marketplace in which equipment is manufactured to various standards and, occasionally, with no standards at all. As a result, governments have started to step in to regulate the safety of equipment used...