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Safety Best Practices


Worker Safety Using Infrared

Infrared safety: using thermal technologies to protect workers BY DOUG BARRY, FLIR Systems Disconnect switches, elbow connectors, cutouts, lightning arrestors, oil-filled circuit breakers, and other electrical components tend to heat up before they fail. The ability to detect overheating on such...

Benefiting from OHSMS Systems

How to protect workers with an occupational health and safety management  system BY IVANA STRGACIC, Strategies for the Environment Inc. Reliability (that is, keeping the lights on) is at the forefront of electric utility business plans. Another important item that takes priority in these...

Utility Safety Standards


Why Testing Rubber Goods Is Essential to Electrical Safety

The risk of injury, and even death, from electric shock is drastically reduced by taking a few simple steps with your rubber goods. Keep up with daily inspections and cleaning, use safe storage methods, and test your equipment regularly at an experienced, accredited testing lab. Why Rubber...

Electric Utility System Standards

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...

Safety Technologies


Fighting Heat Stress With Effective Workwear

In a perfect world, we could all work in weather-controlled environments where heat wouldn’t be a factor and comfort could be maximized. Many workplaces however, deal with very high temperatures and heat stress is a year-round risk that requires serious consideration. For many years the standards...

Ugh, Why So Much HSE Paper?

With the advent of our modern health, safety and environmental systems (HSE), the requirement to produce more documents is relentless. No one feels this pressure more than our front line supervision; those individuals, who are leading our crews out in the field. Not only are they tasked with...

Lineman Safety

Flame-Resistant Clothing Misconceptions

Misconceptions about using flame-resistant clothing

BY DAN BONELLI, Cintas Corporation

According to Michael Hyland, chair of the National Electrical Safety Code (NESC) and vice president of engineering services with the American Public Power Association, a 1970s electrical utility commercial depicted a worker sporting a gold necklace and polyester clothing. Hyland notes that today, that type of dress would be unthinkable, as it poses a huge risk to residential, commercial, and industrial electricians.

The power industry...

Lineman Safety Articles