Every kind of work has its own hazard, some of them greater than the others. An electrician risks his life with 230 volts to make your home or workplace a safe haven. According to a survey by HSE over 200 people are killed each year at work and over one million injured. While operating under sensitive work conditions such as that of an electrician, one must be familiar with their occupational hazards and be prepared with all the required safety measures.
How should an electrician be prepared?
Personal Protective Equipment refers to a collection of safety equipments and gears like protective goggles, helmets, etc. designed to protect its wearer from any sort of harm. While operating an electrician should always wear the PPE best suited for the job may it be repairing a fuse or rewiring a home. Each task is hazardous in its own way and hence calls for a different kind of safety measure.
If you are an electrician you should properly assess the hazard at hand and take the correct set of measures before taking on the task. If you are not endowed with the proper set of equipments abandon the job and come back prepared. For optimum security all damaged equipments should be timely replaced.
While working on electrical equipment, it should be completely isolated from the electrical supply. The ESC safe isolation app deployed by the Energy Saving Council was introduced for the purpose of guiding an electrician step by step to achieve complete isolation. The app can be easily downloaded on an Apple or Android device.
It is not advisable to declare a socket safe depending solely upon a socket-outlet test device. Even with additional components and technology, it is impossible to detect an improper or damaged insulation, a loose electrical connection, etc. So additional skills are required to confirm how safe the socket actually is.
Hazards an electrician faces
Electricians are always under a high risk of getting electrocuted so make sure you have the proper know-how for handling this kind of emergency situation. If you find someone getting an electric shock you should try to separate that person from the source of power as soon as possible obviously with an insulating material. Removing the power supply is also a viable option while under stress. One should never make direct contact with the person getting electrocuted as doing that would electrocute you as well. Once that is taken care of proper first aid should apply to the victim and the emergency services should be immediately informed.
An electrician also faces threats from aero solvents, solder, lead and additional materials which can prove to be very hazardous to their health. They often have to work in confined spaces, up on ladders with a constant risk of falling, tripping, etc. so they should be careful and aware of their working environment at all times. The bottom-line is you can never be safe enough while working with electricity but following the above mentioned precautions will definitely keep you a step ahead.
