During my NFPA 70E seminars and while working with clients, a constant concern I hear is unqualified workers entering both the arc flash and approach (shock) boundaries. Production supervisors; other employees; and in academia, students, are notorious for entering the established boundaries to talk to qualified employees while they are performing work on energized electrical conductors. This poses a serious risk to the unqualified worker – electrocution from shock as well as ignition of their clothing in the event of an electric arc.

One client I worked with was flustered with his inability to enforce company policies to keep production supervisors out of the arc flash boundary. I recommended the company train all employees on the prohibition from entering into these restricted areas. Also, I suggested all employees be shown a short 15 – 30 second video of a real-world electric arc, such as this video of an electric arc while racking a circuit breaker. Click here to see the video.

After showing a couple real-life electric arc videos, my client had no more problems with unqualified employees entering arc flash/shock boundaries!

Jon