Electrical Safety in the Workplace: A blog about electrical injuries and how to prevent them.

 Electrical injury is not just an emergency room statistic. It's a life-altering physical and psychological tragedy for the victim and his family — and a costly one for employers. Every year, thousands of workers are injured on the job by electrical hazards or inadequate safety practices. Most injuries occur in the workplace, with construction being a particularly high risk industry. After all, when you're dealing with electrical equipment — whether it's tools or large machinery — faulty wiring and unsafe testing practices only take a split second to spark trouble.

Causes of Electrical Accidents

An electrical accident can happen at any time. You may be doing your work just like any other day, when all of a sudden, you experience an electrical burn or shock.

If you have experienced an accident at the workplace, you may have received a serious injury that has prevented you from returning to work. This is why it is important to know what causes these accidents, so you can prevent one from happening in the future.

While a variety of factors can cause electrical accidents, the good news is that most of them can be prevented with proper education and maintenance. Here are the top 10 causes:

1. Faulty electrical outlets or appliances.
2. Improperly grounded equipment.
3. Electrical surges or shorts caused by power outages or tool damage.
4. Exposed wires and cables.
5. Wet conditions or frayed wires due to wear and tear.
6. Improper use of extension cords or double adapters.
7. Inadequate safety precautions when working on or around live wires.
8. Overloaded circuits from too many devices drawing power from a single circuit breaker.
9. Poor lighting conditions leading to accidental contact with exposed wires or fixtures.
10. Extensive use of multiple extension cords.

The Dangers of Electricity

Electricity has been a common feature of a worker’s life for at least a century, but it still kills and injures thousands of workers every year. While many other work-related injuries may involve massive machinery or complicated, high-tech equipment, the no. 1 cause of workplace deaths related to electricity is contact with overhead power lines. This can be as simple as using a metal ladder near overhead wires, bumping a crane into a power line, or using an excavator to dig near power lines.

A major contributor to electrical injuries in the workplace is that people often underestimate how dangerous electricity is and how easily it can kill or injure them. While it's true that many household electrical circuits are low voltage and pose little risk, industrial electrical systems routinely operate at voltages high enough to fatally electrocute anyone who comes into contact with them.

Electricity can take any number of paths through the body — even through water inside the eyes — in its effort to return to the ground. And when it does, its journey through the body burns nerves and nerve endings, leaving permanent damage to muscles and organs that can lead to other health problems down the road. The damage may not be immediately evident either; some injuries only manifest themselves years after an initial injury occurs.

Transitioning to a Safety Culture

Although it's true that electrical safety is paramount in the workplace, the most important thing to remember about safety is that it's a culture. It's not just procedures, protocols, and systems put into place to protect workers. Safety is a mindset that should be held by every worker on your team.

This is why transitioning to an effective safety culture can be difficult in some workplaces. It requires buy-in from everyone involved, which can take time and effort to achieve. Easy ways you can start practicing Safety Culture at your workplace include:

Have safety meetings and encourage your employees to share ideas for improving safety. Recognize employees who have performed outstanding acts of safety and share their practices with the rest of the workforce.

Encourage your employees to report any potential electrical hazards in the workplace.

Conduct regular safety audits and inspections of your workplace. This should be done by an experienced electrician who has a proven record of offering reliable electrical services in Dubai such as Safest Way Technical

Ensure all employees know how to shut off power in an emergency.

Keep all equipment and machinery in good working order, and ensure workers follow safety procedures for using them.

Provide regular training for employees on proper use of equipment.

Workplace Electrical Safety Training

Workplace Electrical Safety Training is a critical step in reducing workplace injuries and fatalities.  Without training, employees are at risk of electrocution, electric shock, burns, fires, and explosions.

The first step to electrical safety is understanding the hazards of electricity. We will discuss those hazards and how to avoid them in this article.

Under the Occupational Safety & Health Act of 1970 (OSHAct), employers are responsible for providing workplaces that are free from recognized hazards that cause or likely cause death or serious physical harm.

In order to fulfill the requirements of the OSHAct, employers need to provide workplace electrical safety training for all employees who work with or near electrical systems. 

How to Prevent Electrical Accidents

Hire professional electrical maintenance companies in Dubai that have trained experts in electricity repair,maintenance and installation: who can handle electricity correctly and safely. They know how to identify electrical hazards and fix them so that these hazards don't harm anyone else later on. They will also tell you if an appliance is faulty or dangerous so that you can replace it before someone gets hurt.

Electrical Safety Tips

When it comes to electrical safety, there are many important things to keep in mind. For example, one of the most important things that you need to do when it comes to electrical safety is to make sure that you have a good understanding of the area where you are working. The more familiar you are with the area, the better off you will be. This is because, if there is any kind of problem that occurs, it is going to be much easier for you to handle if you know what you are dealing with.

Another thing that you need to make sure of when it comes to electrical safety is that all of the lights in your workplace are turned off. Any time an electrical current enters into a light bulb, it is going to create damage and possibly cause a fire. In addition, if any part of your lighting system fails, this could cause serious problems as well.

It is also important for you to make sure that all of your lights are turned off when you leave the building for any reason. This includes when you go home for lunch or go out on vacation. If there happens to be a fire in your building, and people can't get out because they don't have access to a light switch, then there could be serious consequences.