Working with and near electrical currents is part of daily life at work and even at home. Even though electricity is everywhere, there is no safe way to encounter electricity. Once contact is made, you can’t minimize the damage. Yet, although the dangers of electrical hazards are well known, electrical injuries are growing in number and severity.
In 2019, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported the greatest number of recorded fatal electrical injuries since the year 2011. That year, 166 people died after contact with or exposure to electrical current. And the construction industry had the highest rate of fatal electrical injuries.
Inspections, checklists, and toolbox talks can all minimize the risk of exposure and keep best practices at the top of workers’ minds. You can use these six electrical safety checklists and inspections on a daily basis to protect workers from injuries like electrocution, electrical shock, thermal burns, and falls.
1. OSHA Electrical Power Line Employee Safety Checklist
OSHA 1926.1407 Subpart CC requires every employee working near or around live power lines to have hazard training. You can use this employee safety checklist to ensure that everyone on site has the training needed to work safely around electrical hazards and satisfy OSHA requirements.
2. Electrical Safety Facilities Management Checklist
Run through all potential sources of electrical hazards and simultaneously record any current hazards with this electrical safety checklist designed for safety managers and facility mangers.
3. Electrical Cord, Plug Equipment, and Tool Safety Checklist
Is your construction site free from electrical hazards? It may not be, even if you aren’t working near power lines.
Use this checklist to spot potential electrical hazards that may come from cords, equipment, and tools. Assign it to a foreman and any subcontractors to identiy damaged electrical cords.
4. Electrical and Material Storage OSHA Inspection
Electrical hazards can hide in many places from overloaded sockets to stray electrical cords. Use this inspection to ensure a cord or outlet doesn’t become a fire or injury risk in your work area or office.
5. Manufacturing Electrical Inspection
Electrical hazards abound in manufacturing environments. From switches to power lines to appliances, there’s no shortage of opportunities for exposure to electricity.
Use this manufacturing electrical inspection to determine the knowledge of workers on electrical safety, including their knowledge of and practice of lockout/tagout (LOTO).
6. Electrical Safety Checklist in Mines (MSHA)
Both surface and underground activities can pose threats of electrical hazards and injuries. You can use this inpsection in mines and field offices to ensure that everything from electrical equipment to back-up electrical power sources for critical support systems are safe for operations.
Electrical Hazards Are Everywhere
Every workplace has electrical hazards. Whether you work in an office or in a mine, you could be at risk of electrical injuries if you don’t manage electrical tools and sources of electricity correctly. However, scheduled inspections along with OSHA training and regular toolbox talks can mitigate the risk by spotting hazards before they pose a severe threat to workers and teaching team members how to work around electricity in a safe way.
Looking for more checklists and inspections? You can find all these electrical safety inspections and more in the Safesite template library.
