 |
Occupational Health & Safety Resource Kit. Proudly brought to you by CEPU: NSW Telcommunications & Services Division |
|
|
 |
||||||
|
 |
|||||
Contact with live electrical conductors is a serious risk because a proportion of the current that could accidentally pass through the human body may also pass through the heart. This can severely disrupt the heart's operation by forcing it into fibrillation, which then stops blood being pumped around the body.
When the body or the brain no longer receives oxygen from the blood, it begins to die. This means that contact with live parts at any voltage that causes sufficient current to pass through the heart is potentially injurious or even fatal. Contact with live electrical components can also cause serious burns arising from the discharge of electrical energy. Health effects can include muscle spasm, shock, burns, palpitations, nausea and vomiting, collapse, fibrillation, unconsciousness, or death. Other risks include fire and explosions. Clause 41 of the OH&S Regulation stipulates that the controller of a work premises must ensure that any electrical installation at the premises:
|
Proximity to overhead power lines Technical workers who are required to work in close proximity to overhead power lines must take extra caution as normally the lines have not been de-energised or there is an emergency. There are quite a number of regulatory provisions which have been designed to protect the safety of workers in this situation. Whilst electricity supply workers are authorised to work with live power lines under regulatory provisions such as the Electricity Supply (Network Operator Safety Management) Regulation 2002 this would not normally be the case with telecommunications workers.
Metal ladders or wire reinforced ladders must never be used where electrical hazards exist. WorkCoverNSW make this point very strongly in their Safety Guides and these have the force of law. Safety Guide No.4503 prohibits metal ladders "any ladder used near power lines should be non-conducting, such as timber (without wire reinforcement, or with the wire reinforcement recessed and insulated) or reinforced plastics, but NOT aluminium or any metal." (emphasis in the original). Domestic ladders also must not be used. WorkCover's Safety Guide Portable Ladders is also an excellent source for basic ladder safety |
