• Book Name: NFPA 70E 2018 Electrical Safety in the Workplace
• Pages: 106
• Size: 2 MB

NFPA 70E 2018 Electrical Safety in the Workplace

The Standards Council of the National Fire Protection Association announced the formal appointment of a new electrical standards development committee on January 7, 1976. The Committee on Electrical Safety Requirements for Employee Workplaces reported to the Association through the Technical Correlating Committee on National Electrical Code® (NEC®). The committee was formed to assist OSHA in preparing an electrical safety standard that would serve OSHA’s needs and that could be expeditiously promulgated through the provisions of Section 6(b) of the Occupational Safety and Health Act. OSHA found that in attempting to utilize the latest edition of the NEC, it was confronted with the following problems:

(1) OSHA could only adopt or modify a standard through procedures that provide for public notice, opportunity for public comment, and public hearings. The adoption of a new NEC edition by these procedures would require extensive effort and application of resources by OSHA and others. Going through the procedures might result in requirements substantially different from those of the NEC, thereby creating a con†ict between the two standards.

NFPA 70E 2018 Electrical Safety in the Workplace

(2) The NEC is intended for use primarily by those who design, install, and inspect electrical installations. Most of the NEC requirements are not electrical safety–related work practices, electrical system maintenance, or directly related to employee safety. However, OSHA electrical regulations, which address employers and employees in their workplaces, needed to consider and develop these safety areas. It became apparent that a need existed for a new standard tailored to fulƒll OSHA’s responsibilities that would still be fully consistent with the NEC. This led to the concept of a new document that would extract suitable portions from the NEC and from other documents applicable to electrical safety.

This concept and an offer of assistance was submitted in May 1975 to the Assistant Secretary of Labor for OSHA, who responded as follows: “The concept, procedures, and scope of the effort discussed with my staff for preparing the subject standard appear to have great merit, and an apparent need exists for this proposed consensus document which OSHA could consider for promulgation under the provisions of Section 6(b) of the Act. OSHA does have an interest in this effort and believes the proposed standard would serve a useful purpose.”

With this positive encouragement from OSHA, the NFPA Electrical Section unanimously supported a recommendation that the NEC Correlating Committee examine the feasibility of developing a document for evaluating electrical safety in the workplace. With recommendations from the Electrical Section and Correlating Committee, the Standards Council authorized the establishment of a committee to carry out this examination. The committee would develop a standard for electrical installations that would be compatible with the OSHA requirements for employee safety in locations covered by the NEC. 

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