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3 WHITE PAPER — VeriSafe
™
– Safely Testing for Absence of Voltage
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Occupational Safety and Health Administration. “Commonly Used Statistics.” Accessed October 1, 2017.
2
Bureau of Labor Statistics. “Injuries, Illnesses, and Fatalities.” Accessed October 1, 2017.
3
U.S. Department of Labor. “Bureau of Labor Statistics Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries.” Accessed October 2, 2017.
4
Wuellner, Sara E. and Bonauto, D. K. “Exploring the Relationship Between Employer Recordkeeping and Underreporting in the BLS Survey of
Occupational Injuries and Illnesses.” Amer. J. Ind. Med., 57, no. 10 (2014): 1133–1143.
5
Campbell, Richard B. and Dini, David A. “Occupational Injuries From Electrical Shock and Arc Flash Events.” Quincy, MA: Fire Protection Research
Foundation, 2015.
6
Electrical Safety Foundation International. “Electrical Safety Then and Now: 20 Years of Electrical Injury Data Shows Substantial Electrical Safety
Improvement.” 2011.
7
Wellman, Craig M. “OSHA Arc-Flash Injury Data Analysis.” IEEE Paper No. ESW2012 – 28.
The Rate of Electrical Injuries
Exposure to electricity continues to be a leading cause of injury and death among workers. Violations
of electrical standards and lockout/tagout procedures were two of the Occupational Safety and Health
Administration’s (OSHA) top ten most frequently cited standards in 2017.
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Data from the U.S. Bureau of
Labor Statistics indicates that in the period from 2003 to 2012, there were more than 24,100 nonfatal
electrical injuries
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and nearly 2,000 electrical fatalities.
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Even more alarming, these numbers are likely
underreported.
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Furthermore, there has been little change in the nonfatal electrical injury incident rate over
the past decade.
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One of the leading causes of both fatal and nonfatal electrical injuries is contact with wiring, transformers,
or other electric components. This category accounted for 29% of electrical fatalities from 2003 to 2010
and 36% of nonfatal electrical injuries from 2004 to 2010.
2,3
The Electrical Safety Foundation International
performed an analysis indicating that over the past 20 years the percentage of injuries attributed to this
category has remained constant.
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Incidents in the workplace resulting from contact with exposed wiring, transformers, or other electrical
components may involve construction, installation, maintenance, and repair work. Primary injuries resulting
from these and other electrical incidents include electrical shock, thermal burns, or a combination of the two.
According to a study
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concerning arc ash injury data analysis, the most common work task leading to arc ash
injury is workers replacing fuses without turning off the power and verifying that equipment is de-energized.