National Safety Month is observed in the United States every June. Established by the National Safety Council in 1996, it is a perfect time for organizations to increase awareness of injury and death at the workplace and launch informational campaigns to reduce its probability. Aside from the workplace injuries, the efforts of organizations and communities during National Safety Month also focus on road accidents and accidents that happen in homes in the community, including violent ones. Each year, National Safety Month has a specific theme related to accident prevention, such as the shared responsibility for accidents, or, in 2021, specific measures in place during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Electrical hazards are some of the most prominent dangers in the workplace in the United States and worldwide. Each year, they cause about 300 deaths and 4000 injuries in the workplace, which means that nearly one person dies from it every day. In homes, more than 50000 thousand electrical fires are expected to occur each year, resulting in the deaths of hundreds and injuries to thousands. In observance of National Safety Month, we offer you tips on avoiding electrical accidents that lead to injuries in the workplace and at home.

Avoiding Electrical Fires in the Workplace and at Home

Common electrical hazards in the workplace are electric shock, resistive heating, and electrical fire. To prevent these accidents, one should inspect electrical wires before every use and report damaged wires for immediate replacement. If the wires generate abnormal heat or electrical shocks, they should be replaced immediately. Other tips are:

• Adhere to the official safe work practices implemented in your workplace each time you use electrical equipment.
• Know where the switches and circuit panels are in your workplace to power them off in case an electrical event occurs.
• Always use multi-plug adapters with circuit breakers.
• Do not let water and chemicals get anywhere near the electrical equipment.
• Avoid any direct contact with live parts of electrical equipment that operate at medium voltage.
• The equipment that you use for work has to be electrically grounded.
• The ground-fault circuit interrupter, or GFCI, should be installed in the workplace in order to protect the workers from electrical shock.
• If your workplace uses motor equipment, it has to be air or non-sparking motors for improved safety.
• Make sure that your hands are dry when you work with the electrical equipment.
• Do not touch live cords with your bare hands under any circumstances.

To learn about preventing electrical fires in a home, read our blog Electrical Fires: Handling Tips And Steps For Precautions. These tips are also applicable to electrical fires in the workplace.

Safety Standards When Installing Electrical Wires

Whether you are a professional or an individual opting for a DIY project, wire installation is the process that involves a risk of electrical hazards that should be tended for. Here are some general rules that should be followed:

• Always have the power off when working on the wire installation and avoid water.
• Have a wiring diagram and a plan before starting electrical work.
• Wear protective gear and protect your eyes with safety glasses.
• Apply a voltage tester to the wires before working on them to make sure that they are not live.
• Have a collection of the right tools for a particular installation with you, including wire cutters, cable strippers, continuity tester, and many others.
• Follow professional standards of wiring installation, including IEC Standards, ISO Standards, and ROHS directives for North America. These standards determine general installation rules and standards, characteristics of the installed power loads, and power loading of an installation.
• Make live wires safe by capping them and applying wire nuts. Always install a junction box and discharge the wires using electrical tape.
• Double-check everything once the work is completed.

Common Mistakes to Avoid When Installing Wiring

Following the right steps and general safety precautions are often not enough. As a matter of fact, there are often many misconceptions about the wire installation that are spread by electricians themselves. Even if you have a lot of experience with wiring installation, it is sometimes best to not over-rely on your confidence and check yourself. Here are some tips to avoid mistakes:

• Make sure to protect your wiring from screws and nails. Some common wiring, such as Romex NM-B, needs to have its jacket extra-protected from the damage.
• Line and low-voltage lines have to be kept apart. Their parallel wiring is sure to cause EMI in some devices, such as television.
• Overcrowded junction boxes are a definitive cause of an electrical fire. When they overheat, the insulation melts, resulting in a fire. Replace a box with a bigger one if you need to store the wires in one place.
• When you add a new fixture to the existing wire, it is best to use a splice box. The thing is, the compatibility issues between the fixture and the wire are very common, which may cause the fixtures to overload. You should also carefully read labels before installing a new fixture.
• Do not run a lot of wires through one hole as it may burn the insulation of one of the neighbor wires. Check NEC recommendations to see how many wires can run through one hole simultaneously in each particular case.
• Leave splice boxes in the sites where they are easily accessible. Burying or hiding in the wall can lead to an increased fire hazard in case an accident of any kind occurs.