SPECIAL FEATURE
TOOLS & WORKWEAR
ELECTRIC ARC — UNDERSTAND THE RISKS AND PROTECT YOURSELF! Whilst it’s an employer’s legal responsibility to ensure that staff have the right level of protection and training against risks on site, employees have a personal responsibility to be aware of risks and potential injuries to ensure adequate protection for themselves, their safety and wellbeing, writes Peter Dumigan, Managing Director of the Hultafors Group UK, owner of Snickers Workwear and its ProtecWork range of Protective Wear.
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epending on the job task to be performed, PPE for electricians generally includes safety glasses, face shields, hard hats, safety shoes, insulating (rubber) gloves and flame-resistant clothing. In terms of clothing, there’s a big difference between conventional workwear and specialist protective wear. Over the years, workwear has evolved to make your working day more comfortable and efficient, with built-in functionality for tools and fixings, as well as protection against cold, rain and the effects of warm weather. Protective wear, which can have one or more CE (European Conformity) marks, has been designed and developed to protect the wearer from serious risks such as heat, flames, electric arcs and hazardous chemicals. In effect, clothing that can mean the difference between life and death for the wearer. In order to meet the protective requirements of a specific risk area, protective wear is divided into three categories – the higher the category number, the higher the level of protection. • C ategory I covers exposure to minimal risks, and for this category there are CE standards such as EN 343 (rain protection) and EN 14058 (cold protection). • Category II includes exposure to medium risks, for instance EN 20471 for high visibility clothing. • Category III covers exposure to serious risks, which include major hazards such as electric arcs and molten metal splashes or liquid chemicals. To be able to properly identify what protection you need, you have to know what risks you, your employees or your workmates face.
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Never assume that a Category I garment will protect against the more serious hazards and risks defined in Category III. It won’t and you’ll be putting yourself at serious risk if you think it will. That means understanding the hazards and risks of a specific electrician’s working environment or knowing the risk level before you start work and, therefore, wear appropriate clothing and PPE accessories. That risk assessment and therefore the determination of the calorie levels required in the clothing needed has to be carried out by the company buying the clothing. Importantly, each working situation will have its own required minimum protection, depending on the risk situation. How do I know the protection level of my outfit? It all starts with having working clothes with the appropriate CE mark for the specific risk environment. In work locations that involve a risk of electric arcing, you must also ensure your clothing offers a level of protection that corresponds to the risk level – Category III. You do this by adding up the total number of calories of all the layers of your outfit and it’s important to remember that high-risk environments require that all the clothes you wear, including underwear and base layers, provide protection against heat and flames. In PPE terms, calories are used to define the protection level of a fabric, an item of clothing or the system of materials/garments. When an electric arc is triggered, different types of energy and risk factors are created, such as arc power, arc energy and incident energy, all of which are measured in calories. This is why calories per
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“Protective wear is divided into three categories – the higher the category number, the higher the level of protection”
square centimetre (cal/cm2) has become the unit used to measure a fabric’s or garment’s level of protection. Arcs due to electrical faults can cause severe injuries and damage such as thermal injury, serious burns, electric shock, noise, UV emissions, pressure and shrapnel, as well as toxic exposure and the impact of physical and mental shock. “Based on independent tests and reports coupled with our years of experience, we recommend that you should never wear garments that offer total protection of less than 11 calories/cm2 if you are going to work in or near a high-risk environment”, says Peter Dumigan. The main benefit of wearing layers is that the air gap formed between different garments provides increased protection. There is no general rating for how much increased protection the air gap between layers provides. However, Hultafors has conducted a number of tests that show that the air gap increases protection by more than 5 calories/cm2. The calorie level of the extra protection depends on a variety of factors, such as fabric structure, thickness and construction – and for a precise value, combined tests on each layer must be performed. “What we know for certain,” says Peter, “is that wearing multiple layers improves the protection rating. It’s therefore best to think of the air gap between each layer as extra protection that improves your chances of avoiding burns in the event of an accident.” Arcs due to electrical faults can cause severe injuries and damage. So it’s vital that you choose the right protective wear to ensure your safety and well-being on site. Hultafors Group UK, hultaforsgroup.com
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29/04/2022 11:35
