Regulation Changes

In 2012, the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) released the ninth edition of the 70E Standard for Electrical Safety in the Workplace based on the 2011 NFPA 70 (NEC) Code. The previous edition was published in 2009. There are significant differences between the two editions.

The original NEC Code was written primarily for those who design, install and inspect electrical installations (electricians by trade). Its technical content, complexity and scope are specific to the needs of that group and include provisions that have nothing to do with employee safety. OSHA's responsibility, on the other hand, is to ensure its regulations on Electrical Safety pertain to employers/employees across industry lines.

The NFPA 70E was created to fulfill OSHA requirements while remaining consistent with original NEC Code. It is drawn largely from the original code, but also from other documents to make it more understandable and usable across the board.

Here are highlights of changes from the 2009 70E edition to the 2012 70E edition:

1. Updated to correlate with the latest NEC code—2011
2. Definitions of terms not used deleted
3. Term "Flame-resistant" replaced by "arc-rated" (AR)
4. New Article 105, Application of Safety-Related Work Practices separated from Article 110
5. Three year retraining interval
6. Safe work practices added for use with GFCI's
7. Article 110.8 moved to Article 130.3
8. New safety-related work practice for underground electrical lines
9. Individual qualified employee control procedure added
10. All requirements of Article 130 required whether hazard/risk table or hazard risk analysis used
11. New requirements and info regarding PPE use associated with enclosed electrical equipment
12. Content of energized electrical work permit revised
13. Hazard/Risk tables analysis added to address DC current
14. Hearing protection required within arc flash boundary
15. Arc-Flash protection for hands has been revised to specify "heavy-duty" leather gloves
16. Hazard/risk tables now address short-circuit current, fault clearing, and potential arc flash boundary info in each major category
17. Hazard/Risk table modified to eliminate 2* category and combines old tables 130.7(C)(10) & (11) into one table 130.7(C)(16)
18. New equipment labeling requirements
19. Documented meeting between the host employer and the contract employer

NFPA added specific reference information addressing the use of PPE as a safe work practice around shock and arc flash hazards. As highlighted in numbers 11-17 above several changes were made to this edition to ensure PPE is more appropriately selected. The biggest change involves the new Hazard/Risk table being developed (#17 above). Once the hazard/risk category has been identified from Table 130.7(C)(15)(a) and/or (b) and requirements of 130.7(C)(15) have been met, Table 130.7(C)(16) will be used to determine the required PPE for the task. This method can only be used of the specific job task appears in the table.

AN = as needed (optional)
AR = as required
SR = selection required

*One of the 3 basic methods is used to determine a HRC for a job task

Notes:
(1) If rubber insulating gloves with leather protectors are required by Table 130.7(C)(9), additional leather or arc-rated gloves are not required. The combination of rubber insulating gloves with leather protectors satisfies the arc flash protection requirement.
(2) Face shields are to have wrap-around guarding to protect not only the face but also the forehead, ears, and neck, or, alternatively, an arc-rated arc flash suit hood is required to be worn.
(3) Arc rating is defined in Article 100 and can be either the arc thermal performance value (ATPV) or energy of break open threshold (EBT). ATPV is defined in ASTM F 1959, Standard Test Method for Determining the Arc Thermal Performance Value of Materials for Clothing, as the incident energy on a material, or a multilayer system of materials, that results in a 50 percent probability that sufficient heat transfer through the tested specimen is predicted to cause the onset of a second-degree skin burn injury based on the Stoll curve, in cal/cm2. EBT is defined in ASTM F 1959 as the incident energy on a material or material system that results in a 50 percent probability of breakopen. Arc rating is reported as either ATPV or EBT, whichever is the lower value.

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