Electric Shock Incidents: Investigations Utilizing In-Depth Electrical Exposure Reconstruction Techniques

The authors describe their experience at a global testing laboratory and certification body that conducts potentially hazardous electrical testing as part of its operations. In addition to obligatory safety compliance and U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) reporting, the enterprise has implemented additional incident response measures beyond what is required. These include voluntary reporting tools, reporting of near-miss incidents so that lessons can be learned from them, and a comprehensive analysis of each incident. This analysis includes identifying factors contributing to incidents and, for shock incidents, an electropathological analysis to understand the shock exposure to an employee and what the potential result could have been if the conditions were modified slightly. The investigation is conducted with the message that the goal is to gather lessons learned from an incident, rather than seeking to determine blame. This article outlines the process used by our global environment, health, and safety (EHS) and R&D divisions after an electrical incident as well as two case studies to demonstrate the process. The ultimate goal of this approach is to identify trends across incidents and to create a feedback loop where lessons learned improve overall laboratory safety, with an aspiration to drive total electrical incidents toward zero over time.