Electrical Hazard Analysis

Employers are responsible for ensuring the safety of all their workers. Site-specific tasks must be individually analyzed and documented. This documentation for safe procedures must be shared with employees before allowing them to perform the tasks.

These written procedures should take into account the risks and hazards associated with each task that may be performed by a miner working with electrical components. In the employer's documentation, the following four terms can be used to rank potential accidents:

• Probable - Likely to occur
• Possible - Could occur (but not probable)
• Unlikely - Unlikely to occur
• Negligible - Occurrence so remote it can be considered zero

Ranking accident probability is helpful for determining areas of a job that may need more training and documentation due to being high risk. It can also help identify parts of the process where methods of risk reduction are most important. Common methods of risk reduction include easy-to-follow instruction manuals, warning labels, guards and barriers, and direct supervision.

Employers must ensure that all miners and their supervisors are suitably trained in the safe operation of their equipment and the safe implementation of operating procedures.

To learn more about MSHA Part 48 training requirements visit our MSHA Part 48 Subpart B Surface Mining Online Training web page.