Workplace Safety
Electricity can be our best friend, or our worst enemy. When handled improperly, electricity can injure or kill. These injuries range from shock to severe burns. Please be careful when working with electricity and remember to use the 7 Steps to Electrical Safety!
Electrical Awareness – Step and Touch Potential
Ripple Effect
If anything makes contact with a high voltage power line, such as a tree or an uninsulated boom on a truck, or if a broken power line falls to the ground or lands on a vehicle, electricity will flow to the ground and spread out in concentric circles like the ripples in a pool of water.
Voltage is very high at the point where electricity makes contact with the ground. The level of intensity decreases as the distance increases from the point of contact. Zero voltage is approximately 10 metres (33 feet) from the point of contact.
Step Potential
Due to the difference in voltage as one moves towards or away from the source of electricity it is possible to "step" between high and low voltage differences. As the human body is usually a better conductor of electricity than the ground the electricity can flow between the feet through the body with sometimes devastating results. This is referred to as "step potential."
Touch Potential
Trees can be very conductive. If a tree comes into contact with a high voltage power line and a person is touching the tree, or touching a ladder leaning against the tree, there will be a high to low voltage difference between the person and the ground. This will force electrical current to flow through them to the ground and may easily result in serious injury or worse. This is referred to as "touch potential."
Shuffle or Hop
If the ground becomes energized, you can avoid shock by keeping your feet close together and taking short, shuffling steps, never allowing the heel of one foot to move beyond the toe of the other, until you are clear of the energized area, approximately 10 metres (33 feet). Alternately, you can hop with both feet together, again to a minimum distance of 10 metres (33 feet).
