Aside from lightning strikes, electrical risks can be associated with switches, wiring or appliances, or electric transmission lines.
The classic image of the person holding onto an electrical wire, hair standing on end, unable to let go as the current surges through them has been used to comic effect in cartoons. It’s no joke, this does happen. It’s called the ‘no-let-go’ phenomenon. It’s caused by involuntary muscle contraction that clamps the person’s hand around the source of the current*.
The consequences of electrical accidents are not limited to death by electrocution. They may include non-fatal burns, eye damage, disturbance of the heart’s rhythm, respiratory arrest or a traumatic brain injury. Being thrown by the electrical surge can also result in injuries. ‘No-let-go’ incidents involving high voltage tend to result in more serious and sustained symptoms, including pain, muscle weakness, and loss of sensation.
In general, only the more serious electrical accidents result in medical care being sought, for example, where the shock caused severe burns or loss of consciousness. Hundreds of these incidents occur every year in Australia. Almost 1,100 hospitalised cases were identified as electrical injuries in a recent two-year period. Nearly half of them occurred while the person was working for income. A further 14 percent happened while the person was doing unpaid work such as household maintenance.
Who gets electrocuted at work?
Almost anyone. In January 2020, for example, a teenage girl was rushed to hospital after being electrocuted by contact with a fridge at her workplace, a food store at a Queensland shopping centre. In the same month, the Tasmanian Coroner was hearing a case concerning the death of a facilities manager electrocuted at a dairy company’s café in north-eastern Tasmania.
A couple of months earlier, a worker suffered serious burns after an electrical explosion at a construction site in a Perth suburb. And before that, an electrician received traumatic burns in a Western Australian mine when a current arced between two terminals and a 1000V electric shock passed through his wrist.
Employers’ responsibilities for preventing electrical injuries
The fundamental duty of employers under work health and safety laws is to manage electrical hazards. This means eliminating the risks or minimising them as far as is reasonably practicable.
A key requirement is that employers must ensure electrical work is not carried out on electrical equipment while the equipment is energised (reg 154 of the WHS Regulations) unless there are particular reasons why the equipment must remain energised while the work is carried out (reg 157).
Many electrical injuries had resulted when this requirement was ignored. In the case of the Tasmanian facilities manager in the café, for example, he attempted to move a coffee machine due for servicing. Assuming the machine’s water supply was behind the café’s dishwasher, he and another employee moved the dishwasher to find out, inadvertently dislodging the dishwasher’s wastewater pipe. The facilities manager then removed a panel from the front of the dishwasher, exposing its electrical wiring. When he reached inside the machine in an effort to fix the disconnected pipe, he touched a live terminal and was electrocuted. The inquest heard that the power to the dishwasher had not been turned off.
Other risk factors involved in this and many other electrical injuries include faulty electrical wiring, a lack of RCDs (residual current devices – ‘safety switches’ – that break electrical circuits) and lack of training in carrying out electrical equipment tasks, fittings or appliances.
Under the WHS Regulations**, RCDs are required where normal use of electrical equipment exposes the equipment to operating conditions likely to damage it or reduce its expected life span. Such conditions include exposure to moisture, heat, vibration, mechanical damage, corrosive chemicals or dust (reg 164).
For more information on safety requirements for work on electrical equipment, see the Code of practice: Managing electrical risks in the workplace or Part 4.7 of the WHS Regulations.
*This happens with alternating current above a certain amperage if contact occurs with the inside of the palm, so the closing fist can actually grab the wire. In other circumstances, the person may be propelled away from the source of power.
**Except in Queensland, where these provisions are omitted from the workplace health and safety Regulation, and RCDs are required as provided for in the Electrical Safety Regulation 2013.
