How many electricians die each year

Tips for working safely with electricity Before you start working on electric equipment, make sure the power is turned off! This may seem obvious, but reports from the Electronic Library of Construction confirm that people responsible for installing or maintaining electrical equipment often fail to turn off the power source before beginning to work on it, with tragic results.

If the power is on, you may get a short circuit with an arcing fault if a metal screwdriver, wrench, fish tape, or other equipment touches grounded metal or a conductor.

Turn off the switch or circuit breaker before working on it. If the cover is open when a switching operation occurs, you can be severely burned from the hot gases and tiny metal particles that occur during the flash. Remember that your body conducts electrical current, and that an electric shock of volts can often be just as deadly as or more volts. Wear protective equipment. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration requires that safety gear, including steel-toed work shoes, ear protection, safety glasses and a hard hat, be worn on all job sites.

You should also have access to high voltage gloves, sticks and testers, with rubber on the inside and leather on the outside, to insulate yourself from electric current.

Get your equipment inspected periodically. An electrician should know at a glance the month each piece of equipment was last inspected and approved.

See a doctor at the first signs of repetitive stress injury. Chronic pain or heaviness in your arms may indicate tendinitis, and numbness and tingling in your hands, especially at night, is a sign of carpal tunnel syndrome.

Avoid short cuts when working with wiring, such as removing the ground from a plug, running extension cords in damp or wet areas, and splicing flexible cords together.

Don't get complacent around electricity. Transferring this V experience to V and above can be a fatal error. Nearly , U. His Daughter's Coaches Saved Him. Related articles. Trending topics. Want to find out more? To take the next step toward a rewarding career, please fill out the form or give us a call at Identify goals, personal strengths and important facts about your potential career path so you can make an informed decision about your future.

It takes just a few minutes! Skip to main content. Safety Training for Electricians In a good Electrician training program, you will get lots of hands-on experience to learn how to stay safe. Those hundreds, even thousands, of volts that power your home and work can cause all sorts of problems in the forms of fire and electrocution. There is a reason electricians are required to do so much training and reimbursed so much for their labor.

There are multiple qualifications electricians need to go through in the United Kingdom, such as the Domestic Electrician and Professional Electrician courses for a start.

These classes are designed to give hands-on knowledge and other practical skills to get them started. Like the domestic course, this one can be taken by anyone and is designed to give people a complete electrical certification in the UK. The NVQs are a series of qualifications needed that reflect the responsibilities and roles of the specific sector. Electrotechnical refers to the installations of electrical systems and can be specified depending on the building, service, or machinery in question.

Some of these tips are common enough knowledge but should never be overlooked. One common question is whether you should attempt to repair damaged power cords.

This depends on the level of damage. For every , electricians in , 10 died from occupational injuries, nearly three times the national rate. Becoming an electrician is well worth the 4-year apprenticeship.

You can make a good living. In fact, electricians are the highest paid of the skilled trades, with plumbers a close second. Electricians enjoy varied work with little chance of boredom.

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