October 2, 2009—The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) announced in the September 14 Federal Register that it is opening the record on a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on electric power generation, transmission, and distribution and for electrical protective equipment. This limited opening seeks to obtain comments related to safe proximity between a worker and exposed electrical parts.
OSHA published a proposed rule to revise the general industry and construction standards for electric power generation, transmission, and distribution and for electrical protective equipment, such as insulating blankets, gloves, and rubber sleeves. That proposal included revised minimum approach distances (MAD) to determine how close a worker or an object that the worker is holding can get to an electrical part. The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers later made further corrections for calculating MAD, and the current proposed rule includes those revisions.
A public hearing will be held October 28, 2009 from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. The agency will accept comments on the proposed rule until October 15 and notices of intention to appear until October 1. For instructions on how to submit comments, see the Federal Register.
