Health and Safety Forum

Knowledge Network | Health and Safety Forum

Requirement to Wear Hearing Protection in an Arc Flash Hazard Zone

  • Requirement to Wear Hearing Protection in an Arc Flash Hazard Zone

    Posted by Stephen Albrecht on 28 July 2022 at 4:14 pm

    The EEA Arc Flash Guide and The National Fire Protection Association’s NFPA 70E standard both indicate hearing protection requirements in an arc flash hazard zone.

    MainPower is proposing to adopt the requirement of wearing ear canal inserts for operating, or working within the MAD, as additional arc flash PPE requirements. An exception would be ear canal inserts may be omitted where use presents a greater risk than non-use, e.g. live work.

    I’m interested to know the position of other
    companies regarding hearing protection in an arc flash hazard zone.

    Stephen Albrecht replied 2 years, 3 months ago 2 Members · 2 Replies
  • 2 Replies
  • Stephen Small

    Member
    29 July 2022 at 8:47 am

    Hi Stephen

    Apparently EA networks doesn’t mandate ear pro for HV switching where there is risk of arc flash:

    According to our current PPE Standard we use hearing protection ‘where required as per SM-EI 2.1304’, which is a circular reference to ‘shall be worn for all designated areas’.

    Note that our PPE standard was last reviewed in 2016, and we are looking at this next month – so I am interested to see what others do!

    I do know that at my previous employer it was mandated – however we were Transpower qualified (FRO and CPO switching at GXPs), so mirrored their requirements, which is not the case here.

    Cheers

    Stephen.

    • Stephen Albrecht

      Member
      29 July 2022 at 2:20 pm

      Thanks for your feedback Stephen.

      Regards

      Stephen

Log in to reply.