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Text on screen: Construction Top Tips
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Text on screen: Tip #01 - Electrical safety. Electrical works and safe work method statements.
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So a safe work method statement is required, depending on what the people are actually doing.
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So if a person was working on a switchboard that is energized –
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Text on screen: Allan Mulvena, Field Inspector, Hazardous Industries, WorkSafe Victoria
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or we'll say has been energized – and the electrician wants to go and work on that switchboard.
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Then they need to undertake a safe work method statement to determine, firstly what is their activity that they're about to do –
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so they might be going to install circuit breakers or whatever,
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they need to consider, well what's my hazard – and the hazard is that they could get an electric shock or they could have an arc flash
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and then they need to consider well what is the control?
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And the control would be – I need to isolate supply at that switchboard.
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And that doesn't mean just turning off the main switch, because then that switchboard is still alive.
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So at a house they would have removed the service fuse and that would be their control device.
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If it is live cabling that's running through a building, then if there is work that is going to occur in and around near that cabling
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that needs to be incorporated into whatever activity they may be going to do – they may be installing plaster or pipe work or duct work.
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So they need to consider, whatever I’m doing, does that pose a risk?
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Am I likely to damage this cable because the cable that's running through a building by itself, does not pose a risk to anybody,
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it’s the interaction that they have with that cable and the materials
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that they use near that cable that ultimately are whether the person is at risk or not.
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So if they're cutting into it with a saw, then yes, risk of electric shock or explosion.
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If they set the cable on fire, because they're using a oxy acetylene to go and braze a copper pipe for instance,
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then again you could get an electric arc flash from that as well.
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Or even the part about, we've got cables running down through a metal wall
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and the plasterer is screwing off and puts a screw in through a cable.
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So, yeah they do need to consider where the cables are. Depending on who the worker is, they need to look at it and think -
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"Do I have an electrical risk? If I have an electrical risk, how am I going to manage that so what are my controls going to be?"
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"So I don't create a risk for myself or others."
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Text on screen: Victorian State Government logo and WorkSafe Victoria logo