Do you understand everything you know?

I am tardy posting my blog, but I was attending a NFPA 70E training class last week and as well as learning a great deal, I was gathering information for this blog subject.

I have been in the electrical field for 30+ years and have always said and believe the day I have learned everything about this trade I would quit because that would be the day I hurt myself or someone else.

Well to suggest I didn’t learn something about this trade in my training class would be a big joke. I Learned so much!!! Also I learned about something about myself, I was never this good of a student when I was younger.

As I said, I have been in the electrical trade for over 30+ years, many times I have turned breakers on and off and always as I was taught I turned my head to the side or turned my back on the larger circuits when I turned them on. But as I learned I wasn’t protecting myself at all turning away.

In one of the training videos a mannequin was stood in front of a panel, holding a screwdriver as if the blade had slipped and was creating a short in the panel. The mannequin was wearing a hardhat, safety glasses, gloves and a long sleeve work shirt. However, no matter what the protection, it wasn’t enough. Once the power was applied the plasma explosion completely enveloped the mannequin front and back. In less than a 1/16^th of a second the temperature under the mannequin’s shirt was at 122 degrees Fahrenheit. The plasma temperature was 35000 degrees. The pressure from the explosion expanded the air 67,000 times in a fraction of a second putting over 5000 pounds of force on the mannequin which would have resulted in breaking all the ribs or a real human.

Also the protective clothing we wear is only meant to protect us enough to receive a survivable 2^nd degree burn.

How many times have I as a supervisor been the one to put on the arc suit direct all  the others to leave the room and energize a breaker thinking if something did fail I would be unhurt.

What do we do in our daily routines that we have done time and time again thinking we were safe in doing so, only to discover we knew nothing of the possible outcome if things did not go as planned?

I have a teenage daughter that is only a couple years from getting a drivers license, here is one I have thought about when I think about her getting her license.

Something people do everyday around us and the outcome can be deadly is texting and driving. Traveling at 70 miles per hour in 3 seconds we have traveled just over the length of a football field. How long are you not looking at the road when you look down to read or type a text, just a few seconds maybe, the length of a football field at 70 mph or at 30 miles per hour 135 feet. Scary when you think about it like that way isn’t it?

Accident prevention is not only something we need to strive for but something we need to learn about. Take a few minutes and think about things you do all the time, second nature things. Do you really understand everything you know?

Did you know in Georgia it is illegal to tie a giraffe to a telephone pole?