The
Steel Toe : Power Tools - Shocks
(Taken from
"The Steel Toe", Health and Safety for Construction, April
2000) |
|
Tom
Joyce
Midstate Education and Service Foundation (formerly: Midstate Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO)
The metal casing of power tools can carry an electric current. If there
is something wrong with the tool, a fault in the electrical system, or
if the circuit is overloaded, a short can carry the current to the person
holding the tool. The following safeguards will protect you (in addition
to avoiding the shortcuts listed in the section on temporary power).
- Make sure your
tool has a 3-wire cord. (Double-insulated tools don't need a ground.)
- If your power
tool buzzes, have an electrician check it before you use it again. The
tool or the wiring to it may be defective.
- Don't touch an
electric tool if it is wet or if you're wet, if you are sweating (towel
off periodically), or if you are standing on a wet surface. Wet surfaces
are better conductors of electricity than dry surfaces. To give a brief
example, if your skin is dry, contact with 120 volts (say through a
short in the circuit somewhere to your tool) will send 1 milliamp through
your body, a barely perceptible level of current. If it's wet, however,
the level of current increases over a hundredfold, to 120 milliamps,
enough to cause ventricular fibrillation.
- Safer Tools:
Double insulated tools typically have all plastic housing and don't
have a third wire for grounding. They protect you from possible shock.
Battery-powered tools eliminate the possibility of a shock.
- Always use a
GFCI when working where a short is possible (outdoors, moisture present,
metal contact is likely).
- Beware of overloading
old under-protected electrical service by using high amp electrical
equipment (such as floor sanders, heat guns, heaters, blowers, etc.).
This can happen in older homes which have inadequate wiring (or homeowner
rigged wiring). Check out the system before running heavy duty equipment
on a service.
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