As many as 60 people in the Republic have been killed through electrocution in the last 10 years.
Electrocution is associated with respiratory arrest (the prolonged contraction of the lungs), ventricular fibrillation (the heart stops pumping), asphyxia (the person cannot let go of the live object), and consequential injury, such as falling from a height after an electric shock.
Non-fatal injuries include electrical burns, shock (physiological and psychological) and consequential injury.
The Electro-Technical Council of Ireland (ETCI) recently produced The Management of Electrical Safety at Work, which was launched last month by Mr Tom Kitt TD, Minister of State at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment.
Targeted at employers and line managers responsible for safety, health and welfare at work, the guide's objective is to reduce electrical accidents, incidents, dangerous occurrences and electrocution.
According to the council, quite often neither employers nor health and safety managers are "electrically competent within the meaning of the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act. The guide is intended as a working handbook for such persons to show the scope of their responsibilities for enforcing safe practices in the management of electricity in the workplace".
The guide details the measures an employer or health and safety manager should take to ensure the safety of people from electrical hazards in the workplace.
At its launch, Mr Kitt said the comprehensive guide would be a useful tool for employers and health and safety managers and noted that it was designed to assist "non-technical managers".
Employers can be found personally responsible for breaches of safety in the workplace and they are required to nominate a "competent person" if, for instance, electrical safety is beyond the employer's competence, says the guide.
The guide looks at the responsibilities that go with the erection, commissioning and operation of an electrical installation, comprising the four key players; the employer, designer, the manufacturer or supplier and the electrical contractor.
Details of how electrical safety should be dealt with in the Safety Statement - which the 1989 Act requires every employer to produce - are given. Either the employer or the person authorised as responsible for electrical safety should carry out an electrical hazard audit, listing all potentially hazardous electrical installations.
The list should be prioritised in order of most serious electrical hazards, detailing who could be injured and how the injury could occur. Decide what precautions and controls are needed to eliminate or reduce these risks.
For further details about the guide, contact the ETCI, Unit 43, Parkwest Business Park, Dublin 2. Telephone: 01 623 9901. jmarms@irish-times.ie
