While politicians were manufacturing outrage in Parliament over the number of deaths in New Zealand workplaces during recent debates on the Health and Safety Reform Bill, the electrical industry has continued operating with its enviable but unacknowledged record of public safety.
This record was so good that last year, according to Energy Safety, no electrical death occurred outside of a work place, which means electrical workers must be doing a great job of keeping children and the public safe from the ever-present danger of contact with electricity.
But maintaining this 100 percent safety record is not only statistically unlikely, it will also be impossible because of the increased risks of exposure to electricity in the changing way it is used. A rapidly increasing number of devices and technologies surround us with lethal electricity to the point where the regulator of electrical work is now taking action to address electrical safety risks that, it says, are increasing faster than electrical workers are raising their competencies to deal effectively with them.
The regulator of electrical work, Energy Safety, outlined these risks at a seminar hosted in August by Electrical Safety New Zealand (ESNZ), an Auckland-based organisation representing primarily inspectors and people with a strong interest in electrical safety.