Is Electrical Safety a Specialized Field? Seeking Advice on Safety Officer Roles

Dear All, Is electrical safety a specialized field? Herewith, I want to ask seniors, is this true? If so, what should be the scope of a Safety Officer if he is not from an electrical background? In simple words, which activities does he need to inspect?

Regards,
Abhay

The scope of safety is very vast, and electrical safety is one of the important areas within it. In electrical safety, one needs to focus on the various electrical hazards. Individuals not familiar with electrical safety may need to refer to the requirements of the Indian Electricity Rules after preparing a checklist from this.

Thank you.

Like all other hazards, carry out a thorough electrical risk assessment. You could involve your company's electrical engineer to assist you with this task. A safety officer may not be a specialist in all fields.

Hope this resolves your concern.

Thank you & best regards,

Dear Abhay, like all other hazards, carry out a thorough electrical risk assessment. You could involve your company's electrical engineer to assist you in this. A safety officer may not be a specialist in all fields. Hope this resolves your concern. Thank you & best regards, @clique_y & @vinoddigwal

Welcome to this forum.

Thank you for the explanation. @Vinodji, if you have a checklist according to IE Rules, it would be a great help if you post it in this forum.

Regards, Abhay

Dear Abhay, I realize there is something wrong somewhere. Your safety officer seems to be not proactive, or otherwise, this question might not be here—I presume. If you feel unhappy with my observation, please leave it as such. Let us go to the issue at hand.

Specialization in Safety

Everything is specialization, and for that matter, what is not? Can you mention any occupation or activity that does not need specialization? Begging, sleeping, crossing the road—each and everything needs specialization. We have only to specialize in respective areas to satisfy our needs. We are specialized in the safe use of electricity; for that matter, every one of us who uses electricity has some kind of specialization, even though limited.

Electrical Safety as a Specialization

Electrical safety is a different kind of specialization where only electricity is handled—but only electricity. Of course, safety is a specialization, and an industrial safety officer is a specialist who is supposed to manage electrical safety also.

Qualifications of a Safety Officer

Unlike the Middle East, in India, an industrial safety officer has prescribed qualifications. It is a statutory requirement. The prescribed qualification is passing certain examinations and a few years of experience in certain cases. This examination requires a certain period of learning with a specified syllabus. In this syllabus, electrical safety, including electrical statutes, is included so that in the industry where he is appointed as per statutory requirements, he will have to manage electrical safety aspects also. He is not going to study electrical circuits. Based on safety practices, he is to inspect, coordinate with the electrical department, and manage the safety requirements.

Role of a Safety Officer

Consider any safety officer—"in what area is he a safety specialist"? In electrical safety, if a safety officer claims that he is not a specialist, he is not a specialist in any area. Is he specialized in machinery erection, material handling, chemicals, confined spaces, working at height, excavation, pollution control, housekeeping, machine guarding—go on mentioning every activity where a safety officer has to manage safety? You take any topic; he can escape saying that he is not a specialist. It is meaningless. It seems to be a shameful situation.

As a safety officer of an industry, one has to manage the safety of anything and everything under the sun there. Where he lacks understanding, he has to immediately project it to the management, such that they may seek help from experts either from inside or outside. Coordinating with all and effectively managing safety—that is what is required of a safety officer.

Regards,
Kesava Pillai

Dear Mr. Kesava, I fully agree with your last line, "Coordinating with all and effectively managing safety - that is what is required of a safety officer." It does imply that a Safety man is a specialist in his chosen field and may be naive in various other aspects of the industry. Not everyone can be a specialist in all the fields within the industry, even if the course curriculum includes that field.

Thank you and best regards,

Dear Friends, I read with interest the discussions. I agree that a Safety Officer is a "Jack of all trades and master of none." A Safety Officer is more concerned with fulfilling statutory requirements and not with designing, commissioning, or operating electrical equipment. He is required to guide the electrical engineers in line with safety procedures as laid down in the safety system adopted by the organization. When making protocols, the Safety Officer involves electrical engineers who are responsible for the execution of the actual job. Yes, it is true that a Safety Officer should be conversant with IE Rules and other rules/acts in vogue.

Regards,
VVSN Prabhakar Rao

Dear all,

Role of a Safety Officer (Industrial)

A safety officer (Industrial) is a person who is supposed to have:

- A sharp eye for identifying unsafe acts/unsafe conditions.
- Knowledge of standard safe operating/working procedures, or rather, he is skilled by virtue of his learnings during his course for industrial safety and experienced to get such procedures developed in coordination with the concerned shop floor personnel.
- Knowledge of the statutes where rules are laid down. The SO is supposed to check the shop floor conditions and activities and find out the deviations.
- The most important of all - it is the attitude towards making the work area safer day by day in a sustainable manner.

As a matter of fact, the concept of having a separate SHE department in any organization instead of merging it with other functions arose only due to the fact that the production people focus more on achieving the production targets in whatsoever way, even neglecting very crucial safety aspects at times. Hence, a need for external vigilance arose. For this matter, a SO may not certainly be a specialist of all the processes; instead, a basic concept of the process that helps him to find out the deviations from the should-be standards and the statutes is enough.

Warm Regards,
Raman.