NFPA Journal - September/October 2019 - 40

In Compliance
attendees asked for clarification on. In
fact, what they were looking for was
guidance on how to comply with the
concept of a "qualified person." Because
many of the safety-related work practices found in NFPA 70E depend on the
worker being a qualified person, many
of the long-held beliefs in these occupations did not comply with what NFPA
70E lays out. In order to set the foundation for the rest of the class, we needed
to take a deeper look at how NFPA 70E
defines a qualified person, which is
"one who has demonstrated skills and
knowledge related to the construction
and operation of electrical equipment
and installations and has received
safety training to identify the hazards
and reduce the associated risk."
There are two parts to this definition
that are very important: that the person
has proven that they possess a knowledge of the construction and operation
of the equipment to be worked on and
the skills to work on this piece of equipment, and that the person has received
safety training on how to identify the
hazards and reduce the risk associated
with the task being performed.
The first part of the definition,
"demonstrating the skills and knowledge," seemed to raise more questions
than it answered. "Who do I have to
prove this to? Who determines what
a sufficient level of knowledge and
skill is? How can I do this if I am on
a service call by myself?" The questions just kept coming, so we needed
to simplify our response since this was
a new concept for this audience. We
explained that some entity, usually
their customer, is requesting the work
be performed. Then somebody, usually
a supervisor, is responsible for assigning the individual to perform the work.
The entity assigning the worker must
ensure that if the task requires a qualified person, the worker assigned to
the task must be qualified for the work
being performed. In order to do this,
the worker must have demonstrated
their skills and knowledge to the entity
assigning them the task.
The second half of this definition is
based on the qualifed person having

40 | NFPA JOURNAL * S E P T E M B E R / O C T O B E R 2 0 1 9

been trained to recognize hazards and
how to protect themselves and others
from the hazards that exist. This is
where NFPA 70E training comes in.
However, NFPA 70E doesn't spell out
who can provide this training or what
qualifications a trainer must have in
order to teach workers about electrical
hazards and how to reduce the associated risks. Again, this comes down
to the entity that is making the determination that a worker is a qualified
person. Due diligence must be undertaken to ensure that a person is being
trained effectively.
Who ensures that this actually
happens? Ultimately, it is the employer
of the qualified person, but this is also a
function of the host/contract employer
relationship that sometimes gets overlooked. It is the responsibility of the
contract employer to understand and
comply with all of the electrical
safety-related procedures; the host
employer is still responsible for overseeing any work being performed on their
watch. Therefore, the host employer
must also do their due diligence to
ensure that the contract employer's
qualified persons have taken the needed
steps to be deemed qualified.
This doesn't mean that the host
employer must also make the determination of whether an employee
is qualified. Instead, the contract
employer must provide documentation that the contract employees have
taken adequate training and have
proven their skills and knowledge
related to the electrical equipment
to be worked on. This information
is required by NFPA 70E to be documented, and the process for this
should be outlined in the company's
electrical safety program.
Lastly, it is important to know that,
because of the nature of determining
a qualified person, there is no way to
create any sort of general qualified-person credential that employees can carry
with them to prove they are qualified.
However, there are credentials that can
be used by employers as a tool to assist
in making the determination. Take for
instance the Certified Electrical Safety

Technician® certification program;
while this credential in no way deems
a person qualified, it is nevertheless
a way for an employee to demonstrate that they have taken the proper
training and have gained the needed
knowledge to identify hazards and
control the risk. Combined with licensing and work experience, an employer
can get a sense of where an employee is
at in order to make the qualified person
determination.
Derek Vigstol is an NFPA technical lead, Electrical
Tech Services. NFPA members and AHJs can use the
Technical Questions tab to post queries on NFPA 70
at nfpa.org/70next.

NFPA 13

Water-based fire
protection systems

Monitoring the status
of a sprinkler sytstem
By Brian O'Connor
ccording to the July

A

2017 NFPA report
"U.S. Experience with
Sprinklers," in three out
of every five fire incidents where sprinklers fail to operate,
the system has been shut off.
While sprinkler systems are highly
reliable, the human element can play
a role in compromising the system.
When an automatic sprinkler system is
undergoing repairs or renovations, for
example, it is often necessary to close
valves that control the water supply.
When work on the system is complete,
the valve needs to be reopened for the
system to be operable in the event of a
fire. What the NFPA report tells us is
that this doesn't always happen, which
is a major problem in many of the
cases where the sprinkler system fails
to control the fire. NFPA 13, Standard
for the Installation of Sprinkler
Systems, has several requirements
intended to prevent this scenario
though a method called supervision.
http://www.nfpa.org/70next
NFPA Journal - September/October 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of NFPA Journal - September/October 2019
