OSHA announced in the October
22 Federal Register that it is reopening the record on a Notice
of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) on electric power generation, transmission, and
distribution for electrical protective equipment. The limited reopening, which
ends November 21, is intended to obtain comments about how close an employee (or
a conductive object that an employee is contacting) may get to an energized
circuit part.
On June 15, 2005, OSHA published a proposed rule to revise general industry
and construction standards. The proposal included revised minimum approach
distances, including tables that can be used to determine allowable proximity
to an energized part. After the rulemaking closed, the technical committee
that developed the tables discovered a calculation error. OSHA is reopening
the record to obtain input on this topic.
Those interested may submit comments electronically at www.regulations.gov.
