March 2001 Electricity - good servant, bad master Survey from leading safety assessment trade body - SAFed discloses the physical and financial risks businesses run if they don't keep electrical installations properly under the thumb. Electricity literally powers the wheels of commerce/industry. For the most part, it is not given a second thought for, like the little girl with the little curl, when it is good it is very, very good. But the latest survey from the Safety Assessment Federation (SAFed) shows that when electricity is bad, it is more than horrid. In a survey into the cost, incidence and cause of electrical accidents, SAFed has uncovered just how lethal and very costly to business electrical faults can be. Health and Safety Executive statistics show that 30 deaths a year result from electrical faults. Electricity or electrical discharge causes 200 non-fatal major accidents and over 500 accidents involving absences of over 3 days. The shame is that a simple routine involving the regular inspection of electrical installations could have prevented the majority of these incidents from occurring. According to the SAFed survey, based on records of over 9000 electrical installations, nearly a third of all installations had a defect. 15% of all installations inspected had one or more faults. This means that, typically, 1 in 3 electrical installations are likely to have some type of fault, which should it not be redressed, could result in a problem arising. That problem could be electrocution, or it could be fire. Fire is a very costly hazard to hit a business. In 1995, 121 serious electrical fires cost £45 million in terms of repairs or replacements. But it is not just damage to property that needs to be taken into account. Legal implications exist. Unless a business can prove it took all reasonable steps under the Electricity at Work Regulations 1989 to prevent the incident occurring, it is likely to face charges for not complying with the regulations. In 1998/99, the authorities issued 442 notices under the regulations, of which 22 resulted in convictions. In recent years, the level of individual fines against offenders has been steadily increasing. Beyond financial and legal implications relating to a faulty electrical installation, a business also needs to consider the risks to staff, customer relations and reputation. In all accidents due to contact with electricity or electrical discharge, service industries alone accounted for 32% of fatalities, 28% of non-fatalities and 53% of absences over 3 days. The picture is not much better in the manufacturing and construction industries, with the figures for construction reading 12%, 34%, & 17% and for manufacturing 12%, 30% and 24% respectively. Service industries also accounted for 31.5% of all major fires due to wiring faults, with the manufacturing and housing sectors registering 21.5% each. The survey revealed more specific examples of improperly installed systems, ranging from exposed live parts on light fittings to the use of inappropriate equipment leading to fire and explosion. Of the classic incidents that occur, the SAFed survey shows that the highest percentage of electrical faults involved the incorrect earthing of an installation (29% High/No Earth Continuity/Bonding. After this 19% of the faults were due to damaged equipment, 15% had exposed parts and 12% had very low insulation resistance. Typically, the highest category of incident involves cabling or wiring. The problem with damaged or incorrect earthing is that the machine or equipment will appear to be functioning normally, since the power supply is not interrupted. However the main safeguard - a good earth - could be missing, rendering the entire installation unsafe. The Fire Association reported 579 major fires over the last 5 years were caused by electrical faults. Of these, 89 cases were caused by faults in wiring. The definition of a major fire, in this instance is one where one or more fatalities have occurred, or an insurance loss of over £50,000 has been incurred. Electrical fault based fires covered by the SAFed survey caused insured losses from £2,750 to £5,115,000. But the cost to the businesses involved won't necessarily have stopped there. Loss of confidence amongst staff and customers, implications regarding orders unfulfilled, inability to source alternative stock are amongst the other considerations to be taken into account. Probably the single most shocking fact uncovered by the survey is that the majority of the electrical based incidents could have been prevented through the implementation of a regular inspection regime. Industry wide, it is the service sector that the SAFed Survey showed had the highest incidence of fires. This was followed by Manufacturing Industry, Property/Residential then Educational Establishments. In all these areas, the introduction of regular inspection of electrical wiring installations will also help organisations meet their legal requirements under the Electricity at Work Regulations. Ends Back to Press Release Index