(1) Use of protective equipment.

(a) Personal protective equipment.

(i) You must provide employees working in areas where there are potential electrical hazards with electrical protective equipment that is appropriate for the specific parts of the body to be protected and for the work to be performed, and you must ensure that they use such protective equipment.

(ii) You must maintain protective equipment in a safe, reliable condition and you must periodically inspect or test it, as required by chapter 296-24 WAC Part L, and WAC 296-800-160.

(iii) If the insulating capability of protective equipment may be subject to damage during use, you must protect the insulating material. (For example, an outer covering of leather is sometimes used for the protection of rubber insulating material.)

(iv) Employees must wear nonconductive head protection wherever there is a danger of head injury from electric shock or burns due to contact with exposed energized parts.

(v) Employees must wear protective equipment for the eyes or face wherever there is danger of injury to the eyes or face from electric arcs or flashes or from flying objects resulting from electrical explosion.

(b) General protective equipment and tools.

(i) When working near exposed energized conductors or circuit parts, each employee must use insulated tools or handling equipment if the tools or handling equipment might make contact with such conductors or parts. If the insulating capability of insulated tools or handling equipment is subject to damage, you must protect the insulating material.

(A) You must use fuse handling equipment, insulated for the circuit voltage, to remove or install fuses when the fuse terminals are energized.

(B) Ropes and handlines used near exposed energized parts must be nonconductive.

(ii) You must use protective shields, protective barriers, or insulating materials to protect each employee from shock, burns, or other electrically related injuries while that employee is working near exposed energized parts which might be accidentally contacted or where dangerous electric heating or arcing might occur. When normally enclosed live parts are exposed for maintenance or repair, they must be guarded to protect unqualified persons from contact with the live parts.

(2) Alerting techniques. You must use the following alerting techniques to warn and protect employees from hazards which could cause injury due to electric shock, burns, or failure of electric equipment parts:

(a) Safety signs and tags. You must use safety signs, safety symbols, or accident prevention tags where necessary to warn employees about electrical hazards which may endanger them.

(b) Barricades. You must use barricades in conjunction with safety signs where it is necessary to prevent or limit employee access to work areas exposing employees to uninsulated energized conductors or circuit parts. Conductive barricades may not be used where they might cause an electrical contact hazard.

(c) Attendants. If signs and barricades do not provide sufficient warning and protection from electrical hazards, you must station an attendant to warn and protect employees.

(3) Design requirements. Insulating blankets, matting, covers, line hose, gloves, and sleeves made of rubber must meet the following requirements:

(a) Manufacture and marking.

(i) Blankets, gloves, and sleeves must be produced by a seamless process.

(ii) Each item must be clearly marked as follows:

(A) Class 0 equipment must be marked Class 0.

(B) Class 1 equipment must be marked Class 1.

(C) Class 2 equipment must be marked Class 2.

(D) Class 3 equipment must be marked Class 3.

(E) Class 4 equipment must be marked Class 4.

(F) Nonozone-resistant equipment other than matting must be marked Type I.

(G) Ozone-resistant equipment other than matting must be marked Type II.

(H) Other relevant markings, such as the manufacturer's identification and the size of the equipment, may also be provided.

(iii) Markings must be nonconducting and must be applied in such a manner as not to impair the insulating qualities of the equipment.

(iv) Markings on gloves must be confined to the cuff portion of the glove.

(b) Electrical requirements.

(i) Equipment must be capable of withstanding the a-c proof-test voltage specified in Table A-2 or the d-c proof-test voltage specified in Table A-3.

(A) The proof-test must reliably indicate that the equipment can withstand the voltage involved.

(B) The test voltage must be applied continuously for three minutes for equipment other than matting and must be applied continuously for one minute for matting.

(C) Gloves must also be capable of withstanding the a-c proof-test voltage specified in Table A-2 after a sixteen-hour water soak. (See the note following (c)(ii)(B) of this subsection.)

(ii) When the a-c proof-test is used on gloves, the 60 hertz proof-test current may not exceed the values specified in Table A-2 at any time during the test period.

(A) If the a-c proof-test is made at a frequency other than 60 hertz, the permissible proof-test current must be computed from the direct ratio of the frequencies.

(B) For the test, gloves (right side out) must be filled with tap water and immersed in water to a depth that is in accordance with Table A-4. Water must be added to or removed from the glove, as necessary, so that the water level is the same inside and outside the glove.

(C) After the sixteen-hour water soak specified in (b)(i)(C) of this subsection, the 60-hertz proof-test current may exceed the values given in Table A-2 by not more than 2 milliamperes.

(iii) Equipment that has been subjected to a minimum breakdown voltage test may not be used for electrical protection. (See the note following (c)(ii)(B) of this subsection.)

(iv) Material used for Type II insulating equipment must be capable of withstanding an ozone test, with no visible effects. The ozone test must reliably indicate that the material will resist ozone exposure in actual use. Any visible signs of ozone deterioration of the material, such as checking, cracking, breaks, or pitting, is evidence of failure to meet the requirements for ozone-resistant material. (See the note following (c)(ii)(B) of this subsection.)

(c) Workmanship and finish.

(i) Equipment must be free of harmful physical irregularities that can be detected by the tests or inspections required under this section.

(ii) Surface irregularities that may be present on all rubber goods because of imperfections on forms or molds or because of inherent difficulties in the manufacturing process and that may appear as indentations, protuberances, or imbedded foreign material are acceptable under the following conditions:

(A) The indentation or protuberance blends into a smooth slope when the material is stretched.

(B) Foreign material remains in place when the insulating material is folded and stretches with the insulating material surrounding it.

(4) In-service care and use.

(a) You must maintain electrical protective equipment in a safe, reliable condition.

(b) The following specific requirements apply to insulating blankets, covers, line hose, gloves, and sleeves made of rubber:

(i) Maximum use voltages must conform to those listed in Table A-5.

(ii) You must inspect insulating equipment for damage before each day's use and immediately following any incident that can reasonably be suspected of having caused damage. You must give insulating gloves an air test, along with the inspection.

(iii) Insulating equipment with any of the following defects must not be used:

(A) A hole, tear, puncture, or cut;

(B) Ozone cutting or ozone checking (the cutting action produced by ozone on rubber under mechanical stress into a series of interlacing cracks);

(C) An embedded foreign object;

(D) Any of the following texture changes: Swelling, softening, hardening, or becoming sticky or inelastic.

(E) Any other defect that damages the insulating properties.

(iv) You must remove insulating equipment found to have other defects that might affect its insulating properties from service and returned for testing under (b)(viii) and (ix) of this subsection.

(v) You must clean insulating equipment as needed to remove foreign substances.

(vi) You must store insulating equipment in such a location and in such a manner as to protect it from light, temperature extremes, excessive humidity, ozone, and other injurious substances and conditions.

(vii) You must wear protector gloves over insulating gloves.

(viii) You must subject electrical protective equipment to periodic electrical tests. Test voltages and the maximum intervals between tests must be in accordance with Table A-5 and Table A-6.

(ix) The test method used under (b)(viii) and (xi) of this subsection must reliably indicate whether the insulating equipment can withstand the voltages involved.

(x) Employees must not use insulating equipment failing to pass inspections or electrical tests by employees, except as follows:

(A) Rubber insulating line hose could be used in shorter lengths with the defective portion cut off.

(B) Rubber insulating blankets could be repaired using a compatible patch that results in physical and electrical properties equal to those of the blanket.

(C) Rubber insulating blankets could be salvaged by severing the defective area from the undamaged portion of the blanket. The resulting undamaged area must not be smaller than twenty-two inches by twenty-two inches (560 mm by 560 mm) for Class 1, 2, 3, and 4 blankets.

(xi) You must retest repaired insulating equipment before it may be used by employees.

(xii) You must certify that equipment has been tested in accordance with the requirements of (b)(viii), (ix), and (xi) of this subsection. The certification must identify the equipment that passed the test and the date it was tested.

(5) Where switches or fuses of more than 150 volts to ground are not guarded during ordinary operations, you must provide suitable insulating floors, mats or platforms on which the operator must stand while handling the switches.