Electrical Safety Standard / NFPA 70E
NFPA's consensus standard for electrical safety in the workplace, covering arc-flash and shock hazard analysis, required PPE categories, and [[concept-lockout-tagout|lockout/tagout]] procedures for electrical work, distinct from the National Electrical Code, which governs how systems are installed rather than how workers safely work on them.
Why it matters
Following NFPA 70E is how an electrician's arc-flash PPE category and approach boundaries actually get determined for a given panel or piece of equipment, it isn't a generic safety guideline, it's the calculation behind exactly how close a worker can get and what they have to wear to do it.
On a real project
Before an electrician opens an energized panel, a 70E-based hazard analysis determines the arc-flash boundary and the specific PPE category required for that panel's incident energy level, not a blanket rule applied to every panel on the job.
Who this matters most to
An Electrician's day-to-day PPE requirements and approach boundaries around energized equipment come directly from a 70E-based hazard analysis specific to each piece of equipment.
Where this goes wrong
An electrician works on an energized panel assuming it's low-risk without following the 70E hazard analysis for that specific equipment, and an arc flash event occurs causing severe burns that the correctly-rated PPE the analysis would have called for could have limited.