Bulletin No.: 10/1994

Date (Y-M-D): 1994-07-22
 

Subject: Electrical Safety of Portable Electrical Measuring Instruments

A recent incident onboard a Canadian Registered vessel resulted in a casualty caused by improper use of a portable electrical measuring instrument. This incident has demonstrated the need for all persons whose duties involve the testing of electrical circuits with portable instruments to be familiar with the associated dangers.

In this incident it appears a member of the ship's crew was attempting to measure voltage on an energized system while the multimeter, which he was using, was mistakenly set to the resistance (ohms) measurement setting. Because the multimeter was set to an incorrect setting the instrument shorted out which caused a short circuit across the system being measuared between the multimeter probes. Two very serious situations developed from this incident. The first being that the crew member using the multimeter received second degree burns to the face and neck and third degree burns to the hands. The second serious incident was that the short circuit caused by the initial incident, caused the circuit breakers on the main swiitchboard to open resulting in a total loss of ship's service electrical power. This situation had the potential of endagering the ship and its entire crew.

Your attention is drawn to Section 63 of the Safe Working Practices Regulations which requires that suitable protective clothing and precautions be taken when it is necessary to work on electrical circuits that have not been isolated. Attention is also drawn to Section 70 of the Safe Working Practices Regulations which requries that electrical tools be constructed in accordance with the Canadian Standards Association ( CSA ). In this particular incident there is reason to believe that the multimeter that was being used was not designed for use in industrial applications. Therefore, it is important that the multimeter, or any other electrical tools or equipment used onboard a vessel for maintenance purposes, be designed and constructed for industrial applications.

Ship's personnel who are involved in the maintenance and testing of live electrical circuits should pay particular attention to measuring instrument settings. They should ensure that the function setting and the range setting of the electrical measuring instrument that they are using is set properly in relation to the circuit which they are testing.

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