Why FR Clothing & PPE?
Worker Safety – Burn Injury Prevention
On average, there are over 30,000 reported arc flash events each year. Of that number, 7,000 are reported burn injuries with 2,000 severe cases requiring admittance into hospital burn units. On average each year, about 250 serious arc flash burns that result in fatalities possibly could have been prevented by the proper usage of FR Clothing and PPE.
There are three main factors to burn injuries which impact survivability:
- age
- burn location
- extent
Extent is the most controllable factor
Limiting 2nd and 3rd degree burns expressed as a total body burn percentage; survivability is dramatically increased when body burn percentage is decreased.
Financial Impact – Cost Mitigation
OSHA Fines – Over the past few years it is well documented that there have been millions in citations citing 1910.132 and 1910.335 – typically this will be the smallest percentage impact for serious arc flash accident.
Medical Costs – a typical serious electrical arc flash is $1.5 Million; including hospital, rehabilitation, and workman’s compensation
Litigation Costs – these can be the most costly of the total amount dependent on the incident
Purpose of FR Clothing and PPE
Most severe arc flash injuries are caused by clothing ignition and burn continuation. Once the electrical arc flash ignition source is removed, FR Clothing is designed to self-extinguish the flame; thus significantly limiting the severity and extent of a burn injury. PPE is designed to provide protection for the head and arms – this mitigates the injury extent to location which have a dramatic impact on quality of life