May is National Electrical Safety Month

The theme for this year’s National Electrical Safety Month is Smart Home. In May, the Electrical Safety Foundation International will showcase resources focusing on the lifesaving devices that keep a home “smart and secure.”

“Having a smart home doesn’t mean you need a new home, you just need the right equipment to keep your family safe,” ESFI president Brett Brenner said in the announcement. “Smart homes let you save money and save time.”

The organization is providing videos such as “Smart Home: Safe, Secure, and Energy Efficient” and other informational materials to educate consumers on the devices that can meet their home’s electrical needs: ground-fault circuit interrupters, surge protective devices, arc-fault circuit interrupters and tamper resistant receptacles. These devices are all required in new or renovated homes according to the National Electrical Code.

National Safety Month Still Set for June

For June’s National Safety Month, the National Safety Council will focus on four weekly topics:

• June 1-7: Emergency Preparedness - “When a medical emergency occurs, time is of the essence. Knowing and performing first aid and CPR can drastically increase a victim’s chance of survival,” the organization said in its announcement.
• June 8-14: Driving - “Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death in the workplace,” the NSC said. “Whether you drive for your job or just for your commute, responsible roadway habits can keep everyone safe.”
• June 15-21: Ergonomics - “Poor ergonomics can lead to overexertion, the leading cause of preventable workplace injury. Listening to your body and properly setting up your workstation can reduce your chance of injury.”
• June 22-30 - Employee Engagement - “Complacent employees may be unaware of the hazards around them. Getting employees engaged can improve an organization’s safety culture and performance.

Participating contractors will be able to receive informational materials to pass onto their workers and customers, including NSC’s “5-Minute Safety Talks,” weekly posters, videos, tip sheets, articles and social media graphics.

Construction Safety Week Postponed

Meanwhile, Construction Safety Week has been postponed until late summer or early fall, said Scott Cassels, national chairman of Safety Week and executive vice president at Kiewit Corp., Omaha, Nebraska.

“As the COVID-19 issue rapidly evolves and impacts our companies, the industry and many others globally, this decision was warranted,” Cassels said in the announcement. “Companies in our industry need to focus on the safety and security protocols that are best for their people and business continuity during this crisis. Safety Week is important, but there is time enough to bring our industry together once we have this serious issue controlled.”

In the meantime, the Construction Safety Week website will be periodically updated with pertinent safety information, training materials and best practices to keep operations safe.

“As an industry, we’ve improved our recordable frequency three-fold over the last decade because of this safety-first focus—and this is no time to lose that momentum,” Cassels said. “Let’s ensure we continue to improve by better planning safety into our operations, holding effective safety reviews and training with the men and women building our work, and supervising our operations with a keen eye on eliminating all risks and exposures that could cause an incident.”

“Nobody gets hurt is an outcome we owe to everyone who works on and near our projects and for our companies,” he said.

Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, NECA has postponed the 2020 NECA Safety Professionals Conference (NSPC), presented by WESTEX by Milliken, which was to take place in Scottsdale, Ariz., May 18–20.

The NSPC will now be held Oct. 5–7, in conjunction with the NECA Convention and Trade Show in Chicago.

“NECA recognizes all the hard work that so many contractors, chapters, exhibitors, speakers and staff have put into making the NSPC and all NECA conferences successful,” the organization said in a statement on the event website. “Given the developing circumstances, the association's main priority is to keep all of conference participants safe and sound.”

NECA also remains active supporting members and the industry at large with the latest COVID-19 materials and resources for those projects that continue to operate. 

“NECA recognizes the importance of continuing to host an event where NECA Safety Professionals can convene and accomplish important work,” said Michael Johnston, NECA’s executive director of standards and safety. 

The organization has worked with the Scottsdale McCormick Ranch to cancel reservations made within the NECA Safety Professionals Conference hotel block. 

NECA will process refunds for individual attendee registrations and exhibitors will be contacted directly.

According to a new report from the Associated General Contractors of America (AGC), the federal government’s Paycheck Protection Program is allowing construction firms to add and retain employees, despite declining demand for work.

“A large share of construction firms promptly received loans funds under the Paycheck Protection Program, enabling many of them to hire or retain employees despite a surge in project cancellations,” according to the report.

AGC noted that the job-saving measure appeared to be working, but it cautioned that longer term recovery measures, such as new infrastructure funding and establishing a recovery fund, are needed.

“Most contractors report they have applied for the new federal loans, which are intended to enable small businesses to keep employees on their payrolls,” said Ken Simonson, AGC’s chief economist. “This program has already delivered funds to nearly half of the survey respondents, and many of them have already brought back furloughed workers or added employees, even though more clients are halting and canceling projects.”

Simonson noted specifically that 44% of the 849 firms responding to the survey reported having already received funds, which began on April 3. Another 15% said their applications had been approved, but they had not yet received funding. Another 8% were awaiting a reply to their applications, and 7% had applied, but were told that no more funds were available.

Partly because of the loans, 13% of respondents said they had added workers.

“Although the loan program has helped, it will cover only a limited part of company expenses and is not enough to offset the huge drop in projects,” Simonson said.

He noted that half of the respondents reported clients have ordered halts to projects that were already underway, and more than 25% reported that clients have canceled projects that had been expected to start as far out as June, or even later.

An executive order signed by President Donald Trump on May 1 has sweeping implications for electric utilities across the nation. Namely placing restrictions on the foreign-supplied components installed on the nation’s electric grid in the name of national security.

The report states, “The bulk power system is a target of those seeking to commit malicious acts against the United States and its people, including malicious cyber activities, because a successful attack on our bulk power system would present significant risks to our economy, human health and safety, and would render the United States less capable of acting in defense of itself and its allies.”

The first section of the executive order is designed to limit the use of foreign-supplied components installed on the nation’s electric grid in the future, declaring that not creating these limits would pose an “extraordinary threat to national security.”

The concern is purchasing and installing components from certain countries that are considered adversaries of the United States, including those that have made attempts in the past to hack into the nation’s electric grid, could put the nation’s grid at risk. For example, one fear is that foreign governments could embed certain pieces of technology in the components they sold to U.S. utilities that would adversely impact the grid or provide private information back to these adversarial nations.

The second section of the executive order, among other things, lays out a plan for potentially requiring utilities to replace these foreign-supplied components with components deemed safer. Specifically, the order directs the U.S. Secretary of Energy to “develop recommendations on ways to identify, isolate, monitor, or replace such items as soon as practicable, taking into consideration overall risk to the bulk-power system.”

The third section of the executive order establishes a task force on Federal Energy Infrastructure Procurement Policies Related to National Security, which will be expected to “develop a recommended consistent set of energy infrastructure procurement policies and procedures for agencies, to the extent consistent with law, to ensure that national security considerations are fully integrated across the Federal Government and submit such recommendations to the Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council.”

The task force will also have authorization to evaluate the methods and criteria used to incorporate national security considerations into physical security and cybersecurity policymaking.