[BC] Transmitter Safety

[RichardBJohnson at comcast.net]

OSHA promulgates workplace health and safety standards.

http://www.osha.gov/dcsp/compliance_assistance/laws_regs.html

States may have their own rules as well. In the case of radio
transmitters, power distribution equipment, and other devices
that may have exposed high voltages, regulatory agencies
have ruled that education and subsequent licensing meet
the minimum standards of protection for individuals working
on such equipment.

Certainly one does not disconnect New York from the power-
grid to replace some insulators on HV transmission lines,
so some workers are going to be exposed to dangerous
conditions where a mistake can kill.

Now that licensing is not required and “radio engineering” is
no longer a recognized profession, safety at the transmitter
site may fall into the cracks. Most radio transmitters are
designed so that it takes multiple failures or downright
disabling of protective circuitry to expose a technician to
harmful voltages.

All the rules and regulations will not protect an employer
from lawsuits. That is why employers need insurance
against events that may expose them to potential harm.
I have first-hand knowledge of the untimely death of an
engineer who was working at a transmitter site. He had
the interlocks shorted out with an alligator-clip, the filaments
on to keep the transmitter site warm, the remote-local
switch on the remote control on “remote,” and he was
changing a driver tube of a FM transmitter. An inebriated
program director stumbled into the studio at 3:00 AM and
tried to turn on the transmitter.

Since the dead engineer had “connections,” even the designer
of the transmitter was arrested and charged with manslaughter
(professional misconduct, leading to death). Everybody else
was sued. The transmitter designer had to spend $15k of
his own money to stay out of jail. The company that made
the transmitter was out-of-business so the plaintiffs went
for anybody connected to it. Ultimately, the lawyers won.
They all got paid and everybody else lost. BTW, one of the
defendants was Radio Shack who had sold the alligator-clip.

There is no law (yet) that requires an employer to protect
against incompetence. However, there probably will soon
be some that attempt to protect the general public by
banning chain saws, guns, and similar harmful instruments.
In the meantime, feel free to disable those interlocks.


--
Cheers,
Richard B. Johnson
Read about my book
http://www.LymanSchool.org


 -------------- Original message ----------------------
From: Xmitters at aol.com
> 
> 
> Hello:
> 
> What are the laws regarding an employer's responsibility to protect their 
> employees from electrocution?
> 
> I know of many who do midnight transmitter work alone. Others will have a 
> second person available who is not trained in CPR.
> 
> It seems reasonable that the law would REQUIRE that an employee not be 
> allowed to work on lethal voltage equipment alone or with an unprepared helper.
> 
> It also seems to me that the employer could be sured by my estate for 
> wrongful death, and win, if I get killed because proper safety precautions were 
> not 
> taken by my employer. What is the employer's binding responsibility for my 
> safety?
> 
[Snipped..]