The 130.7(C)(15)(A)(a) tables in 70E 2015 show a Yes or No for the Arc Flash PPE requirement. Minimum PPE is now category 1. If an activity does have a NO in this table, does that mean faceshield, helmet and gloves are required - even if the incident energy is less than 1.2 cal/cm^2 (old Category 0)?

Thank you.

Not sure where a "helmet" came into existence. It was always a hard hat or at worst, a hood.

Read the definition of "arc flash hazard" first. Notice that if someone is not interacting with the equipment in w way that can cause an arc, then there is no arc flash hazard. In modern safety terminology we'd say that the likelihood is very remote. Table 130.7(C)(15)(A)(a) takes this into account by declaring that if the likelihood is very remote based on the task, then no PPE is required. The incident energy could exceed 40 cal/cm^2 but as long as the likelihood of an incident is remote, then no PPE is required at all.

This would be like requiring bomb shelters for the employee parking lot in the unlikely event that a meteor shower struck the parking lot. Although anyone hit with a meteor would be killed on the spot, the likelihood of this happening is very low. So the new table recognizes this fact and eliminates a PPE requirement when the likelihood is very low, approximately the same as the likelihood of a fatality due to a variety of other low probability industrial accidents.

Sorry about that - meant to write hard hat.

Thank you.

Many industries are now requiring that their employees report to work wearing Arc Flash rated clothing as a base layer regardless of the type of work they are performing and the employer provides a PPE clothing allowance to insure that the requirement is fulfilled.

As part of the Arc Flash training that I present for DOE/WAPA I exhibit several articles of Arc Flash rated clothing, gloves, hearing protection and UV eyewear as examples for my students.

Management wants no hint of them having to be the one's deciding what is safe or not. Therefore they take the blanket approach that protection is required at all times. I checked for power on a 120V circuit four months ago, one minute of being exposed to an arc flash hazard (in their eyes). Wearing Level 1 clothes all day so they can feel warm and fuzzy.