New union regs and electrical shock make strange bedfellows.
If you have been in this industry for a while, you know that credentials for doing safe power distribution tie-ins have been given the wink-wink, nudge-nudge by most production staff. While you should be holding an electrician’s license or better, a free pass has been implicitly given to those individuals who look like they know what they are doing. But I bet if you surveyed a large sample of local and regional sound companies, hardly anyone on staff is a licensed electrician; however, about half the crew has done unlicensed power distro tie-ins.
What I want to do is alert you that these wink-wink, nudge-nudge days are just about over. In a recent press release, the industry was notified that the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) union has just implemented a bargaining agreement in which certified riggers and certified head electricians must be present at production events. The Entertainment Technician Certification Program (ETCP) provides the certification testing, and further information on the testing program and study materials can be found at the www.esta.org Web site. The intent is for the ETCP head electrician at IATSE events and sites to provide both knowledgeable onsite personnel for distro tie-ins and safe operating conditions unique to live performances.
Testing
The ETCP head electrician test is 150 questions with 75 on electrical theory (single and three-phase), basic rigging knowledge, portable stage equip-ment (PPDUs, lighting, audio, feeders, generators, etc.), cabling, consoles and trouble-shooting skills. Twenty-five questions are on regulations, electrical codes and safety procedures such as those specified by OSHA and NEC, shock prevention and lock-out/tag-out procedures. The remaining 50 questions are more installation-based. They concern the estimation of power/voltage/current needs, breaker selection, GFCI selection and the specification of equipment rating and reading electrical diagrams.
It is believed that after the one- to three-year grandfathering of the certification, only ETCP-credentialed persons will be allowed to do unsupervised power distribution tasks at most union venues. While the ECTP head electrician test does not explicitly state that you have to be a licensed electrician, I cannot believe you could pass this certification test without having easily passed a state licensing exam for electricians, as well.
Link Systems
In related news, Link Systems of Italy has introduced a Cam-Lok compatible connector system called “Cam-Link” that offers dead front chassis and cable twist-lock connectors for feeder usage. The dead-front feature is implemented by having a plastic front that keeps fingers from accidentally entering the colored boots. And, just like Cam-Loks, they are U.S. safety compliant and still have the same old twist-lock feel and waterproof ratings.
These connectors are sold under the Power Link brand and can be purchased individually or with EuroCable feeders; they are made to order as feeder assemblies. Check out www.linkitaly.com for more technical details.
Surviving Shock As most of the FOH editorial staff knows, I tend to harp on a few subjects, year after year. One of those subjects is my shock chart. I look at it as a piece of handy information that should be read at least once and, if possible, committed to memory. If the chart is not memorized, then have it placed in a prominent location. (You can download a pdf of the chart at www.fohonline.com/shockchart.)
This shock chart is on electrical shocks and the physiological reactions from them. A few years ago, I worked in the research area of a large heart pacemaker company. I knew we made implantable defibrillators to apply shocks to the heart to resuscitate persons with cardiac arrhythmias, so I sus-pected we had the reference books and PhD brainpower to answer how electrical shocks could hurt people.
My shock-related inquiries finally boiled down to a few ancient books of gruesome pedigree. These books were catalogs of Nazi death camp experi-ments and shock data on American death row convicts who had volunteered to test human endurance limits of various degrees of electrical shock and to evaluate the effects occurring at these various levels. The attached chart illustrates these pieces of science.
From the chart, I listed a column that categorizes the level of AC or DC current needed to get the various physiological effects. These effects can range from harmless tingles to muscle contractions to death in various fashions. To make it somewhat meaningful, I did the Ohm’s Law math at 120 volts to show that skin resistance is everything to surviving electrical shocks. Below the skin, the human body resistance is about 50 ohms most anywhere you can place an ohm meter between two probes. But dry skin can be hundreds of thousands ohms and, in most cases, will prevent shocks. There are plenty of stories about old-time electricians who used their dry leathery fingers to check whether bulb sockets and receptacles were energized or not.
But there is a definite problem when dry hands turn sweaty, and the skin resistance drops a lot. From tests with my own hands on an ohm meter, I can go from 200,000 ohms to below 10,000 ohms just by slightly wetting my fingers to hold the meter probes. This is where tingles turn into serious muscle seizures and cardiac fibrillations that lead to death. That is why I mention on the chart that it is important to seek medical care after receiving a vigorous shock. I know of a few persons who, after receiving a shock earlier in the day and blowing off the event as if were nothing, died later in the day because their heart jumped into fibrillation.
Fibrillation is a nasty and relatively slow death, and that is why we have Automatic Electronic Defibrillators (AEDs) scattered all over public places. Upon fibrillation, the heart suddenly goes from a single beat per second into a quivering motion that feels odd to the victim at first. But that quivering heart no longer effectively pumps blood. A brain that runs out of oxygen from a bloodstream that no longer streams starts a 10-minute clock of death, and consciousness ends within a minute. If defibrillation is not performed within five minutes, the remaining five minutes is merely a race to see how much brain damage will occur before defibrillation. So take electrical shocks very seriously. Cardio-Pulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) buys the victim a lot of time, so learn this life-saving technique to save lives. CPR’s chest pushes and breaths do a barely adequate job of getting some oxygenated blood circulation going.
To summarize, if you do get shocked to the point where the chart says get medical attention — do not brush it off. Yes, it means a trip to the emer-gency room to take an EkG (electrocardiogram) to check for a normal heart rhythm, but I would rather do that than take an unplanned long dirt nap.
Give Mark a shock by e-mailing him at marka@fohonline.com.
