Human Factors in Electrical Safety

Compliance with regulations or consensus codes and standards is often not sufficient to eliminate the potential for injury or fatality from electrical sources. Recently available data on the scope of electrical incidents underscores the need to revisit the strategic advantages to be gained through implementation of human factors principles across engineering and management processes. This review provides historical, regulatory, and contemporary perspectives on human factors in electrical safety. We discuss the cognitive and emotional biology underlying decision-making in complex environments like those operational in the petroleum and chemical industry.