You complete the steps required by NFPA 70E to assess and mitigate the risk involved in your task. You’re decked out in the required personal protective equipment (PPE), and have made sure your test leads are in good condition (you were a tad suspicious after looking them over, so replaced them). You’re about to perform the test. What can go wrong?
At this point in the task, safety articles traditionally discussed why you connect your leads one at a time. Most of those articles suggested even putting one hand behind your back to ensure you could not possibly connect both probes at the same time. If you read many of these, you know about ionization and arc blasts.
Today, there’s a new danger. You see it every time you drive to a job site. It’s called “distraction.” It’s deadly on our roads and can also be deadly in your facility. Don’t let distraction start entering your work mind-set.