Arborists work within an array of regulations, standards and policies. The foundation for these is the federal Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Act of 1970. This Act mandated that workers have a safe and healthy workplace environment. There are two [...]

Part 1 of Chapter 4, Safe Work Practices (TCI Magazine, March 2024), covered the job hazard analysis (JHA), work plan and job briefing. This article, Part 2 of Chapter 4, Safe Work Practices, focuses on arboricultural operations near overhead power [...]

  Note: The following article includes the proposed changes to “Section 3, Electrical Hazard” of the ANSI Z133 safety standard. This next Z edition will be published during 2024, and these “Electrical Level” categories will be subject to change. Conducting [...]

Exposure to electric current is one of the many hazard sources during arboricultural operations. But electricity is one of the most unforgiving of these sources. A review of utility data shows that one in four contacts that resulted in an [...]

Basic terminology and how the electric-power system works from generation to the end consumer was covered in Part 1 of this series (TCI Magazine, October 2023). This article will focus on the distribution system. Trees are often near these lines, [...]