have you heard of this?concerning rubber gloves and sleeves

[reppy007]

ive noticed the city of anaheim has a so called rubber gloving certification program,ive never heard of that,after becoming hot years ago,we were on our own,ive always used the water test on my gloves,some guys used air,and to be honest in all 24 years i havent seen too many guys check their gloves,although some utilities require sleeves ive only had to use them in flordia,didnt care for them in the 100 degree weather,hell linework shouldnt be any harder than it already is,but ill never understand why some places require lineman to climb with sleeves and rubbers on,thats a big no-no here in tx,kind of like wearing rubbers to hot-stick.some utilities wont hire a jy trained at other utilities,they make there own,no exceptions,some wont hire apprentices that went to a collage,or a training school,they make their own,some switch 34.5 urd,hot,others think its too dangerous,some require ground to ground rubber gloving even in a bucket,i guess thats one of those guys getting hurt because of a dumb mistake,now the rest have to wear them even below the neutral,some wont allow test lights on the trucks,that one i can see,some wont let the lineman have 600 volt gloves,i love them,why use 12 kv gloves on a 120 volt service,i guess i can go on and on,but the main thing here is ,just work safe,use the tools that each job requires,and check your ppe,ohh back to the gloves ,we do exchange them every 4-6 months,which i thank is law,and a good idea,give me some feed back.

[lewy]

ive noticed the city of anaheim has a so called rubber gloving certification program,ive never heard of that,after becoming hot years ago,we were on our own,ive always used the water test on my gloves,some guys used air,and to be honest in all 24 years i havent seen too many guys check their gloves,although some utilities require sleeves ive only had to use them in flordia,didnt care for them in the 100 degree weather,hell linework shouldnt be any harder than it already is,but ill never understand why some places require lineman to climb with sleeves and rubbers on,thats a big no-no here in tx,kind of like wearing rubbers to hot-stick.some utilities wont hire a jy trained at other utilities,they make there own,no exceptions,some wont hire apprentices that went to a collage,or a training school,they make their own,some switch 34.5 urd,hot,others think its too dangerous,some require ground to ground rubber gloving even in a bucket,i guess thats one of those guys getting hurt because of a dumb mistake,now the rest have to wear them even below the neutral,some wont allow test lights on the trucks,that one i can see,some wont let the lineman have 600 volt gloves,i love them,why use 12 kv gloves on a 120 volt service,i guess i can go on and on,but the main thing here is ,just work safe,use the tools that each job requires,and check your ppe,ohh back to the gloves ,we do exchange them every 4-6 months,which i thank is law,and a good idea,give me some feed back.
Our gloves have to be retested every 90 days

[Liledgy]

The industry is really dumbing down, especially the last 10 or so years. I think a major problem is that utility safety rules are made by the suits instead Of the workers. Unlike say firefighting, more than likely they have a huge say in their safety rules. The utilities then require the contractors to follOw suit. We now have to have rubber gloves to remove the lOcks from IRS transformers! But their safe in people's back yards!

[duckhunter]

We test gloves every 90 days, sleeves every 180. We inspect with air every day before use. We send in blankets twice a year and all gut get tested once a year. I'm pretty sure that is what all the co-ops in Michigan are doing.

[hotwiretamer]

The industry is really dumbing down, especially the last 10 or so years. I think a major problem is that utility safety rules are made by the suits instead Of the workers. Unlike say firefighting, more than likely they have a huge say in their safety rules. The utilities then require the contractors to follOw suit. We now have to have rubber gloves to remove the lOcks from IRS transformers! But their safe in people's back yards!

We're doing the same thing! Class 3 gloves to undo a paddle lock and unscrew a penta-bolt!
We brought up the fact that all the URD equipment is exposed to the public everywhere.
OSHA doesn't care about the public, they are there to protect the workers!
We asked: "What if we put a visual ground outside the equipment"?? They said it doesn't matter, because you still can't see if there is a proper connection inside. Pretty lame, but that is the way it is!!

[Pootnaigle]

And THIS is exactly where these Safety Gurus are Failing miserably. When they make a rule that makes no sense People are gonna shortcut em. Problem is They get to a point where they shortcut some that do make sense.This spells accident.A great many of our rules stem directly from OSHA and i would dare say there aint a lineman in their employ. Others come directly from some desk jockey that thinks he is smarter than the average bear. And still others are there only to satisfy the legal teams.If you want a great chuckle get ahold of saftey book from the 40's or 50's and read through it. The rules made sense, were understandable,and often comical. But the INTENT of the rule was apparent, compared to the crap they print now.
That old safety book would make a great topic for a safety meeting and virtually every company has one somewhere.I saw one that would have fit in a shirt pocket once.

[hotwiretamer]

And THIS is exactly where these Safety Gurus are Failing miserably. When they make a rule that makes no sense People are gonna shortcut em. Problem is They get to a point where they shortcut some that do make sense.This spells accident.A great many of our rules stem directly from OSHA and i would dare say there aint a lineman in their employ. Others come directly from some desk jockey that thinks he is smarter than the average bear. And still others are there only to satisfy the legal teams.If you want a great chuckle get ahold of saftey book from the 40's or 50's and read through it. The rules made sense, were understandable,and often comical. But the INTENT of the rule was apparent, compared to the crap they print now.
That old safety book would make a great topic for a safety meeting and virtually every company has one somewhere.I saw one that would have fit in a shirt pocket once.

Poot your right, some rules seem way out of hand. It's funny, I know of some rules written in 1910.269 that were "tested" at places like Hastings, Chance, etc. I believe that some rules that are written are vendor driven. Just my opinion! Some rules were overdue, some are overkill!!

[Highplains Drifter]

We test gloves every 90 days, sleeves every 180. We inspect with air every day before use. We send in blankets twice a year and all gut get tested once a year. I'm pretty sure that is what all the co-ops in Michigan are doing.


I always air test my gloves daily and every two weeks I turn them inside out and air test them also. It seems like when they start to break down you will see little cracks in the rubber right between the fingers on the inside. I can remember two pairs that where issued to me on change out and they never passed the inside out test. Be careful!

[duckhunter]

We're doing the same thing! Class 3 gloves to undo a paddle lock and unscrew a penta-bolt!
We brought up the fact that all the URD equipment is exposed to the public everywhere.
OSHA doesn't care about the public, they are there to protect the workers!
We asked: "What if we put a visual ground outside the equipment"?? They said it doesn't matter, because you still can't see if there is a proper connection inside. Pretty lame, but that is the way it is!!

You are right about OSHA, it's not their duty to protect the public. That is our job! When we have guys that do poor quality work, we endanger the public. We've had a crew respond to a problem where a contractor forgot to bond an UG transformer's case. A property owner was using a weedwacker and when it ran out of gas set it down on the trasformer and got a shock. Our crew that responded followed the rules wearing gloves when they opended the cabinet and it a good thing. Primary voltage on case of that transformer. Luckily a driven ground had been installed and most of the current flow went to it, but if our linemen had kneeled down to open it without gloves, it could have been a fatality.

What group had the largest role in the creation of 1910.269? The IBEW. Every safety rule out there was written with someone else blood.

[lineman00]

The industry is really dumbing down, especially the last 10 or so years. I think a major problem is that utility safety rules are made by the suits instead Of the workers. Unlike say firefighting, more than likely they have a huge say in their safety rules. The utilities then require the contractors to follOw suit. We now have to have rubber gloves to remove the lOcks from IRS transformers! But their safe in people's back yards!

I agree 100% with your statement. I work for a utility and it is very frustrating the way the rules come about. Not to mention how often they change. We no longer can work primary "As Hot" even when you can bust a switch open, wear all ppe, cover up, and say change a b/o bell out on a take off pole when the bell is in the zone. We are forced to either work it hot or grounded. No exceptions! About the gloves, we visually check each day, and change out every 90 days.

[MI-Lineman]

Inside out is taught by ALBAT. You can confirm a small crack or hole form the outside by flippin'em inside out and seein the opposite color on the inside. We were taught to flipp'em inside out every time you test and when you wash'em! Some cracks form on the inside and can crack through when it's too late?

What's this "testin daily" stuff? I test my hi-voltage gloves and sleeves "before each use!!!" My class 0's are daily tested!