The Special Secretariat for Social Security and Labor of the Ministry of Economy published, in January this year in the DOU (Official Gazette of the Union), the Public Consultation Notice No. 01 of 2020 regarding the new text of NR10 – a regulatory standard that aims to guarantee the safety and health of professionals who work in electrical installations and services.
There is still no scheduled date for the publication of the new standards, due to the Covid-19 pandemic that affected the review process, but the proposed text, which aims to adapt to occupational risk management, constituted by the PGR (Management Program of Risks), showed advances, both in the requirements for electrical installations and those relating to the management system.
Among the main changes in the new NR10 proposal, the changes in the arrangement of the standard's items, the indications for the refresher course and the conditions of Serious and Imminent Risk (GIR) stand out.
For Gilmar Rotta, electrical engineer at Biosafe, an occupational health and safety consultancy and training company, companies and professionals must pay attention to mandatory preventive measures against the risk of electric shock and electric arc.
“The proposal brought more specific points about the risk of electric arcs – the main index of serious and fatal accidents in electrical interventions in the industrial segment – inserting the concept of LAS (Safe Approach Limit), necessarily defined through the calculation of incident energy. This is one of the biggest gaps in NR10, which always brings interpretative confusion”, explained Rotta.
Other highlights of NR10
Ricardo Martins, electrical engineer and advisor to CREA (Regional Engineering and Agronomy Council), also highlighted some proposed changes regarding the review of NR10.
In addition to emphasizing collective control measures for electric shock and electric arc, he highlighted the integration of NR10 with NR1, pointed out that the regulation of SPDAs (Atmospheric Discharge Protection System) must be clearer and that the recycling training of the NR10 should be more specific to the type of function that the professional will perform.
“As for inspection of companies when these standards come into force, this is carried out by the ME (Ministry of Economy) within specific programs, not necessarily targeted”, added Martins.
According to the engineer, the CEEE (Specialized Chamber for Electrical Engineering) of CREA-SP has an advisor as a member of the Tripartite Commission – the body responsible for creating and reviewing regulatory standards in the country – who made several observations and suggestions to the new text. “We must consider that the text was not approved by the Tripartite Commission, therefore, the existing information is not yet effective”, he added.
How will the NR10 review affect companies and professionals?
According to Gilmar Rotta, these new updates will not have major impacts on the routine of employees and employers. For the same, updates to the NR10 standard are divided into two aspects: revocations and changes.
“These revocations brought greater flexibility in terms of employer responsibilities. Now, in the parts that concern the changes, these were necessary for a correct understanding of the standard, as there were different interpretations of some items”, explained Rotta.
For him, even with these new changes, there are still many points to be discussed, as technical or regulatory standards will always be topics of debate and discussion. “They deal with workplace safety and accident prevention as a whole. Therefore, when talking about human lives, it will always be an eternal improvement”, he concluded.
NR10 refresher course is mandatory
NR10 refresher courses are already required, however, the current text does not determine the exact workload. The NR10 Training course will continue with 40 hours, but the refresher course will be stipulated for 75% of the total workload, with 30 hours.
The planned training is provided by a multidisciplinary team with qualifications in the electrical, occupational safety and health areas. “In current regulations, training must be provided under the responsibility of a qualified professional. Many companies didn’t even take courses under their responsibility, which led to cases where security technicians provided complete training,” said Rotta.
“Thus, it is necessary for refresher courses to be defined in a specific training program. Unfortunately, courses without the necessary quality predominate, mainly due to the lack of knowledge of professionals”, commented Ricardo Martins, CREA advisor.
Latest NR10 update
The current NR10 underwent its last update in 2004, where it had a significant change in relation to the 1978 standard, which had only 4 items. The 2004 version now has 14 items and 99 sub-items.
However, since 2019, the Federal Government has launched a broad process to update the rules that regulate the Brazilian labor universe. The modernization of Occupational Health and Safety Regulatory Standards and the consolidation and simplification of labor decrees were announced.
Currently, there are 37 regulatory standards that are in force in Brazil. The Government maintained the current content of NR10, but with some proposed changes, which are still being analyzed, and some obligations revoked. To check all measurements, click here.
