Electricity is essential to modern life, both at home and on the job. Some employees — engineers, electricians, electronic technicians, and power line workers among them — work with electricity directly. Others, such as office workers and salespeople, work with it indirectly.

Perhaps because it has become such a familiar part of daily life, many people don’t give much thought to how much the work they do depends on a reliable source of electricity. More important, people tend to overlook the hazards electricity poses and fail to treat it with the respect it deserves.

The fact is, electricity has long been recognized by safety professionals as a serious workplace hazard, exposing employees to electric shock, electrocution, burns, fires, and explosions.