Personal factors and consequences of electrical occupational accidents in the primary, secondary and tertiary sectors Juan Castillo-Rosa, Manuel Suárez-Cebador ⇑ , Juan Carlos Rubio-Romero, Jose Antonio Aguado Universidad de Málaga, E.T.S.I. Industriales, C/Dr. Ortiz Ramos, s/n (Teatinos), 29071 Málaga, Spain article info Article history: Received 8 January 2016 Received in revised form 16 June 2016 Accepted 22 August 2016 Keywords: Electrical accidents Primary, secondary and tertiary sectors Occupational safety Personal factors Consequences abstract Electrical accidents at work are characterised by the severity of the damage caused. Since the circum- stances surrounding this type of accidents can have an impact on their outcome, this study identifies sig- nificant relationships between personal factors and the consequences of these accidents for various sectors of activity. This study is based on an analysis of dependence relationships in 55 categories clas- sified into 10 variables associated with 14,022 electrical accidents which occurred in Spain between 2003 and 2012. The results obtained show that the three sectors of activity are impacted differently by elec- trical accidents for both direct and indirect contact. Likewise, a higher proportion of severe and fatal acci- dents is confirmed compared to the total number of accidents in the country; this figure is multiplied by 22 in the case of fatal accidents due to direct electrical contact in the primary sector. The analysis of per- sonal factors identified statistically significant relationships between this type of accident and the work- ers’ sex, age, experience, nationality and occupation. These results show that the competent authorities must promote actions to verify that the installations and equipment used in the workplace comply with applicable legislation regarding protection against direct and indirect electrical contact. Likewise, it is necessary to design strategies to provide workers with education and training that is adapted to their per- sonal and occupational circumstances to protect them against electrical risks. Ó 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Electricity is the most commonly used form of energy in the workplace, and a direct relationship has been found between its consumption and economic development (Ferguson et al., 2000). This means every day millions of workers are exposed to the risk of suffering an accident caused by electrical contact, which is a major concern (Cawley and Homce, 2006). This concern is present in working environments in the five continents, not only due to the high number of electrical accidents suffered by workers on the job (Jenkins et al., 1993; Kisner and Fosbroke, 1994; Rossignol and Pineault, 1994; McVittie, 1995; Ore and Casini, 1996; Kisner and Casini, 1998; Loomis et al., 1999; Robinson et al., 1999; Wang, 1999; Batra and Ioannides, 2001; Cawley and Homce, 2003; McCann et al., 2003; Janicak, 2008; Chi et al., 2009, 2012), but also because of their severe consequences (Chen and Fosbroke, 1998; Suárez-Cebador et al., 2014). An example of the scope and severity of this type of accidents is evidenced in the study conducted by Cawley and Brenner (2012), which establishes that the percentage of fatal accidents due to electrical contact out of all accidents involving electricity is 25 times greater compared to accidents due to falls, which is considered to be the leading cause of occupa- tional accidents. Therefore, in order to more efficiently use the resources avail- able to fight occupational accidents, it is necessary to establish pri- orities focused on those scenarios presenting higher prevalence and/or more severe consequences (Jones et al., 1991; Hinze et al., 1998; Lin et al., 2008; Chi et al., 2004). Thus, to identify these sce- narios, a more in-depth analysis is required of the determining fac- tors that lead to the most accidents. Various studies show that the human factor as the main cause of occupational accidents, estimating that between 80% and 90% of these accidents are due to human error or unsafe behaviours (Kotzé and Steyn, 2013). This is why the analysis of personal fac- tors (sex, age, experience, occupation, etc.) of workers involved in accidents is essential for the study and prevention of occupational accidents (Chi and Wu, 1997; Seo, 2005; Chau et al., 2007; Liao and Perng, 2008; Lin et al., 2008; Chi et al., 2009; Kotzé and Steyn, 2013; Koustellis et al., 2013). These personal factors have been studied in many areas of activity in the primary (Zytoon, 2012; Campos et al., 2015; Robert et al., 2015), secondary (Cheng et al., 2010; Fabiano et al., 2010; Kifle et al., 2014) and tertiary sectors http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2016.08.021 0925-7535/Ó 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. ⇑ Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: jcrosa@uma.es (J. Castillo-Rosa), suarez_c@uma.es (M. Suárez- Cebador), juro@uma.es (J.C. Rubio-Romero), jaguado@uma.es (J.A. Aguado). Safety Science 91 (2017) 286–297 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Safety Science journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ssci