NFPA Journal - September/October 2017 - 9

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comprehensive view of the various hazards involved and the
impact that mitigation strategies would have in reducing
ESD incidents.
"We identified three questions: What could go wrong?
How likely is it to go wrong? And what would the consequences be?" said the study's co-author, Brian Meacham, an
associate professor of fire protection engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI). "Taken together, it gives you
a risk profile and a whole set of options for how to prevent,
mitigate, or avoid the hazard and thereby lower the risk."
The study is also unique in its holistic approach, Grant
said. Previous studies focused on singular components of the
problem that on their own could help, but are only one link
in a long chain of necessary considerations. Meacham and
co-author Woo Jung Park, a fire protection engineering PhD
candidate at WPI, said they were impressed with the amount

of quality research that had already been done on
ESD but found nothing that integrated components
such as public education, enforcement, marina
management, research, and so forth. "The benefit of
the study is that we were able to synthesize all that
good work that's out there and show how to bring
it together in a socio-technical framework to come
up with a reasonable set of mitigation measures,"
Meacham said.
Potential mitigation strategies in the new report
include technical, behavioral, and regulatory
approaches. Technical options include putting
ground-fault interrupters on boats and
How to Reduce the Risk
docks and decreasing
The "Marina Risk Reduction"
the maximum allowed
report identifies several
current strength in
strategies the authors believe
marinas and boats.
can have at least a moderateto-high impact on reducing
Strategies for addressthe risk of electric shock
ing human behavior
drowning. Examples include:
include placing "no
» Designating swimming
swimming" signs at
areas away from the docks
marina docks, and
and designated boating
the Coast Guard's
waterways
» Posting signs in boats and
inclusion of electrical
on docks that prohibit
warnings in its guideswimming in both public
lines for safe boating
and private marinas
» Licensing and registering
literature. Regulatory
boats and identifying and
strategies include
listing power sources and
requiring boat owners
requirements
to register their boats
» Providing an isolation
and identify on-board
transformer at the dock,
and using power pedestals
power sources. Each approach is
and ground-fault circuit
graded low, medium, or high in
interrupters at marinas
terms of effectiveness, cost, and
» Consistent regulation of
impact on reducing overall risk.
boats and docks with penalties for noncompliance
"Part of the challenge with
» Providing more education
the ESD issue is the paths to
to marina employees and
solve it are complex-there is
inspectors
» Requiring permits for elecnot a simple solution," Grant
trical equipment installation
said. He listed a host of chal» Frequent inspections by the
lenges: a lack of oversight at
Coast Guard or other agenprivate marinas and on boats;
cies of new and existing
the hostile nature of the water
boats
» A public safety communienvironment, which quickly
cation campaign targeted
degrades equipment and infratoward boat owners, and
structure; and an overall lack of
public and private marina
awareness of the issue among
and dock users.
N F PA . O R G / J O U R N A L * NFPA JOURNAL

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of NFPA Journal - September/October 2017
