What is a LOTO Authorized Person? We get this question a lot. Every person involved in working on a system with a LOTO has a very specific role with associated responsibilities. From Chapter 18 of the PUB-3000: A person who has completed the required LOTO training (general and procedure-specific) and is authorized by the supervisor or work lead to perform LOTO on energy isolation points to perform service or maintenance. Only LOTO Authorized Persons shall apply locks and tags to control hazardous energy.
Any person performing work on a system or piece of equipment that meets the threshold for LOTO, must take LOTO training for Authorized Persons, EHS-370. LOTO Authorized Persons shall only apply their own personal LOTO lock prior to commencing work on the equipment to be Locked and Tagged Out (LOTO’d). When you attend EHS-370 you are given personal LOTO tags.
Some LOTO Authorized Persons may also be Qualified Electrical Workers (QEW). Authorized Persons are not required to be QEWs when the work they are performing doesn’t present an electrical hazard. Examples of this would be when a piece of equipment is LOTO’d out because someone needs to replace a belt. Replacing a belt, does not present an electrical hazard; however turning on the equipment while the belt is being replaced could pose other hazards due to rotating machinery such as eye hazards from flying debris and the potential for fingers to get caught up in the machinery among others.
There are quite few roles identified in our LOTO program. For more information regarding Authorized Persons and other LOTO-related information, please check out Chapter 18.