Electrical Hazard, Steel Toe and Composite Toe Shoe Information

Can Electrical Hazard (EH) Safety Shoes have a Steel Toe? And are Composite Safety Toe, Electrical Hazard (EH), Safety Shoes better, or safer than, Steel Toe, Electrical Hazard (EH), Safety Shoes?

Electrical Hazard (EH) Safety Shoes can be made with either a Steel Toe, a Composite Toe, or an Aluminum Toe…actually, any type material safety toe is safe, as long as it meets the ASTM safety toe standard.   The safety toe material has nothing to do with the Electrical Hazard (EH) properties of a safety shoe.  The reason is that the safety toe sits on top of the outsole of the shoe, which insulates it from the floor.  The ASTM Standards (ASTM F2412-05 and ASTM F2413-05) that specify the shoe specifications and testing procedures do not require the safety toe to be any particular material.

Very Important to Understand:      Electrical Hazard (EH) Safety Shoes are only supposed to be used only as a secondary source of protection in an Electrical Hazard (EH) environment, where employees may be subject to open electrical circuits.  (ASTM F2413-05 Sec. 5.5.4 & Sec 5.5.2)

About the only way that a Steel Toe could be hazardous is if the person wearing them was standing on his toes, which would bring the steel toe in contact with the floor.  If the person is kneeling, his steel toes may be touching the floor; but the knee is touching, too.  An accidental, electrocuting circuit probably would go through the knees into ground since that would be the path of least resistance for the electrical circuit. 

Believe me when I tell you that if the very intelligent researchers, who designed the ASTM tests and specifications for Electrical Hazard (EH) Safety Shoes, believed that there was any chance that Steel Toe, Electrical Hazard (EH) Safety Shoes were not as safe as a Composite Toe, Electrical Hazard (EH) Safety Shoe, they would not allow them to be made.  The tests show that the Steel Toe Electrical Hazard (EH) Safety Shoes pass the ASTM Standard Electrical Hazard (EH) Test just as well and are just as safe as the Composite Toe, Electrical Hazard (EH) Safety Shoes.

Electrical Hazard (EH) Safety Shoes can be made with any type safety toe as long as the safety shoe passes the Impact and Compression safety toe tests and the Electrical Hazard (EH) test.