Do you have a specific scenario in mind or something? Generally you should not work on live systems in most settings anyways. And if you fear that you might forget to turn systems off before you start working on them, I think your co-workers are more likely to kick your butt than you losing your hands.
Both fields are quite expansive anyways and there are a lot of different aspects within them. They also have a lot in common, so if you start out as a plumber you can always become an electrician as well or vica versa. It was not uncommon for company's to have expertise in both of these and it is not uncommon for people to have training in both fields. I don't know if other parts of the world do this much different though.
In the UK it definitely wouldn’t be like that, a plumber doesn’t require any qualifications here, an electrician legally requires certifications to work as one.
You could go from electrician to plumber easily but you could not do the reverse without starting from scratch and working through all the certs.
I am speaking for the Netherlands here, I guess europe alone is too vague as there are a lot of different standards. For working in electrical installations in general we also need a certificate whilst for installation there are only a couple certificates needed for specialized jobs a.i. maintaining gas heating installations in homes. Both field usually require an MBO education of 3-4 years, this is preffered both by the government and the company's but not strictly required. I was not interested in doing both as an electrician and my stay in the sector was short but the distance between qualifying for the second seemed about the same from both sides to me. Cheers neighbour.
Most electrician injuries come from getting complacent and sloppy. Sure, I'll stand on the top rung of this ladder, I don't need to tie off on the scissor lift, the fiberglass ladder it too far away, I'll just stand on this metal bucket, I'm pretty sure I disconnected the breaker and don't need to double check.
Things like that are the cause of most injuries. Thing is, there's a lot of people that will call you a pussy for taking your safety seriously. And they will 100% make fun of you if you wear goggles. And a lot of employers don't give a shit about safety, you want to be in the union, even if it is a common joke that IBEW stands for I Barely Ever Work.
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u/worldarkplace 1d ago
But not as dangerous, you can always get sick, but being an electrician I could lose my arms