Working on or near question?

Perhaps I am being too detail oriented, but in regards to both Shock & Arc Flash hazards and the boundaries associated with them; Do they apply only when working on that equipment or does it imply even being in the vicinity of that equipment. Example: We have some Med siz dry transformers that have an Arc Fault capable of > 40 cal i.e. over level 4. They have large vented panels that contain the transformer, yet, obviously they would not contain much blast, etc. Do we need to flag off our sub-stations so peolpe can't even walk by them. Example 2: We have some open bus that is protected against inadvertant touching, yet we have molded case circuit breakers hanging off the bus. The bus is rated at > 40 cal energy. Are we not even allowed to walk in this room? Example 3: We have feeder breakers rated at >40 cal. We have decided because of that energy to open the primary switch feeding that breaker before doing any work on those breakers....sounds practical until we have to try and verify Electrically Safe on the feeder breaker before we can work on it. Since it is No FR Class found work, how do we even approach verify all the steps for Electrically Safe??
Thanks,
Mark Blau; NewPage Corp

First thing I would look at is some mitigation, you have some pretty hazardous areas there and reducing the hazard is the nest solution.

That said, the 70E refers to "interaction" with the equipment as to when you need to wear PPE. So for examples 1 and 2 you do not need to wear PPE to walk in the rooms. However example 2 has some access issues per OSHA for who can enter the room and what thier qualification needs to be.

Example 3, tough one, lots of plants have this issue. Best thing is to use hotsticks to verify the equipment is dead, increasing distance will reduce the hazard level to a managable level.