for

WHO IS AN ENGINEER IN A
SOCIETY
• Engineers are ? those
members of the
Engineering & Allied
Professionals who are
knowledgeable in Design,
Manufacture, Application
 H I S AC T I V I T Y
He may act as an
individual entrepreneur
or employee who sell
engineered
products,buy and
 CONCERN for SAFETY :
Because, a product or an
WHY ?
activity may endanger
peoples
HOW TO life & welfare
DEFINE “SAFE
When thereT are
Y”? differences
within a group about what
is safe & what is not it
becomes “Elusive”
Safety better understood
WH AT I S S A FET Y
As per William?W. Lawrance
“ A THING IS SAFE IF ITS
RISKS ARE JUSTIFIED TO BE
ACCEPTABLE ”
So the understanding is
A thing is safe, if the
perceived risks are less
 WH A T I S R I S
“ A RISK IS KTHE
? POTENTIAL
THAT SOMETHING
UNWANTED & HARMFUL MAY
OCCUR ”
• What was considered risk
previously are acceptable
now & vice versa due to
 D R A W B AC K S O F
L A W R A N C E D E F I N I T I
O N
1 Underestimation of
Risks :

A unsafe product may

be considered SAFE due
to wrong judgment
2 Overestimation:
A product, whose risks are
comparatively less, may
be considered unsafe, due
to extraordinary safety
concern of a person
3 No Estimation:
A person do not think of Risk
at all Product is neither
 COMPLETE DEFI
Mike N I T I &O NRonald
Martin
Schinzinger

“ A thing is safe ( to a certain

degree ) w.r.t a given person
of group, at a given time, if
its risks were fully known, if
those risks would be judged
 RELATED QUES
T Ithe
• What are O Nfactors
S that
contribute to decide that the
Risk is acceptable or not ?
• What is the knowledge that
should be acquired to asses
the Risk ?
• How to arrive at the settled
WHEN IS RISK ACCE
PTABLE ?
Rowe Says “A risk is
acceptable when those
affected are generally no
longer or not
apprehensive about it”
Apprehensiveness
T YP E S OF RI SK S
1 Voluntary vs Involuntary
Risk
Buying a House near a
chemical plant knowing fully
well the fumes emitted by it –
Voluntary
“Vice Versa” - Involuntary
5Short Term vs Long Term
Consequences
 3 Delayed vs Immediate Risk
• Long Term Health ill effects
( High Fat ) : Delayed Risk
• Skydiving : Immediate Risk
5Threshold Level
• Certain Risks are beneficial at
smaller levels
• Exposure to Nuclear Radiation
at low levels beneficial to
health and not so at higher
5 Reversible Effect

Something will
seem less risky if
the bad effects
 FA CTORS THAT INFL UE NCE
PERCE PTION O F R ISKS
a) Voluntarism and
Control
b) Effect of
Information on Risk
Assessment
 a) V OL UNTAR ISM A ND
CO NTR OL
These are voluntary
Risks taken by persons
knowing fully well that
the actions they do are
unsafe but still take up
for thrill / fun
b) EF F EC T OF I N FO
ON
R I S manner
The K A S S in
E S which
S M E N info
T
necessary for Decision Making
are presented, influence the
Risk perception
Options perceived as Yielding
Firm Gains will be preferred
over those from which gains
 c) NA TU RE O F JO B
• Most often employees in high Risk
Jobs have no other option but to
undertake them out of compulsion
• Safety Equipments are rarely used
d) M A G N I T U D E & P R O X I M I
• Perception TY
changes with the
magnitude of life lost in a single
incident or accident to the total No of
lives lost over a longer span of time
• People perceive a thing to be of great
risk if there is possibility of affecting
 KNOWLED GE NEE DED TO ASSE S
RI SK
Having Understood how the risks are
perceived, Engineers should know
the Factors he must address before
assessing the Risk :

(i) Do I have the right data with

me ?

(ii) Can I be certain with the present

design ?
 (i) D A T A I N D E S I
• Experience G NHistorical data
&
would provide good information
about safety
• However, these may be new
application of old
technologies that render the
available data less useful
 (ii ) DESIGN
UNCERT
Investigate theAI NTIES
following to
minimize Risk :
• Purpose of Design
• Application of the Product
• Material & Skill contribution
in the manufacture of product
• Actual production condition of
SA FE TY TE STI N G
Most crucial information are not
freely available that forces us to
undertake some tests to ensure
safety

Drawbacks Noticed :

• Boredom / repetition tempts one to

skip / duplicate the data
 RISK - BENE FI T AN AL YSI S
It addresses the following questions

• Is the product worth the risk

connected with its use ?

• What are the benefits ?

• Do they outweigh the risks ?

Ethical Question that arises is :

“ Under what condition, if any, is

someone in society entitled to impose a
HO W TO AR RIV E AT V ALUE S
for PUBL IC R IS KS ?
• Risks & Benefits to Public are more
easily determined because individual
differences tend to even out as
larger number of people are
considered
• EIA / Safety Assessment study etc.
can be more readily carried out in
an unbiased manner on a
IN CORPORATION OF SAFETY
IN DESIGN
Steps involved
•Define the Problem
•Generate Several Solutions
•Analyze each solution to
determine the pros and cons of
each
•Test the solutions
•Select the best solution
 A CC I D E NTS
Despite incorporation of all
safety Aspects, Accidents,
do occur
The Categorization can be :
• Procedural Accidents
• Engineered Accidents
a) P r o c e d u r a l Acciden
ts
• Most common and result of
someone making a Bad choice or
not following the procedure
Ex : Failure to examine the
drawings adequately
• Not following Design codes / safety
procedure etc.,
Solution : Increased Training /
E N G I NE E R E D A C CI D E N
T S
• Caused by Flaws in Design
Ex : Micro crack in the
Turbine Blade
Cracks appeared in the
Proper structures
of DMRC etc.,
Solution :
 SYS TE M I C A C CID EN
T S and equally harder
• Harder to understand
to control
• Characterized by complex Technologies
and complexity in execution
Ex : Airline Industry
Operating the flights involve the work of
many individuals ( Baggage Handlers,
mechanics, flight attendants, pilots,
• BhopalGovt
caterers Gas Tragedy is a /perfect
regulators example
inspectors
of systemic accident
WH AT I S E NGINE ERS’ ROLE ?
• Engineers should have “Product
Safety” as their mains
objective
• Should recognize that Reducing
Risk is not an impossible task
even under time and financial
constraints
• Perspection: namely, that one is
 EX I T R O UTE
• It is impossible to build a
product that is completely safe
or never fail
• Best the engineer can do is to
assure that when the product
fails, it fails safely / product
can be abandoned safely /
Mike Martin Says “It is
part of the Engineering
code / design that a safe
exit becomes integral
part of the – experimental
procedure that classifies