Assignment #3 Safety Engineering

Emilio Joaquin Flores

BSME 5A

1. What is Murphy’s law?

“Whatever can possibly go wrong, will.”

2. What is a hazard?

Any means of eliminating or reducing the risks resulting from a hazard.

3. What is hazard control?

Hazard control consists of all steps necessary to protect workers from exposure to a

substance or system, the training and the procedures required to monitor worker exposure

and their health to hazards such as chemicals, materials or substance, or other types of

hazards such as noise and vibration.

4. What are the sources of hazards?

There are many sources of hazards. People introduce some hazards. All too often, hazards

arise from engineering activities, such as planning, design, production, operations, and

maintenance. Seldom do engineers or others introduce hazards deliberately. Most likely

they are the results of errors, oversight, or other inadvertent, unknowing, or unintentional

activities. Many factors may contribute to the introduction of hazards: Pressure to meet

design or production schedules, job stress, lack of or poor communications, and lack of

knowledge may influence hazard recognition and control. Missing or incomplete

instructions, untrained personnel, insufficient funds, uncommitted managers, and failure to

seek assistance from safety, health, and other specialists, all can contribute to hazards.
5. What are the four components of communication?

The four components are sender, receiver, media, and message.

6. What are the priorities for hazard control?

There is an internationally accepted set of priorities for selecting hazard controls.

Some refer to this list as “design order of precedence.” The priorities, in order of

importance, are:

• Eliminate the hazard.

• Reduce the hazard level.

• Provide safety devices.

• Provide warnings.

• Provide safety procedures (and protective equipment).

7. What are the general effects of exposures to hazardous environmental conditions?

Exposures to hazardous environments produce few traumatic injuries. Most often there are

health effects. Some exposures produce non-traumatic injuries or have cumulative effects.
8. What is a latency period?

Some environmental exposures have delayed effects. Illnesses may not appear following

exposures for hours, days or even years. The time between exposure and onset of symptoms

is the latency period.

9. What range in time can a latency period cover for various exposures to hazardous

environments?

A more extreme latency period is on the order of 30–40 years.

10. Do all people exhibit the same response to exposures to environmental hazards? If

not, why?

Some effects of environmental exposures appear as behavioral effects. Exposure may

change how someone behaves. There are significant differences among people in their

physical, emotional, and behavioral response to environmental exposures. For example,

some people burn easily in sunlight; others do not. Some people will get a skin rash from

contact with certain solvents, while others will not for the same exposure.

11. What three items of information does one need to evaluate an exposure to an

environmental condition?

The first item of information is knowing the agent. The second item of information the

quantity. The third item of information is the duration of exposure. The level of hazard for

many environmental agents is a function of the dose. concentration of an agent.

Measurements vary for different agents.

12. How does one know if an exposure is hazardous?

 For some agents it is necessary to complete a computation to determine the hazard for an

exposure. To determine if there is a hazard, it is necessary to compare the actual exposure

to a reference standard. Reference standards come from studies of illnesses and related

exposures.

13. How does one acquire information about an exposure?

In some cases, scientific specialists recommend allowable exposures. In other cases,

government agencies set exposure limits. Not all reference standards agree on allowable

exposures and exposure limits. Over time, additional studies may lower recommended

exposures. Government agencies in different countries will not agree on allowable

exposures. The philosophies that influence reference standards may differ. In general, the

reference standards identify which exposures are allowed or what knowledgeable people

recommend. Decisions on actual exposures will want to consider multiple sources of

reference standards and understand how they come about and when they were set.

14. What are the elements in the four Ms model?

The “four Ms”: man, media, machine, and management.

15. What are the elements in the goal accomplishment model?

The model includes nine factors that groups use to accomplish a goal. People (1) perform

activities (2) and use equipment (3) to help them. People perform the activities in some

place or facility (4) under the constraints of physical (5), social

(6), and regulatory (7) environments. There are time (8) and cost (9) limits for the

activities. Each of these factors has many characteristics that influence goal achievement.
 16. How are housecleaning and housekeeping related to hazards?

One way to control hazards is through housecleaning and housekeeping. Housecleaning

involves picking up, wiping up, and sweeping up. It includes organized collection and

removal of scrap and waste. Good housekeeping reflects the adage “having a place for

everything and everything in its place.” Not having proper storage places and storage

equipment often creates housekeeping problems.

17. Explain the following terms:

(a) redundancy
Redundancy can reduce the probability of error or failure in an operation or system. Redundancy

means providing more than one means to accomplish something, where each means is independent

of the other.

(b) single point failure

A single point failure is a failure of a component or subsystem that results in failure of the entire

system. A broken starter switch or a dead battery in a car renders it inoperable. They are single

point failures. Designers should avoid single point failures particularly if a failure of the system

can produce dangerous conditions.

(c) safety device

Safety devices are features or controls that prevent people from being exposed to a hazard that

exists. Once a safety device is in place, operating correctly, and properly maintained, it requires

no action on the part of people. Safety devices are automatic devices. One must remember that

safety devices do not remove a hazard. A major difficulty with safety devices is that they are often

removed or rendered inoperative, exposing someone to a hazard.

(d) safety warning

Warnings depend on people to take some action that will prevent them from being exposed to or

injured by a hazard. Warnings depend on human action to implement protection. They are effective

only when humans perceive them, understand them, and act correctly in response to them. Warning

devices often rely on sensors to establish that a hazard exists and issue a warning.

18. Why do procedures have the lowest priority in the list of hazard controls? The

reason is they depend totally on human behavior to recognize the hazard as it occurs and
 take appropriate corrective action. The hazard may be present at all times. It may appear

all of a sudden. A person must recognize the hazard, know there is a need for a procedure,

9-5 ENVIRONMENTAL HAZARDS 95 know what procedure to apply, recall the

procedure details and execute it correctly. Applying procedures can be complex.

19. Why is personal protective equipment included with procedures?

Personal protective equipment is part of a procedure. Wearing special equipment depends

on human behavior and requires user cooperation. Someone must select personal protective

equipment that protects against the hazard present. It must fit properly. It must be in good

condition. It must be clean. It must not create additional hazards. Users must wear it

because the hazard remains.