LECTURE #8

COMMITMENT TO
SAFETY

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 Typically, several groups of people are involved in safety issues. Within
each group there are differences in opinion regarding what is safe and
what is not, it becomes obvious that “safety” can be illusive term as can
“risk” be.
We will carry out the safety and risk assessments and method of reducing
risks.
SAFETY AND RISK
We demand safe products and services because we do not wish to be
threatened by potential harm, but we also realize that we may have to
pay for this safety. To complicate matters what may safe enough for one
person, may not be safe for someone else, either because of different
perceptions or because of predispositions to harm.
Absolute safety in the sense of
(a) Entirely risk-free activities or products.
(b) Degree of safety that satisfies all individuals or groups under all
conditions
Is neither attainable nor affordable.

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 The concept of safety:
•Safety: Whatever risks can be considered acceptable.
William Lowrance : “A thing is safe if its risks are judged to be
acceptable”.
This definition however, is to be modified, for it departs too far from our
understanding of safety, if we consider three types of situations.
•A case where we seriously underestimate the risk of something, say of using a
toaster we see at garage sale, on the basis of mistaken view we judge it to be
very safe and buy it. While using it gives a severe electric shock. By Lowrance
definition the toaster was entirely safe.
•Consider, second, where we overestimate the risk of something, for example
we say that fluoride in water will kill people. We judged its risk to be
unacceptable. By Lowrance definition water is unsafe.
•Third, there is a situation in which a group makes no judgment at all about
whether the risks of a thing are acceptable or not.. So by Lowrance definition
this thing is neither safe nor unsafe, yet this goes against our ordinary ways of
thinking.
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Little in life and nothing in engineering is risk free. So, the modified version
of Lowrance theory is preferred
“a thing is safe if , were its risks fully known, those risks would be
judged acceptable by a reasonable person in light of their settled
value principles.”
Safety is often thought of in terms of degree and comparisons. We speak of
something as “fairly safe” or “relatively safe”. For example, when we say
that airplane travel is safer than automobile travel, we mean that for each
mile traveled it leads to fewer deaths and injuries.

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 Risks
A thing is not safe if it exposes us to
unacceptable risk , but what is meant by
“Risk”?
A risk is the potential that something unwanted and harmful may occur.
A future possible occurrence of harm is weighted as a Risk.
In regards of technology, it includes danger of bodily harm, economic loss
and environmental degradation.
Good engineering practice has always been concerned with safety. With the
advancement in technology, public is more concerned about the risks.

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 Acceptibility of Risk
William D. Rowe says that“a risk is acceptable when those affected
are generally no longer apprehensive about it”.
Apprehensiveness depends on the large extent how the risk is perceived
.This is influenced by such factors as:
•Whether the risk is acceptable voluntarily.
•The effects of knowledge on how the probabilities of harm or benefit are
perceived.
•If the risks are job related or other pressures exist that cause the people to
be aware of or to overlook risks.
•Whether the effects of risky activity or situation are immediately noticeable
or are close at hand.
•Whether the potential victims are identifiable beforehand.

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Examples of risk perception illustration:

VOLUNTARISM AND CONTROL

John and Ann along with their children enjoy riding motorcycles over
rough terrain for amusement, they take voluntary risk.
John and Ann used to live near a chemical plant , it is the only area they
can afford to live in, they are exposed to some toxic air pollution, this is
involuntary risk.

EFFECT OF INFORMATION ON RISK ASSESEMENTS

The manner in which information is presented can greatly influence how

the risks are perceived, for example The Smiths are careless about seat
belts in their car, as they are pretty much sure that they will not meet an
accident, but if they are told they meet accident 1 in 3 trips, their habit
towards belts would be changed.

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Jobs Related Risks
John Smith’s work in the shipyard has exposed him to asbestos. He knows
that along with him many of the coworkers are suffering from asbestosis,
even the physician himself. Ann, as a result of handling with her husband’s
clothes had symptoms.
He figured he was being paid for doing the job, he felt masks could help
him, and he thought that the company physician was giving him a clean bill
of health. Now, what decision to be made!!
Union and occupational health and safety regulations can correct the worst
situations. On the other hand, factory workers are seldom carefully
screened.
Engineers who design and equip workstations must take into account the
cavalier attitude towards the safety.

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 Magnitude and Proximity
Our reaction to risk is affected by the fear of a possible mishap, both in
terms of its magnitude and of the personal identification or relationship
we may have with the potential victims.
A future risk is easily dismissed by various rationalizations including:
•The attitude of “out of sight”, “out of mind”.
•The assumption that predictions for the future must be discounted by
using lower probabilities.
•The belief that a counter-measure will be found in time.
Misconception of numbers can easily make us overlook losses that are far
greater than the numbers revealed by themselves.

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TWO SCHOOL OF THOUGHTS
Engineers face two problems with public conception
of safety:

The overly optimistic attitude that things that are familiar, that have not
hurt us before, and over which we have some control, present no real risk.
And the dread people feel when accident kills or maims in large numbers,
or harms those we know, even though statistically speaking such accidents
might occur infrequently.

Leaders of industry are sometimes heard to proclaim that those who fear
the effects of the air pollution, toxic wastes, or nuclear power are
emotional and irrational, or politically motivated.

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 Uncertainties in Design
One may think that Historical data and experience provide good
information about safety of standard. But gaps remain, because:
•There are some industries where information is not freely shared
•Problems and their cause are often not revealed
•There are always new applications of old technology, or substitutions of
materials and components.
Risk is seldom introduced in a product intentionally, it arises because of
uncertainties faced by engineers at different stages of product.
Apart from uncertainties about the application, there are uncertainties
regarding the materials of which it is made and the level of skill that goes
into designing and manufacturing it.
Caution is required even in standard materials. Engineers while dealing
with some uncertain materials introduce a “factor of safety”.
A product is said to be safe if its capability exceeds its duty.

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 Risk-Benefit Analysis
Many large projects, especially public
works, are justified on the basis of risk benefit.
Is the product worth the risks connected with its use?
What are the benefits? Do they overweight the risk?
A good example of risk benefit could be the inoculation program, it may
produce deaths but it is worth the risk if many more lives are saved.
Risk benefit analysis is difficult because both risk and benefit lie in the
future.
But the Risk-Benefit analysis provides an advice when undertaking a project.
Engineers should be aware of the assumptions behind any kind of concern
into their deliberation. There must be some commonly agreed-on process or
a process should be open to modifications as needed.
The most relevant ethical question then is: under what conditions, is
someone in society entitled to impose a risk on someone else on behalf of a
supposed benefit to others? Are their rights violated? Are they provided
safer alternatives?

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Personal Risk
Given a sufficient information, an individual can decide whether to
participate in a risky activity or not.
If you are compensated for a risk by an amount based on the exposure
tolerance of the average person, yet your tolerance of a condition or your
tendency to be harmed is much greater than average, the compensation is
apt to be inadequate.
In regard to voluntary activities, one could possibly make judgments on the
basis of amount of life insurance a person buys. If for example he is to pay to
a kidnapper to be freed will he pay equal amount??

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Pubilc Risk and Public Acceptance
Risks and benefits to the public are generally easily determined because
individual differences tend to even out as large numbers of people are
considered.

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SAFE EXITS

It is almost impossible to build a completely safe product or one that will

never fail.
The best which can be achieved, rendered as safe exit are:
•It will fail safely
•The product can be abandoned safely
•The user can safely escape the product.
Provision of the safe exit is an integral part of the experimental procedure. If
safety is threatened the experiment must be terminated or otherwise a valid
consent must be given for its continuation.

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'Below is a science fair project that my granddaughter did for school.
In that she took filtered water and divided it into two parts.
The first part she heated to boiling in a pan on the stove,
and the second part she heated to boiling in a microwave.
Then after cooling she used the water To water two identical
plants to see if there would be any difference in the
growth between the normal boiled water and the water boiled in a
microwave. She was thinking that the structure or energy of the
water may be compromised by microwave.
As it turned out, even she was amazed at the difference....

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I have known for years that the problem with anything micro-waved is
not the radiation people used to worry about; it's how it corrupts
the DNA in the food so the body cannot recognize it. So the body
wraps it in fat cells to protect itself from the dead food or it eliminates
it fast. Think of all the Mothers heating up milk in these 'Safe' appliances.
What about the nurse in Canada that warmed up blood for a transfusion
patient & accidentally killed them when the blood went in, while the makers
say it's safe.
we see proof is in the pictures of living plants dying.

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