UNIT 1 INTRODUCTION TO SAFETY

ENGINEERING
Structure
1.1 Introduction
Objectives
1.2 Evolution of Safety
1.3 Improvements Required
1.4 Safety Organization
1.5 Safety Functions
1.6 Workplace Operations Requiring Safety
1.7 Safety Benfits
1.8 Summary
1.9 Key Words
1.10 Answers to SAQs

1.1 INTRODUCTION
Work place of today in Engineering manufacturing and construction presents situations
which are complexed by dangerous operations and use of hazardous materials. It becomes
imperative on the part of engineers and managers to adopt methods and use devices that
will reduce the risks to the physical body and health of the workers. Jle personal
protection takes paramount importance both in engineering practices and managerial
functions. The supervisory functions become very important in seeing that the workers
follow the rules for safety, use protective devices and that the protective equipment are
available at proper places. The engineers have to design devices and processes that will
involve less risky methods, machines and avoid use of hazardous materials. The
management will have to spell out safety policy, generate consciousness towards safety
and protection and generally oversee that engineering functions involve workers in
training for safety. The cost effectiveness of all protective methods and equipment will
always be kept in mind.
It is worthwhile to make mention at this point that safety alone should not be the target of
Safety Engineering. Health of worker is also associated with safety. The varying opinions
point out that safety is related to accidental situation whereas health is related to disease
causing situation. This argument will encourage to take two aspects separately. However,
such is hardly the case. The situations in workplace do not only cause physical stress but
also psychological stress. This combination by itself impresses that safety and health need
simultaneous consideration. But it may also be remembered that a worker operating in
mentally tense situation may unintentionally not remember to follow a particular safety
precaution and subject himself to accident. This understanding broadens the field of Safety
Engineering and requires help of specialists like safety engineers, industrial hygienists,
health physicists, occupational therapists and risk managers.

Objectives
After studying of this unit, you should be able to
comprehend how safety become important in industrial practices,
understand worker's viewpoint towards safety and accidents,
understand how safety is organised in large industries, and
identify safety functions and workplace operations that need safety
precaution.
 Industrial Safety
1.2 EVOLUTION OF SAFETY
The large scale expansion started taking shape with the beginning of nineteenth century
but safety could not become the concern of industries. With expansion of industrial
activities, the sizes of industries multiplied and so did the number of workers in individual
industries. The productivity of workers increased at tremendous rate and also the product
qualjty was visibly controlled and improved. However, all these developments did not
produce any concern to human values, safety and general well being of factory workers.
By the beginning of twentieth century lack of safety concern and consciousness began to
speak upon the health of the industry. Adverse health effects began to run rampant in work
places. The number of serious industrial accidents began to rise. It was then that a few
enlightened and progressive factory managers started feeling the necessity of abating the
causes of rising number of accidents, serious injuries to workers and poor health
conditions in work places.
The early thrust started with taking care of cuts and bruises and broken bones of factory
workers. The responsibility was largely entrusted upon personnel managers, maintenance
foretnen or plant engineers. Such persons tried to evolve methods of safe working by
providing guards on machines, shields on implements or by making workers to use gloves
and wear glasses during some specific activity. Soon these persons were replaced by
safety engineers or supervisors and safety managers. Such need was felt greatly by two
industry giants, viz, steel industry and rail road establishment. Yet the personnel made
responsible to prevent accidents were not specifically trained for the job but were chosen
from available force based upon their wide experience in a particular industry.
The situation continued until 1912 when in USA Cooperative Safety Congress was
orgtinised. The Electrical Engineers from steel industry took lead in organising this
conference. The congress resulted in establishment of National Safety Council ( N S C ) in
USA. This body was given charter to take responsibility to look after prevention of
accidents and development of safety programmes. In post 1920 period several safety codes
welie formulated by American Standards Association.

I The onset of second World War caused a setback in safety movement both in Europe and
Arnerica. This period was marked by workers' demand for higher wages, their insistence
on unionizing and union rights. There was a perceptible change in government attitude
todards sacrificing safety considerations in favour of desire to win war. The management
a l d developed false notion that safety was a nonproductive activity. This setback was
shdrt lived and soon the attitudes of governments and management started paying more
attantion to safety aspects of industrial workers.
The industries started including newer aspects in safety concerns. The noise, dust, fumes,
heat, mists and radiation etc. got included in the growing lists of hazards in industry. This
bedame necessary because the industrial activities widened very largely and scopes of
indbstrial activities expanded. This renewal of interest was followed by governments
paying more attention to safety programmes and large industries began to organise special
trainings to their engineers. These steps helped increase the number of suitably trained
peltsonnel in the area of industrial safety. New disciplines were added to safety practice in
industry. These were : industrial hygiene, health physics, ergonomics, design engineering,
illumination engineering, audiology and workers' compensation claim administration.
Each of these fields had twin targets of safeguarding workers' health and life and
improving productivity. Tremendous amount of research work and enunciation of safety
theories propelled safety practice into academic body of knowledge and information. It has
now become possible for engineers and managers to specialize in safety engineering and
sadety management through education system. It has now become imperative that a chief
executive of an industry is equally conscious of safety and quality. Safety, health and
environmental controls have become essential staff functions. In most industries today
safety finds place as one of important industrial activities alongwith manufacturing,
re$earch, design and development, purchase, sales, service and profits.

IMPROVEMENTS REQUIRED
The outlining of relationship of safety engineering, as done above, with quality,
productivity, profit etc. has also tended to create impediments in successful
implementation of safety programmes. The safety professionals tend to become
 overzealous and often are inclined to neglect cost benefit ratio and payback of their Introduction to Safety
practices. It has also been observed that many workers show resistance to adopt new safety Engineering
measures when confronted first time. A successful safety drive often comes after a number
of false starts.
Successful safety programmes are management initiated but workers dependent. It is
always important to take cognizance of workers' comprehension of safety and any specific
safety programme. In a survey a large cross-section of workers was consulted and it was
found that employees of large organizations are more safety conscious than those of small
organizations. The general feeling among workers was that safety was the responsibility of
management. They also thought government must make rules for safety and intervene
more frequently in this regard. They thought sound safety programmes, training and drills
were necessary for safety of workers in work place. A small proportion of workers only
thought that they were adequately trained and showed dependence on coworkers for safety
thinking that they knew better. It was noted in the survey that the employees who did not
receive safety training were liable to experience twice as many on-the-job accidents as
those who had received safety training. The workers who had met accidents were not
-
ready to accept their responsibility towards accident while almost 85% of them agreed that
accidents could have been avoided.
The general consensus among the workers was that safety programmes and training should
be organised, frequent inspection and enforcement of safety rules be followed, better and
more safety equipment be provided and their maintenance be ensured.

1.4 SAFETY ORGANIZATION

- p~

Every industry must have a safety organisation with well defined objective and well
identified functions. It has been experienced that safety policies often fail if safety
functions are distributed or made part of activities of several departments. Under the
system of distributed responsibilities the safety functions have often been reported to
corporate managers through personnel and human resource department, operational office
or legal office. Such practices had often obliterated the successful implementation of
safety programmes.
Safety functions become successful if they are controlled by a single department with
safety personnel interacting with other activities functionally. A top level corporate
manager must supervise safety organisation in a large industry. Safety director or manager
at industry level may report to corporate manager. There may be several managers
reporting to safety director who would look after special safety functions such as fire,
environment, occupational health, claim for compensation etc. These managers will
necessarily interact with all other departments wherever workers are involved.
A safety person should not be a narrow specialist but a broad basqd expert with human
values as main plank. Teamwork and cooperation with others are other attributes required
for a successful safety person.
A suitable organisation chart for large and highly safety conscious industry is shown in
Figure 1.1. This figure clearly specifies the safety functions comprehensively and four
levels of responsibility are identified. They are described below.
(i) Level 1
This is a corporate level and there should be a company director who will be
engaged in formulating safety policies at corporate level. These policies will
be issued from time to time if changes are made. He will have to see that
safety audits are made at proper times. He must be readily available for
required advice and guidance to all safety personnel. The company d'.rector
must appoint a general manager safety at company level.
(ii) Level 2
This is at company level and will directly report to the corporate director.
He has to continuously monitor safety policies of the company and bring
about necessary improvement in the light of directives issued from time to
time. He must also see that the directives and policies are in accordance with
governmental regulatory standards. He should provide guidance and
assistance for training of safety personnel at various levels and must conduct
 lndustrlel Safety safety audits. He must see that safety records are properly maintained and
data and information regarding safety status of the company are available. ,
Company Director
I

General Manager
Health Safety Envlronmental

@--i
Manager Manager Manager Manager
Environmental Occupational Professional
Control Health Service
Property
lndustrial Staff Physician Training
Occupational
Construction Environmental
Safety Engineering Health

Material
1Compensation
Management
=

Figure 1.1
(iii) Level 3
This level works at plant level and would directly report to general manager
safety. There must be four plant safety managers as identified by four plant
safety functions, namely fire safety, environmental control, occupational
health and professional service. Specific conditions and size of plant may
dictate combining two or three of these functions under a single plant level
manager but in all cases the functions should remain separate and ,
identifiable. The development of procedure of implementing safety measures
on job performing and analysing safe job performing, readiness and
preparedness to deal with emergency situations are the main requirements at
I this level. Equally importantly it is the level where interactions with other
activities are most likely to take place. Thus a plant manager will coordinate
with managers in the areas of design, manufacture, purchase, sale, R & D,
etc. A plant manager will have the full responsibility to investigate the
injuries to a worker occumng on joblsite and make report to the higher
officials.
1 (iv) Level 4
This level comprises representatives of safety departments working at shop
floor level or with workers. The personnel will actually implement safety
procedures, train workers on procedures, guide them to adoption of
procedure. They will provide all support for maintenance of environment and
its preservation. Very importantly the personnel at level 4 will conduct safety
drills.

1.5 SAFETY FUNCTIONS

In the/ statement about safety organization various function have been mentioned. Yet, a
clear description is lacking. Without much elaboration a list of safety functions is
presehted here. The safety functions are :
(i) Industrial safety

I I

1
(ii)
(iii)
Property conservation
Safety in material handling
I (iv) Industrial hygiene
I (v) Environmental control
 (vi) Occupational health . Introduction to Safety
Engineering
(vii) Health and safety information system
(viii) Workers' compensation claim management I
Fortunately the functions are self explanatory. The remaining part of text will deal with
important aspects of some of these functions in some details.

1.6 WORKPLACE OPERATIONS REQUIRING SAFETY

The operations performed by workers in their workplace are of different nature but they
involve some machine, equipment and material. The safety precautions are adopted for
machines and operations performed on them. Many operations require hazardous material
or material in hazardous state. Here some operation which are either machinetequipment
and material specific are described which would need safety practices to be involved. No
attempt will be made to describe the safety procedure to be adopted.
(i) Electrical assembly and fabrication
(ii) Electronic assembly and cleaning
(iii) Use of electrical tools
(iv) Use of chemical agents and chemical treatments
(v) Use of biological materials and treatments
(vi) Use of acidic and alkaline materials
(vii) Toxic vapour applications
(viii) Use and production of mists, dust
(ix) Use of boiler and use of compressed air and gas
Use of combustible and toxic gases and liquids
(xi) Processing of radioactive sources and treatments
(xii) Painting and mixing of paints
(xiii) Spraying of paints and liquid metals
(xiv) Welding gas and electric, brazing and soldering
(xv) Wood cutting and working
(xvi) Sawing metal and wood
(xvii) Sanding
(xviii) Sand blasting and shot peening
(xix) Burning and furnace application
(xx) Casting and foundry practice
(xxi) Digging
(xxii) Climbing
(xxiii) Masonry work
(xxiv) Hoisting and lifting
(XXV) Machining on lathes and mills
(xxvi) Shearing
(xxvii) Cutting
(xxviii) Drilling
(xxix) Jointing

1.7 SAFETY BENEFITS

An industry or a company that follows safety programmes is benefitted in several ways.
The benefits are shared between employer and employees directly and consumers are
Industrial Safety indirectly benefitted. A sound safety policy will avbid or reduce greatly the accidents
whereby the employer will save cost of lost man-hours and down-machine time. The
employer will also save on paying compensation and replacement or repair of equipment.
The employees feeling safe to work will show better productivity. Also since a sound
safety policy will guarantee an adequate compensation, the employees will work without
apprehension and psychological pressure. The latter factor often causes accidents (this will1
be further discussed).
The increased productivity and quality conciousness will produce goods which will be to
the liking of the customer.

1.8 SUMMARY
Safety and health of a worker in the workplace is important for industrial practices to
benefit all. Today safety concerns are widely regarded essential in industry and
governments make regulations to see that employers implement safety practices. However,
this Concern started to be felt first in 1912 in the USA. Before it could mature, the outset of
second world war deemphasised importance of safety. The industrial nations of that time
sacrificed safety for victory in war. But soon the profession was convinced that safety
could not be overlooked. It not only established itself as an essential practice but also
devejoped into academic knowledge and research. Thus, trained and educated safety
engineers become available.
Now the industries follow safety diiectives and policies made at corporate levels. At
company or factory level their implementation is guided, reported and audited by trained
personnel. Such policies also keep government regulations in mind and their compliance is
necessary. Regular safety drills and training of workers, availability and upkeep of
protections gears alongwith written instructions have become common safety management
functions.
Each industry must identify its safety functions and operations that will attract safety
considerations. Sound safety policies keep all three of employees, employers and customer
satisfied.

1.9 KEYWORDS
: Workers are not hurt, injured physically or
psychologically and maintain good health.
Workplace : The place where industrial and construction works are
carried out.
Health : The state of well being of worker so that capacity of
working is not adversely affected.
Safety Managers and : The personnel who initiate and overview the safety Introduction to Safety
Supervisors policies. The personnel who supervise implementation of Engineering
safety policies are supervisors.
Industrial Hygiene The conditions leading to keeping of good health in
industrial atmosphere, mainly related to cleanliness.
Health Physics : The conditions related to physical facilities and
atmosphere that help good health of workers.
Safety Functions : Establishing of policies and execution in respect of safety.
Organization : The establishment engaged in profitable activities. The
group of activities under the control of a group of
managers.
Benefits : Advantages drawn from safety policies.
Operations : The physical actions for production, repairs and service.

1.10 ANSWERS TO SAQs

Pleasre refer preceding text for answers to all the SAQs.