Commitment to

Safety
Safety and Risk
Assessing and Reducing Risk

The Concept of Safety

Safety
Define

in terms of whatever risks a

person judges to be acceptable.

Definition of Safety
A thing is safe if its risks are judged to be
acceptable.
-William W. Lowrance

Three Type of Situation based

on Lowrances definition
First,

a case where we seriously

underestimate the risks of
something.

Three Type of Situation based

on Lowrances definition
Second,

the case where we grossly

overestimate the risks of
something.

Three Type of Situation based

on Lowrances definition
Third,

there is the situation in

which a group makes no judgment
at all about whether the risks of a
thing are acceptable or not

Risk
is

the potential that something

unwanted and harmful may occur.

Definition of Risk
Potential for the realization of
unwanted consequences from
impending events.
-William D. Rowe

Acceptability of Risk
a risk is acceptable when those
affected are generally no longer (or
not) apprehensive about it.
-William D. Rowe

Factors on Acceptability of Risk

whether

the risk is accepted voluntarily

The

effects of knowledge on how the

probabilities of harm (or benefit) are
known or perceived

if

the risks are job-related or other

pressures exist that cause people to be
aware of or to overlook risks

Factors on Acceptability of Risk

whether

the effects of a risky activity or

situation are immediately noticeable or are
close at hand

whether

the potential victims are

identifiable beforehand.

Voluntarism and Control

We

are much less apprehensive about

the risks to which we expose ourselves
voluntarily than about those to which we
are exposed involuntarily. In terms of our
engineering as social experimentation
paradigm, people are more willing to be
the subjects of their own experiments
(social or not) than of someone elses.

Effect of Information on Risk

Assessments
Studies

have verified that a change in

the manner in which information about
a danger is presented can lead to a
striking reversal of preferences about
how to deal with that danger.

Job-Related Risks
Unions

and occupational health and

safety regulations (such as right-to-know
rules regarding toxics) can correct the
worst situations, but standards
regulating conditions in the workplace
(its air quality, for instance) are
generally still far below those that
regulate conditions in our general
(public) environment.

Magnitude and Proximity

Our

reaction to risk is affected by the

dread of a possible mishap, both in
terms of its magnitude and of the
personal identification or relationship
we may have with the potential
victims.

Assessing and
Reducing Risk

Uncertainties in Design
One

would think that experience and

historical data would provide good
information about the safety of
standard products. Much has been
collected and published. Gaps remain,
however, because

Uncertainties in Design
(1)

there are some industries where

information is not freely sharedfor
instance, when the cost of failure is
less than the cost of fixing the
problem

Uncertainties in Design
(2)

problems and their causes are

often not revealed after a legal
settlement has been reached with a
condition of nondisclosure

Uncertainties in Design
(3)

there are always new applications

of old technology, or substitutions of
materials and components, that render
the available information less useful.

Risk-Benefit Analyses

is analysis that seeks to quantify the

risk and benefits and hence their
ratio.

Personal Risk versus Public Risk

Given

sufficient information, an individual

can decide whether to participate in (or
consent to exposure to) a risky activity (an
experiment). Individuals are more ready to
assume voluntary risks than they are
involuntary risks, or activities over which
they have no control, sometimes even when
the voluntary risks are 1,000 times more
likely to produce a fatality than the
involuntary ones.

Examples of Improved Safety

This

is not a treatise on design;

therefore, only a few simple examples
will be given to show that safety need
not rest on elaborate contingency
features.

Examples of Improved Safety

The

first example is the magnetic door

catch introduced on refrigerators to
prevent death by asphyxiation of
children accidentally trapped in them.
The catch in use today permits the
door to be opened from the inside
without major effort. It also happens
to be cheaper than the older types of
latches.

Examples of Improved Safety

The

second example is the dead-man

handle used by the engineer (engine driver)
to control a trains speed. The train is
powered only as long as some pressure is
exerted on the handle. If the engineer
becomes incapacitated and lets go of the
handle, the train stops automatically.
Perhaps cruise controls for newer model
automobiles should come equipped with a
similar feature.

Three Mile Island

Is

the location of an accident in 1979

in a nuclear power plant an
electrical generator powered by a
nuclear reactor in Pennsylvania.

Three Mile Island

Safe Exits
It

is almost impossible to build a

completely safe product or one that
will never fail.

Safe Exits
The

best one can do is to assure that

when a product fails,
(1)

it will fail safely

(2) the product can be abandoned
safely,
(3) the user can safely escape the
product.

Thank you!