12/19/2021

Dr. Ahmed H. Yakout

DEFINITION OF SAFETY 2021

CANON NO. 1

Engineers, in the fulfillment of their professional duties, shall Hold

paramount the safety, health, and welfare of the public.

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DEFINE SAFETY
According to William Lowrance:
“A thing is safe if its risk are judged to be acceptable”

However a better definition would be [1] :

“A thing is safe if ,were its risks fully known, those risks would be judged acceptable
by reasonable persons in light of their settled value principles”

DEFINE RISK
A risk is the potential that something unwanted and harmful may occur.
This Harmful something might be:
1. Dangers of bodily harm (faulty products or systems)
2. Economic loss (ex. Delay in job completion)
3. Environmental degradation (poisonous solutions)

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ACCEPTABILITY OF RISK
Accepting Risk can differ depending on multiple factors
1. Voluntarism and control
2. Effect of information on risk assessment
3. Job related risks
4. Magnitude and proximity

ASSESSING AND REDUCING RISK

Improvement in safety = increase in cost
Less safety = manufacture pays more cost =warranty expenses + loss of customer
good will + loss of customers because of injuries.

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UNCERTAINTIES IN MANUFACTURING INCREASES RISK

Most design and manufacturers fall in
uncertainties regarding the materials of
which the product is made of , the level
of skill that goes into designing and
manufacturing it.
Tests must be applied like
1. Operating under actual conditions
2. Studying Stress and Duty curves to
ensure a safety factor

RISK BENEFIT ANALYSIS

When doing projects ? Risk and benefits can both be expressed
in a common set of units (say dollars)
Is it worth the risk connected to it?
What are the benefits?
Benefits – misbenifits due to risk
Do they overweight the risks?
costs

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EXAMPLES OF IMPROVED SAFETY

1. Magnetic door catch introduced in What else can you think of?
refrigerators
2. Dead man handle used by engine
driver to control train speed.

FINALLY SAFE EXITS

If its impossible to build a completely Examples:
safe systems, the best thing one can do if
the system fails is to assure 1. Ships need life boats.

1. That it will fail safely 2. Buildings need fire escapes.

2. The system can be abanded safely

3. The user can safely escape the
product.

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REFERENCE

[1] M. W. Martin, R. Schinzinger, Introduction to Engineering Ethics, 2nd edition,

McGraw-Hill, 2010.