KNF 3102

Engineering Ethics

Commitment to Safety

Faculty of Engineering
 Safety and Risk
• Customers demand safe product and services and do not
want to be threatened by potential harm.
• However, there is a price for having this safety. In other
words, we may have to pay for this safety.
• To complicate matters, what may be safe enough for one
person may not be for someone else. This is due to
– Different perceptions about what is safe.
– Different inclination to harm.
• Absolute safety is
– Entirely risk-free activities and products.
– A degree of safety that satisfies all individuals or
groups under all conditions
• Absolute safety is usually neither attainable nor
affordable.
 Concept of Safety
• One approach to defining safety is, as stated by William Lawrance1,
“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 a matter of how people would find risks acceptable or
unacceptable if they knew the risks and judge them based on their
most settled value perspectives.
• Safety is a subjective matter to the extent that value perspectives
differ.
• Safety is thought of in terms of degrees and comparisons: “fairly
safe” or “relatively safe”.
• This translate as the degree to which a group, judging on the basis
of their settled values, would decide that the risks of something are
more or less acceptable in comparison with the risks of some other
thing.

1William W Lawrance, Of Acceptable Risk (Los Altos, CA, 1976, 8)

 Concept of Risk
• A thing is not safe if it exposes us to unacceptable
risk. But what is a Risk? “A risk is the potential that
something unwanted or harmful may occur”.
• We take a risk when we undertake something or use
a product or substance that is not safe.
• It is a broad concept covering several types of
unwanted occurrences. These can be body harm,
economic loss, environmental damage, brand
devaluation, etc.
• The technology has greatly reduced the scope of
some of these, such as floods, earthquakes, but has
also exposed us to some other, such as accidents,
exposure to radiations, toxic wastes, etc..
• Good engineering practice has always been
concerned with risk and safety.
 Acceptability of Risk
“A risk is acceptable when those affected are generally no
longer apprehensive about it.”
• Apprehensiveness depends on
1. Voluntarism and control – less apprehensive about the risks
to which we expose ourselves voluntarily. May display
unrealistic confidence when we believe hazards to be under
our control.
2. Effect of information on risk assessments – the manner in
which information necessary for decision making is
presented can greatly influence how risks are perceived.
People tend to avoid firm losses than to win possible gain.
3. Job-related risk – Often employees have little choice over
this.
4. Magnitude and proximity – our reaction to risk is affected by
its magnitude and the personal identification or relationship
we may have with the potential victims.
 Discussion Point
In some technologically advanced nations, a number of
industries that have found themselves restricted by safety
regulations have resorted to dumping their products on—or
moving their production processes to—less-developed
countries where higher risks are tolerated. Examples are the
dumping of unsafe or ineffective drugs on Third World
countries by pharmaceutical companies from highly
industrialized countries, and in the past the transfer of
asbestos processing from the United States to Mexico.
To what extent do differences in perception of risk justify
the transfer of such merchandise and production processes
to other countries? Is this an activity that can be or should
be regulated?
 Assessing and Reducing Risk
• Any improvement in safety in an engineered
product is often accompanied by an increase in
product cost.
• Products that are not safe incur secondary costs
to the manufacturer beyond the production cost
– warranty expenses, loss of customers because
of injuries, possible production downtime,
litigation, etc.
• It is important for manufacturers and users alike
to reach some understanding of the risks
connected with any given product and know
what it might cost to reduce those risks.
 Uncertainties in Design
• Risk is seldom intentionally designed into a product. It
arises because of the many uncertainties faced by the
design engineers, manufacturing engineers and even the
sales and applications engineers.
• Design that do well under static loads may fail under
dynamic loading. There are also uncertainties regarding
materials, design and manufacturing skills.
• Engineers traditionally have coped with such uncertainties
about materials or components, as well as incomplete
knowledge about the actual operating conditions of their
products, by introducing a comfortable “factor of safety”.
• This factor is intended to protect against problems that
arise when the stresses due to anticipated loads depart
from their expected values.
 Uncertainties in Design
• Risk is seldom intentionally designed into a product. It
arises because of the many uncertainties faced by the
design engineers, manufacturing engineers and even the
sales and applications engineers.
• Design that do well under static loads may fail under
dynamic loading. There are also uncertainties regarding
materials, design and manufacturing skills.
• Engineers traditionally have coped with such uncertainties
about materials or components, as well as incomplete
knowledge about the actual operating conditions of their
products, by introducing a comfortable “factor of safety”.
• This factor is intended to protect against problems that
arise when the stresses due to anticipated loads depart
from their expected values.
 Benefits of Risk Analysis

Why both low-risk and high-risk products are costly?

P = primary cost of product, including cost of safety measures involved;
S = secondary costs, including warranties, loss of customer goodwill, litigation
costs, costs of downtime, and other secondary costs.
T = total cost.
Minimum total cost occurs at M, where incremental savings in primary cost
(slope of P) are offset by an equal incremental increase in secondary cost
(slope of S). Highest acceptable risk (H) may fall below risk at least cost (M), in
which case H and its higher cost must be selected as the design or operating
point.
 Risk-benefit analyses
• Many large projects are justified on the basis of a risk-
benefit analysis.
• We are willing to take certain levels of risk as long as the
project promises sufficient benefit.
• If risk and benefit can both be readily expressed in a
common set of units ($$), then it is relatively easy to carry
out a risk-benefit analysis.
• Both risks and benefits lie in the future. Since there is
uncertainties associated with them, we use expected values
by multiplying the magnitude of potential loss by the
probability of its occurrence (similar with the gain).
• Risk benefit Analysis is similar to cost benefit analysis.
 Personal Risk vs Public Risk

• Personal risk – An individual can decide whether to

participate in a risky activity or not. The difficulty in
assessing personal risks is magnified when we
consider involuntary risks. In regard to voluntary
activities, one could possibly make judgments on the
basis of the amount of life insurance a person buys.
• Public risk – These are more easily determined
because individual differences even out as large
numbers of people are considered. Statistical
parameters take on greater significance. Assessment
studies for public risk can be conducted relatively
easily.
 Safe Exits
• It is almost impossible to build a completely safe product
or one that will never fail. The best one can do is to
ensure that when a product fails,
– It will fail safely.
– The product can be abandoned / repaired safely.
– The user can safely escape the product.
• It is necessary for the user to have procedures for
regular maintenance and safety checks.
• There should be
– Avenues for employees to report hazardous
conditions.
– Emergency procedures.
 Occupational Safety and Health
• Organizations not only need to reduce the
occurrence of accidents, but aim for zero
accidents.
• Everyday, there are over thousands of accidents
caused by some failures of people, equipment, or
the surrounding working environment.
• All these unplanned incidents cause the loss of
life, injury or property damage.
• Most accidents can be traced to poor
management policies, procedures and decision,
where the cases are avoidable.
 Occupational Safety
• Causes of accident can be grouped as
– Direct: attributed to equipment failure or unsafe operating
condition or caused by hazardous material.
– Indirect: Hidden or not as readily apparent, can be generally
being tied to some human shortcoming or failure. Eg. Unsafe act
by inattentive or untrained personnel, unsafe operating condition
as the result of inadequate planning, faulty process design, or
poor plant layout.
– Root Causes: Poor management practices and inappropriate or
inadequate safety policies and procedures. Future accidents can
be reduced by eliminating potential causes through investigation.
• Job safety analysis is used to study the basic procedures of the job,
identify the hazard and prescribe appropriate safety precautions.
• Hazard analysis is a systematic approach to analyze and identify
hazards and further recommend corrective action.
• Engineers are not only involved in designing end products but they
are also responsible in designing a suitable workplace.
 Occupational Safety & Health In
Malaysia
• The Machinery Ordinance 1953 marks the birth of the
Machinery Department until 1967.
• In 1967, with the proclamation of the Factories and
Machinery Act 1967 (FMA 1967), the Machinery
Department expanded to become the Factories and
Machinery Department (FMD),
• With the development of the Occupational Safety and
Health Act 1994 (OSHA 1994), FMD was restructured and
transformed into the Department of Occupational Safety
and Health (DOSH). DOSH is now the premier
government authority responsible for occupational safety,
health and welfare of persons at work, and or other
persons affected by the activities of persons at work.
 Department of Occupational
Safety and Health (DOSH)
• DOSH is a department under the Ministry of Human Resources.
• It is responsible for ensuring the occupational safety, health and welfare of people
at work as well as protecting other people from the safety and health hazards
arising from the activities of various sectors which include manufacturing,
agriculture, forestry and fishing, transport, storage and communication, public
services and statutory authorities, utilities, finance, insurance, real estate and
business services.
• The principal objectives of DOSH are:
– To draft (legislation) and regularly review via a tripartite process the policies,
laws, codes of practice and guidelines pertaining to occupational safety, health
and welfare as a basis for ensuring safety and health at work
– To ensure, through enforcement and promotion activities, that employers, self-
employed persons, designers, manufacturers or suppliers, importers and
employees always practice a safe and healthy work culture and constantly
comply with the existing laws, codes of practice and guidelines.
– To assist and provide specialist services in promotion activities, training,
information dissemination and research activities organized by government and
non-government agencies, institutions of higher learning, and associations of
employers, employees and/or professionals in the effort to further upgrade the
standard of occupational safety, health and welfare.