Safety and Risk

A SHIP IN HARBOR IS SAFE, BUT THAT IS

NOT WHAT SHIPS ARE BUILD FOR

Ethics by S.Arunachalam,A.P/E.E.E St.Joseph's Chennai

 Types of Consumers

 Active
 Passive
 Bystanders

Ethics by S. Arunachalam, A.P/E.E.E St.Joseph's Chennai

 Safety

Safety is a elusive term

Safety has to be understood with the term risk

Different perception about what is safe

Absolute safety is not attainable or affordable

• Overestimate risk
“A thing is safe if its risks • Underestimate risk
are judged to be acceptable” • No opinion on risk

Ethics by S.Arunachalam,A.P/E.E.E St.Joseph's Chennai

 Modified Definition of Safety

 A thing is safe, were its risks fully known, those risks

judged acceptable in light of settled value principles.
 Terms “Fairly safe” and “Relatively safe” are also
used .

Ethics by S.Arunachalam,A.P/E.E.E St.Joseph's

Chennai
 Risks

• A risk is the potential that something unwanted and

Definition harmful may occur.

Potential for the realization

of unwanted consequences
from impending events.

• Dangers of bodily harm

It can include • Economic loss
• Environmental degradation

• Causes delayed job completion,

Effects • faulty products
• Injurious solutions to technological problems.

Ethics by S.Arunachalam,A.P/E.E.E St.Joseph's Chennai

 Difference between Disaster and Risk

 Disaster does not take place until a seriously

disruptive event coincides with state of insufficient
preparation.
 Disaster emerges from a combination of factors
where as risk emerges from a combination of
probability of occurrence and consequence.

Ethics by S.Arunachalam,A.P/E.E.E St.Joseph's

Chennai
 Acceptability of Risks

Risk is acceptable when those

affected are generally no longer
apprehensive about it.
Apprehension depends on

Effect on
Voluntarism and Job Related Magnitude and
information on
control risks proximity
risk assessments

Ethics by S.Arunachalam,A.P/E.E.E St.Joseph's

Chennai
 Voluntarism and Control

 We are less apprehensive about the risks to which we

expose ourselves voluntarily than those to which we
are exposed involuntarily.
 People are more willing to be the subjects of their
own experimentation than those of someone else’s.

Ethics by S.Arunachalam,A.P/E.E.E St.Joseph's

Chennai
 Effect of Information on risk assessment

 Imagine U.S is preparing for the outbreak of an

unusual Asian disease, which is expected to kill 600
people. Two alternative programs have been
proposed to combat the disease. Assume that exact
scientific estimate of the consequences of the
programs are as follows.

Ethics by S.Arunachalam,A.P/E.E.E St.Joseph's

Chennai
 Information given to first group

If program
A is • 200 people will be saved.

adopted,

If program • There is 1/3 probability that 600 people

will be saved
B is • There is 2/3 probability that no people
will be saved
adopted
Ethics by S.Arunachalam,A.P/E.E.E St.Joseph's
Chennai
 Information given to Second group

If program
C is • 400 people will die.

adopted,

If program • There is 1/3 probability that nobody will

die
D is • There is 2/3 probability that 600 people
will die
adopted
Ethics by S.Arunachalam,A.P/E.E.E St.Joseph's
Chennai