Health And Safety Flashcards
(20 cards)
What is the aim of the safety lecture for engineers?
To introduce safety, explain its relevance in engineering contexts, and examine case studies of safety incidents.
What happened on Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 on 5 Jan 2024?
A door plug blew out after takeoff due to improper reinstallation, causing explosive depressurisation.
What were the key safety issues in the East Palestine train derailment?
Toxic chemical fire, controlled burn, environmental contamination, potential health effects.
Why is safety not just ‘common sense’?
Because safety involves complex systems, methods, and human factors that are not always intuitive.
List five influencing factors in accidents or errors.
Distraction, rushing, incorrect decisions, wrong mental models, poor equipment design.
What are Hollnagel’s two definitions of safety?
- Avoiding adverse outcomes. 2. Ensuring intended outcomes succeed under varying conditions.
Why do we focus on safety in engineering?
Legal compliance, moral obligation, business benefits like lower costs and improved reputation.
Name three UK safety regulations relevant to engineering.
Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, COSHH 2002, PUWER 1992.
What does ‘reasonably practicable’ mean in safety law?
Balancing risk against the effort, time, and cost of reducing it.
Which UK industries have the highest fatality rates?
Agriculture, construction, manufacturing.
What is the ‘plateau effect’ in accident statistics?
Low incident numbers give a false sense of security until a major event occurs.
Give one myth about safety from Besnard and Hollnagel.
‘Human error is the biggest cause of accidents’ – this ignores how people adapt to conditions.
What is resilience engineering?
A system’s ability to anticipate, respond, adapt, and recover from disruptions.
What are Hollnagel’s four cornerstones of resilience?
Anticipating, monitoring, responding, learning.
What were the causes of the Air Canada Boeing 767 incident?
Fuel miscalculation due to metric conversion error, communication failure, and manual error.
Why does good safety make business sense?
Reduces costs, legal risks, and staff turnover; improves reputation and productivity.
What are future safety concerns in engineering?
Ageing workforce, new tech (nano, AI), new materials, big data, and autonomous vehicles.
What is the role of engineers in safety?
To integrate safety across all project lifecycle stages and into future innovations.
How is safety investigated after incidents?
Using methods that account for socio-technical complexity and not just finding ‘root causes’.
What is one takeaway from the ‘Gimli Glider’ case?
Human skill and adaptability can prevent disaster even when systems fail.
