What is Safety? Many people have many different definitions for the word SAFE or SAFETY. So what exactly does this word Safety mean or the word SAFE?
Safety is the state of being “safe”. Ok a little bit of a paradox- Safety is the state of being safe. Safety comes from the french word SAUF. Safety is the condition of being protected against harm. Harm from or against physical. We commonly know that being safe is being kept from harm from physical harm. However there are other factors or issues that may hurt us- such as social, financial, political, emotional, occupational, psychological, educational, incidents, accidents, errors or other types or consequences of failure. Whether intentional or unintentional. Safety is being safe from harm or any other event which could be considered non-desirable.
Safety can also be defined to be the control of recognized hazards. Recognition of hazards leads to being able to mitigate these hazards or provide control measures to these hazards such that they (or the events that are undesirable) are not released and work/play is within an acceptable level of risk.
We not only can keep people safe, but we can safe guard our assets, safe guard our environment or safe guard our reputation.
We can mitigate hazards or provide control measures by elimination, substitution, engineering controls, administrative controls or through provision of personal protective equipment. We can mitigate hazards by protecting against the event being released or the exposure from the event.
Safety can be limited in relation to some guarantee. It is important to realize that safety is relative. It would not be possible to eliminate all risks at work, at home or at play. And even if we did eliminate all, would may be very difficult and very expensive. Risks must be reduced to a state where work can be performed yet it is practicable to provide such a work environment. This is known as As Low As Reasonably Practicable. This safe situation or safe environment is where the risk are managed and risks of harm to people, assets, environment or reputation are as low as possible and manageble.
Types of Safety
There is a difference between products that are safe and meet certain standards and products that feel safe. Normative safety is a term used to describe products or designs when they meet applicable design standards. However Substantive Safety is a term used to describe objective safety that the real-world safety history is accepted. Perceived safety describes the comfort level of people. People may have a perceived value of safety. For example in some countries it is safe for people to ride motorcycles while sitting sideways or where a family may use motorcycles to transport the father, mother and their two children or lastly where helmets are not required.
Typically when we mention the word safe or safety, most of the time it is implied or interpreted as impact on life, ie the risk of death, the risk of fatality, or the risk of damage to property. People have come to learn to protect lives, assets, environment and reputation by safety engineering means and safety regulations. Other means of improving safety are from safety training, safety communication and other means.
Safety Engineering can be further split into Safety Systems Engineering or Safety Reliability Engineering.
Knowledge of the literature, knowledge of standards, knowledge of good safe practices and being well read are critical for safety practioners who wish to make an impact in the safety industry. For a good safety practioner he/she must have a depth of knowledge in his/her safety field and have track record of implementing good safe work practices throughout their career.
Safety should be seen as a component in Quality, Reliability, Availability and Maintainability. Safety is critical to quality, productivity and profitability.
Safety measures are activities and precautions taken to improve safety. Safety measures are placed to reduce risk related to human health. Some common safety measures could include:
- Safety Root Cause Analysisto identify real safety causes of failures and then take remedial actions.
- Safety Inspections to visually check and inspect issues.
- Visual Safety Examination these could be for cranes, lifting equipment and such
- X-rays on pipes and welds for checks on cracks
- Safety factors. When doing heavy lifts and having an allowed safety factor.
- Safety Work Practices and Procedures
- Safety Training
- Safety Manuals
- Safety Instruction
- Safety Briefings
- Safety Memos
- Safety Videos
- Safety Behaviour Observations
- Safety Regulations by authorities
- Safety Regulations by companies
- Safety Policies
- Medical Examinations to review if workers would be safe for the work
- Safety Audits (Safety Audits External and Safety Audits Internal)