Prevention Through Design: An Idea Whose Time Has Come

Abstract

Addressing occupational safety and health needs in the design process to prevent or minimize the work-related hazards and risks associated with the construction, manufacture, use, maintenance, and disposal of facilities, materials, and equipment,” is how the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) defines Prevention Through Design (PtD) [1]. This concept is an idea whose time has come, including its extension to products, since product-related injuries also occur outside of the workplace. Using PtD techniques on consumer products will yield significant safety benefits. Besides the desire to provide well designed products, save lives, prevent injuries and avoid lawsuits, engineers have a professional responsibility to promote safety. The fundamental canon of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Code of Ethics states, “Engineers shall hold paramount the safety, health and welfare of the public in the performance of their professional duties.” [2] The first fundamental canon of the National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE) Code of Ethics [3] is virtually identical. Codes and standards alone are usually not a guarantor of safety, as no document can foresee every application and situation. Codes and standards differ widely in their ability to produce a safe product or process simply from adherence to their requirements. Further, many codes and standards do not consider foreseeable or known misuse, which must be considered in PtD. PtD requires hazard evaluation followed by affirmative measures that address hazards and failure modes until an acceptable, likely nonzero, level of risk is reached. Such measures provide safety even when a momentary and foreseeable level of carelessness or inattention occurs.