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Engineering Ethics
Sadaf Khalid
Lecture No. 8

COMMITMENT TO SAFETY

Engr.Sadaf Khalid

Lockheed L-1011
Pilot Gellert was flying Lockheed L-1011, at an altitude of 10,000 feet. Inadvertently dropped his flight plan. Leaning down to pick it up while setting the aircraft to autopilot mode caused the bumping of control stick. Plane went into steep dive terrifying 230 passengers but saved. But ALTIMETER STILL READ 10,000 FEET.

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Another Lockheed L-1011 Incident

Some problem with landing gear of L-1011 occurred. Plane was set to autopilot mode at an altitude of 2000 feet while crew investigated the trouble. 4 minutes later, after apparently losing the altitude without warning, plane crashed killing 103 passengers.
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Still Another L-1011 Incident

Gellert was again flying L-1011 when autopilot disengaged at an altitude of 500 feet. Suddenly, plane broke through a cloud cover when crew realized that it was only 200 feet above a densely populated area. Crew had then to engage the planes full takeoff power to make runway safely.
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WHAT IS YOUR POINT OF VIEW REGARDING INCIDENTS? WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNT?

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Observations

How vulnerable our complex machines and control systems can be!!! How they can malfunction due to unanticipated circumstances!!! How important it is to design for human-machine interaction whenever human safety is involved!!!
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Safety and Risk

Different groups of people involved in safety issues have different point of views regarding safety depending upon their interests at stake.

Engineers and public may interpret safety issues differently.

What may be safe enough for one person may not be safe for another.
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WHY?

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Reasons

Different perceptions about what is safe? Different predispositions to harm.

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Example

A power saw in the hands of child can never be as safe as in the hands of an adult. A sick adult is more prone to suffer the ill effects from air pollution than a healthy adult.

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Can we define safety in terms of entirely risk-free activities and products?

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Can degree of safety be achieved that satisfies all individuals or groups under all circumstances?

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THE CONCEPT OF SAFETY

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What is safety?

A thing is safe if its risks are judged to be acceptable.

(Lowrance)

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Drawbacks in Lawrence's definition of Safety

Underestimate the risks of something. Grossly overestimate the risks of something. A group may never think about safety.

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Underestimation of Risks

A person saw a toaster at sale , he judged it to be very safe and bought it. On taking it home and trying to make toast of it, it send him to hospital with a severe electric shock or burn.

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Interpretation of Safety in Situation-I

Using ordinary notion of safety, it is concluded that the person was wrong and the product was not safe at all! Given our values its risks should not have been judged acceptable earlier. Lawrence definition of safety force us to say that toaster is safe since prior to accident we had judged the risks to be acceptable.

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Overestimation of the Risks

We irrationally think that fluoride in drinking water will kill a 5th of population. What if someone reason to prove that fluoridated water is safe?

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Interpretation of Safety in Situation-II

According to Lawrence definition, fluoridated water is unsafe, since we judge its risks to be unacceptable.

It would be impossible for someone to reason with us to prove that water is safe.

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A group may never think about Safety

Group makes no judgment at all about whether the risks of a thing are acceptable or not. By Lawrences definition, that thing is neither safe nor unsafe with respect to that group. Against ordinary notion of safety.

We always say that some cars are safe to drive while others are not, while many people may never think about it while driving.
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Modified version of Lawrences Definition

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.

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WHAT IS RISK?

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Risk

A risk is the potential that something unwanted and harmful may occur. Risk is a broad concept covering many different types of unwanted occurrences. In regard to technology, risks can take the form like; Bodily harm. Economic loss. Environmental degradation.
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Some less obvious effects of technology are now also making way to public consciousness.

Why?

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Reasons

They are now identifiable because: Changes in magnitude of risk they present. Passed a certain threshold of accumulation in environment. Change in measuring techniques.

Publics perception about them have changed: Education, experience, media attention.
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Acceptability of Risk

A risk is acceptable when those affected are generally no longer apprehensive about it. Apprehensiveness depends to a large extent on how the risk is perceived.

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Factors affecting Perception of Risks

Voluntarism and control. Effect of information on risk assessments. Job-related risks. Magnitude and proximity.

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1. Voluntarism and Control

Whether the risk is accepted voluntarily.

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John and Ann Smith and their children enjoy riding motor cycles over rough terrain for amusement. They take voluntary risks, part of being engaged in such a potentially dangerous sport. They do not expect the manufacturer of their dirt bikes to adhere to the same standards of safety as they would the makers of a passenger car used for daily commuting.

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John and Ann live near a chemical plant. It is the only area where they afford to live, and it is near the shipyard where they both work. At home, they suffer from some air pollution, and there are some toxic wastes in the ground. Official inspectors tell them not to worry. Still they do, and they think they have a reason to complain -- they do not care to be exposed to risks from a chemical plant with which they have no relationship except on an involuntary basis. Any beneficial link to plant through consumer products or other possible connections is very remote, and moreover, subject to choice.
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Analysis

John and Ann behave as most of us would behave under such circumstances. We are much less apprehensive about the risks to which we expose ourselves voluntarily by thinking that hazards are under our control. Much apprehensive about those to which we are involuntarily exposed.
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2. Effect of Information on Risk Assessments

The manner in which the information necessary for decision making is presented can greatly influence how risks are perceived.

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The Smiths are careless about using seat belts in their car. They know that the probability of their having an accident on any one trip is infinitesimally small. Had they been told however, that in the course of 50 years of driving, at 800 trips per year, there is a probability of 1 in 3 that they will receive a one disabling injury, then their seat belt habits and their attitude about seat belts would likely be different.
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Effect of Information on Risk Assessments

Change in manner the information about danger is presented can lead to striking reversal of preferences about how to deal with that danger.

Consider an experiment in which two groups of 150 people were told about the strategies available for combating a disease.

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DESCRRIPTION GIVEN TO GROUPS

Imagine that US is preparing for the outbreak of an unusual Asian disease which is expected to kill 600 people. Two alternative programs to combat the disease have been proposed.

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INFORMATION GIVEN TO 1ST GROUP

Assume that the exact scientific consequences of the program are: estimate of the

If Program A is adopted, 200 people will be saved. If Program B is adopted, there is 1/3 probability that 600 people will be saved, and 2/3 probability that no people will be saved.

Which of the two programs would you favor?

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Analysis

72% of respondents selected Program A. 28% selected Program B. Vivid prospect of saving 200 people led to many of them to feel averse to taking a risk on possibly saving all 600 lives.

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INFORMATION GIVEN TO 2ND GROUP

If Program C is adopted, 400 people will die. If Program D is adopted, there is 1/3 probability that nobody will die and 2/3 probability that 600 people will die. Which of the two programs would you favor?
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Analysis

The second group was given the same problem and the same two options but worded differently. 22% choose program C which is same as program A. 78% chose Program D which is identical to Program B.
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Conclusions drawn

Options perceived as yielding firm gains will tend to be preferred over those from which gains are perceived as risky or only probable.

Options emphasizing firm losses will tend to avoided in favor of those whose chances of success are perceived as probable.

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3. Job Related Risks

John Smiths work in shipyard has in the past exposed him to asbestos. He is aware of now the higher percentage of asbestosis cases among his coworkers, and after consulting his own physician finds that he is slightly affected himself. Even Ann, who works in a clerical position at the shipyard, has shown symptoms of asbestosis. Earlier John saw no point to all fuss stirred up by some do-gooders. He figured that he was being paid to do a job; he felt the masks that were occasionally handed out provide him sufficient protection, and he thought the company physician was
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Job Related Risks

Employees are told about their routine duties but not told about their exposure to toxic substances. Rules exist for regulating the conditions for public environment but not for workspace environment. When one worker complaints about unsafe conditions but others do not, the complaint should not be dismissed. Afflictions by the carpel tunnel syndrome are still considered as not meriting workers compensation. Reports from workplace regarding unsafe or health impairing conditions of any kind deserve serious attention by engineers, whether the rules are in place or not.

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4. Magnitude and Proximity

Reaction to risk is greatly dependant on: Magnitude of possible mishap. Relationship with the victims of mishap. Proximity.

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Magnitude

Reaction to risk is affected by the dread of possible mishap, both in terms of its magnitude and personal relationship we may have with the potential victims.

A single major airplane crash in a remote country will influence us more than the ongoing carnage on the highways unless someone close to us is involved in the car accidents.

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Personal Relationship

We feel much more keenly about a potential risk if one of us out of a group of 20 intimate friends is likely to be subjected to great harm, than it might affect say, 50 strangers out of proportionally larger group of 1000.

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Effects of Proximity on Risk Perception

Out of sight, out of mind. Belief that the counter measure will be found in time.

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Problems faced by Engineers with Public Conceptions of Safety

Overly optimistic attitude of people about things with which they are familiar, that have not hurt them before, present no real risks.

Dread people feel when an accident kills large number of people, or people whom we know, even though statistically speaking such accidents might occur infrequently.

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It is important that Engineers recognize as the part of their work such widely held perceptions of risks and take them into account in their designs.

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THE END

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