Description
Since the publication of the first and second editions of this book, some things have not changed. Today, engineers still have a moral, legal, and ethical responsibility to protect the public in professional practice and in design of products, buildings, processes, equipment, work, and workplaces. The importance of safety in engineering education remains a concern for most engineering degree programs.
There is still a need for safety and health specialists who help employers, manufacturers and others to protect people, property and the environment. They must recognize, evaluate, and control hazards. They must assist management, supervisors, and workers to use safe practices so all employees return home safely each day. Yes, there is still a need for this book.
Also since the second edition, many things have changed. There are regulatory changes, changes in technol-ogy, changes in business practices, and broadening of par-ticipants in achieving safety. Perhaps the greatest changes have resulted from the Internet and its influence on informa-tion, communications, and work. While the third edition of this book reflects many such changes, it is impossible to capture all changes affecting safety. In addition, change is constant and a book cannot keep up with change. That is why this edition tries to link readers to new information resources. Technology continues to change. Computer technol-ogy has changed the toolbox for nearly every professional field and it impacts safety practice as well. At first, personal, desktop computers took over the role of most mainframe systems. Now applications work on cell phones and tablets and allow individuals to carry tools with them in their pockets or briefcases. Technology has compressed information stor-age. Volumes of paper records, photographs, hard copy books, and other documents now fit into memory devices the size of a button.
Not only has the Internet offered an explosion in information and access to it, it has linked people through new devices in new ways. For nearly a century, the telephone linked places. You called a business or home. Today, cell phones and other devices link individuals wherever they are. The links offer voice, text, photos, applications, and data in ways never possible. Concurrently, a challenge for everyone Anyone authorized at any organizational level can access data and reports electronically.
Today, companies organize work differently from the past. The hierarchical structure of work and its supervision has shifted to increased use of teams. The role of supervisors has shifted to team leaders with leading, coaching, and mentoring responsibilities. Work teams have increased par-ticipation in recognizing and controlling hazards related to their work, rather than reporting problems to a safety depart-ment for action.
The overall field of safety has changed. Safety and health professional work demands higher levels of education. Roles of safety and health professionals have shifted from implementing safety details to overseeing strategies, meth-ods, and practices that achieve safety. The changing roles reflect the business practice of moving safety knowledge and skills deeper into organizations and workgroups.
There continues to be a convergence of related areas. In the 1960s and 1970s, the United States passed a range of laws to protect workers and the environment. At that time the approach was one of specialization in safety, industrial hygiene, environment science and engineering, fire protec-tion, occupational health and nursing, and related fields. More recently, many companies have combined these func-tions into a single organizational unit. That increased the need for generalists while retaining a need for specialists. Since the tragedy at the World Trade Center on 9/11/2001, some in safety and health have security as an additional responsibility.
