Foresight and 'foe-sight' in Safety Engineering

Life is the most precious gift.  To thrive and flourish requires the necessary condition of safety. 

Safety, from the French original sauf or safe, means the condition of being protected in any aspect of life such as physical, social, spiritual, financial, political, emotional, occupational, psychological and educational.

Safety is built.  There has to be people in the organization dedicated to regulating the effects of hazards by employing means of removing or controlling the possible causes of harm.  This is Safety Engineering.  Applied to the corporate setting, the primary goals of safety engineering are to reduce accidents in the workplace, control or eliminate possible hazards, develop new methods and techniques to improve safety, maximize returns on safety efforts and maximize public confidence with respect to product safety.

The multidisciplinary professionals who specialize in preventing accidents to happen are called safety engineers.  They have a broad array of knowledge from engineering to scientific analysis and other disciplines such as law, technical equipment, manufacturing processes, behavioral and health sciences, risk management, security, finance, and insurance. The safety engineer coordinates and facilitates the actions of all personnel in applying the principles of safety engineering to would-be problems and troubles. With these reasons, safety engineers are categorized as generalists or experts in the ‘eagle’s eye view.’

Aside from safeguarding everyone and everything in the company, the safety engineer also performs the following functions: anticipate, identify and evaluate hazardous conditions and practices; develop hazard control designs, methods, procedures, and programs; implement, administer and advise others on hazard control programs; measure, audit and evaluate the effectiveness of hazard control programs; and draft a future safety plan and statement based on real-time experiences and facts.

Not all can be a safety engineer. The minimum requirements to be in the job are bachelor’s degree in engineering or in the field of occupational and health safety, experience and trainings in professional safety; and must be personally pleasant, intelligent, caring, and with keen foresight.

Safety engineers engage in three main activities: engineering, education, and enforcement. Engineering involves designing structures and programs for comfort and control.   Education is engaging in training and experience to become sharp in knowledge, skills, and attitudes about our changing environments and human action.  Enforcement is making safety everyone’s concern and responsibility.

Safety is a basic need, safety engineering is a must.