Assessing Risk in the Deign Process

[Willallison]

Originally Posted by alex fletcher

Iam in Australia Things are a little different that's why I suggested to put the law stuff aside. Its a world wide forum after all and there's lot of different laws out there.
A Hypothetical Question for every one and food for thought
You are a designer of Ships in the Early 1960s your design is leading towards Supa heated Steam. Currently the Jury is still out as to whether Asbestos is Harmful or not there are other insulations on the market but thay quite a bit more expensive than blue asbestos the most common pipe insulation in industry at that time.
you have seen what you think may have been related, a number of acquaintances of yours, who you, have known to work with Asbestos have contracted caner after a number of years
What would you do?

Are we trying to assess the legal risk or the health risk? Because, in this instance they are most certainly NOT the same...

[alex fletcher]

That is really the question from the beginning what are we as designers actually doing to asses eliminate or control any risk arising out of our designs,

Do we as designers have a duty of care to all people who our designs effect and what is this duty of care?

No response to litigation only what is the right thing to do, what is the morally correct thing to do? Not what the law says I can get away with!
yes Will, this post has been high jacked a little towards the legal ramification, rather than the Health and safety ramifications.

[jehardiman]

Alex, no moral person ever intentionally delivers a product they believe is harmful if used properly. One should never infer evil intent for acts that can be explained by ignorance or stupidity, on either the part of the producer or user. Ignorance, self-delusion, and status quo can allow harmful products to reach the market (look at aspirin), but I doubt that in most cases there was ever a conscious decision to produce a harmful product. Epoxy is a good example; the two components are both toxic, the final product is not. Asbestos is another good example, I am sure it saved many more lives of users than it has taken of installers. It was a good engineering choice at the time; only hindsight has made it a demon. What about all the aluminum we now use...that is beginning to be linked to Alzheimer’s. Should we remove all the aluminum in the world? And don't get me started on dihydrogen monoxide, the second greatest killer of children. Should we ban that substance also?

[ted655]

If publicly traded company then Rule #1 is profits trump all other rules.
Rule #2 is all matters of a hint of liability are signed off on by Jr management And all reports on the project are sent to the newly promoted project manager.

[alex fletcher]

I must say this please go back to the original question what do we as designers do to identfy any hazard that may arise from or designs?

[kjellhoegseth]

To Mr. A Fletcher. You are quite right about hazard -of course workers working/(exposed to) with all kind of chemical substances ( epoxy ,isocyante etc.) must come under HES consideration . In a book "The Gougeon Brothers on Boat Construction" -Wood and WEST system Materials ISBN 187820750-4this matters as well as other topics on material strength and fatigue are well described -especially if you are working with epoxy resins combined with wood.

[alex fletcher]

I will ask the question agian how do you as a designer identify any hazard that may arise from the production of your desgined product and do you try to idenify if there is a less hazardous material, substance or process