From Safety to Safety Science

Paul Swuste is an associate professor of the Safety Science Group, Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands, with an MSc degree in Biochemistry (Leiden University, 1978) and a PhD thesis, 'Occupational Hazards and Solutions' (Delft University of Technology, 1996). He has conducted research on risk assessments in high-tech-high-hazard industries, on the history of knowledge developments in safety science and on various occupational hazards. He has published frequently on these topics and co-organised the post-graduate master course 'Management of Safety Health and Environment' from 1994 to 2008. Jop Groeneweg graduated as a cognitive psychologist from Leiden University in the early 1980s. In a career spanning about four decennia, he was involved in many projects, in and outside the university, to improve safety, predominantly in industrial organisations. As a professor of Safety in Healthcare at Delft University of Technology and a human performance expert at Leiden University and the TNO research institute, in the Netherlands, he aims to transfer his knowledge to the medical domain to reduce preventable adverse events while at the same time getting new insights that might help to further improve safety in the industry. Frank W. Guldenmund graduated from Leiden University with degrees in both cognitive psychology and methods and statistics. In February 1992 he joined the Safety Science Group at Delft University of Technology. In his research, he focusses on the management of safety in industrial organisations and on the behavior of people within those organisations. He has been teaching safety science for nearly 30 years to both graduate and undergraduate students as well as to safety practitioners. Since 2002 he has been a trainer in the safety culture program of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), providing lectures and workshops on this topic worldwide. Currently, he is on the board of the Dutch Society for Safety Professionals (NVVK) and responsible for embedding (more) science into the work of safety professionals. He is editor of the society’s journal as well as associate editor of Safety Science. Coen van Gulijk is a senior scientist at TNO Healthy Living, a vising professor at the University of Huddersfield and affiliate researcher of the Safety Science Group of the Delft University of Technology. He is investigating and accelerating the digital transformation of safety models and safety management. He has taught safety science on an academic level in four universities in the Netherlands, one university in Belgium and one in the UK, and actively engages in international networks and scientific dissemination. Saul Lemkowitz was an associate professor of the Chemical Engineering department at Delft University of Technology. He studied chemical engineering at Rutgers University, in the United States, and at Delft. His PhD thesis (Delft, 1975) focused on ‘Phase and corrosion studies of the ammonia-carbon dioxide water system’. Dust explosions and explosion safety in the process industries were his fields of research and education, together with sustainability, industrial ecology and technology and society. He frequently published on these topics. Regrettably, Saul passed away on 13 February 2020. Yvette Oostendorp finished her master's studies at Wageningen University and Research in environmental and industrial hygiene in 1983 and worked as a researcher at Wageningen UR on agreement between qualitative estimates and quantitative exposure measurements. From 1986 until 2004 she worked as an industrial hygienist at an occupational health service. She is author or co-author of several handbooks on chemical risk assessment for professionals in occupational health services. In 2004 she started as a senior advisor at the former Hazardous Substances Council, the advisory council for the Dutch parliament. Since 2012 she has worked at the Dutch Council for Environment and Infrastructure (RLI). Walter Zwaard studied chemistry at Leiden University and received his PhD in 1983. He worked at Leiden University as risk manager, radiation safety officer and lecturer on laboratory safety. From 2004 until 2012 he was a member of the former Hazardous Substances Council. He has published widely on safety issues such as hazardous substances, accident prevention and risk management. He has written a number of books and edited several textbooks on safety. Since 1992 he has worked as a safety practitioner and consultant in both public and private sectors. As an instructor and lecturer, he participates in many courses for risk professionals.

TIME TRAVEL

CHAPTER 1 THE BIRTH OF OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY, SAFETY AND SOCIAL STRUGGLE: 1800s–1910

UNITED KINGDOM

The century of steam

UNITED STATES

US Steel, road to happiness

The Pittsburgh investigation

Eastman's conclusions

Responsibility for safety

THE NETHERLANDS

The Netherlands during the century of steam

Safety technique according to Westerouwen van Meeteren

Heijermans’ causes of occupational accidents

CHAPTER 2 ACCIDENT PRONENESS, SAFETY BY INSPECTION: 1910-1930

UNITED STATES

The American management approach

Behavioural management

Safety technique

Safety publications

Professionalisation of occupational safety

Safety management according to DeBlois

Heinrich’s influence

Safety propaganda

UNITED KINGDOM

Safety research

Accident proneness

The individual hypothesis

Between thinking and doing

The environmental hypothesis

THE NETHERLANDS

Individual factors

CHAPTER 3 DOMINOS, SAFETY BY TECHNIQUE – PREVENTION: 1931-1950

UNITED STATES

Heinrich's contribution

The domino metaphor

The National Safety Council

The role of the foreman

Accident investigation, chance and effect

Criticism on Heinrich

The epidemiological triangle

UNITED KINGDOM

Accidents and their prevention

THE NETHERLANDS

Limited knowledge development

Safety museum

Safety inspectors

CHAPTER 4 PREVENTION, BEHAVIOUR AND THE MAKEABLE MAN: 1950 – 1970

UNITED STATES

Modern management

Quality control, product versus process

The latter days of Heinrich

Damage control

Criticism on the psychological explanation of accidents

The hazard-barrier-target model

The concept of risk

Reliability engineering

Ergonomics

Loss prevention and safety tools, FMEA, FTA, Energy Analysis

UNITED KINGDOM

Safety tool, Hazop

Human factors and ergonomics

THE NETHERLANDS

Task dynamics, a safety theory

Focus on occupational safety

The Lateiner method

Workers’ participation

Ergonomics and housekeeping

CHAPTER 5 RISK, SAFETY AND ORGANISATION – MANAGEMENT: 1970-1990

WESTERN EUROPE AND THE NORDIC CONTRIES

Quality of legal provisions for occupational management

Models of occupational safety

Ergonomics and task dynamics

Causes and prevention of 2,000 accidents

Occupational safety research in the 1980s

NORTH AMERICA

Structures of organisations

Risk homeostasis

Occupational safety research in the 1980s

Prevention of accidents

Occupational safety management systems and auditing

Workers’ well-being

Safety and changing technology

THE NETHERLANDS

Human error

Risk and occupational safety

Acceptability of risks, standards for occupational exposure to carcinogens

Humanisation of labour

CHAPTER 6 RISK AND MANAGEMENT, SAFETY BY ORGANISATION: 1960-1990

WESTERN EUROPE AND THE NORDIC COUTRIES

Some major industrial accidents in the 1960s and 1970s

Feyzin, 1966

Aberfan, 1966

Flixborough, 1974

Seveso, 1976

Los Alfaques, 1978

How safety changed after these major industrial accidents

The nuclear sector

Loss Prevention

Canvey Island study

Inherent safe design

Seveso I

The Disaster Incubation Theory

Man-machine interactions

Some major industrial accidents in the 1980s

Chernobyl, 1986

Piper Alpha, 1988

Clapham Junction, 1988

NORTH AMERICA, INDIA AND THE FORMER USSR

Management Oversight Risk Tree

Some major industrial accidents in the 1970s and 1980s

Three Mile Island, 1979

Mexico City, 1984

Bhopal, 1984

How safety changed after these major industrial accidents

Risk approach and risk perception

Normal accidents

Man-machine interactions THERP and high reliability theory

Safety management

THE NETHERLANDS

Some major industrial accidents in the 1960s and 1970s

Shell Pernis, 1968

DSM Beek, 1975

NAM Schoonebeek, 1976

How safety changed after these major industrial accidents

Impact of vapour gas explosions

Fighting blow-outs

Loss Prevention

Origin of the Dutch risk concept

COVO study, LPG study

Coloured books

Broad Societal Discussion

Research on risk perception

The Shell casus

University Training and Research in Safety

CHAPTER 7 OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY, SAFETY MANAGEMENT, CULTURE: 1990-2010

WESTERN EUROPE AND NORDIC COUNTRIES

Quality management

Safety management

The accident process

Accident models

Working-on-safety

Safety culture and safety climate

NORTH AMERICA AND AUSTRALIA

Quality management

Organisational learning

Safety audits

Safety interventions

Organisational culture

THE NETHERLANDS

Organisational learning

The concept of well-being

ISO madness

Risk assessment and evaluation

Accidents and accident models

Safety interventions

Safety culture

CHAPTER 8 HIGH-TECH-HIGH-HAZARD SAFETY, CULTURE AND RISK: 1990—2010

General management schools

Risk

Accidents in high-tech-high-hazard sectors

Domino effects

Golden years of safety

WESTERN EUROPE AND NORDIC COUNTRIES

Determinants of major accident processes

Sloppy management

Complexity and socio-technical systems

Gas clouds

Human failure and human factors

Safety culture and inspections

Design

Metaphors

Swiss cheese

Drift to danger

Models and theories

Disaster incubation theory

Resilience engineering workshop

Risk perception

Risk and safety management

NORTH AMERICA AND AUSTRALIA

Determinants of major accident processes

Design, Layers of Protection Analysis (LOPA)

Design, process intensification

Theories

Normal accident theory

High reliability theory

Case studies

Risk perception

THE NETHERLANDS

Determinants of major accident processes

Metaphors

Bowtie

Quantification of risk

Acceptable risk levels

Risk perception

Risk and safety management

Deepwater Horizon

CHAPTER 9 EPILOGUE

Acts of God

The individual and environmental hypotheses, pre-war period

Hazards and unsafe acts, pre-war period

Occupational safety, post-war period

Management and safety management, post-war period

Ergonomics, post-war period

The environmental and individual hypotheses, post-war period

High-tech-high-hazard safety, post-war period

Organisational factors

The combination of technology, behaviour and organisation

Safety and risk management

Risk and risk perception

Again theories, models and metaphors

The fruits of progress

Worrying between thinking and doing

Safety as a science?

Room for optimism

The time traveller again

Optimise or innovate?

The need for cooperation

Sorcery

Appendix 1: Reported ‘man-made’ incidents and major accidents from public literature, 1990-2010

Appendix 2: High-tech high hazard safety, 1950-2010

Appendix 3: Occupational safety, 1800s-2010

References

Index