The Safety Guy V1N2 - Design Methodology and The Myth of Common Sense


Following along from the first show, Doug discusses the risk reduction hierarchy, the myth of Common Sense (or Why Common Sense ain't so common!), how to decide if your product is Safe Enough and why you should bother doing risk assessments.

In this show, Doug digs deeper into the risk reduction hierarchy that underpins all risk reduction efforts in product safety. Listen in to learn more about risk reduction by elimination, safeguarding and warning.

Have you ever thought about how uncommon common sense can be? Why do we feel compelled to use this as a safety approach?

How do you know if your product is 'Safe Enough'?

Check in with the Safety Guy!

Download the Safety Guy V1N2 MP3
Show Notes
Time Topic
00:00 What’s on this episode?
1:34 Design Methodology
Basic design steps – Eliminate/Substitute, Safeguard, Warn, Train, PPE
Effectiveness of each step
5:23 Hazard Based Safety Engineering approach to risk reduction
7:45 Hazard Warning Labels – ANSI Z535 family, ISO 3864, ISO 7000
10:45 CSA Z321 – Not a product labelling standard!
11:30 ANSI Z535.6 – Hazard warnings in user documentation.
12:30 Why do Risk Assessments on your product? Advantages and Disadvantages
19:05 The Myth of Common Sense! Kitchen knives, laser cutters and why common sense isn’t so common.
21:37 The Angle Grinder Case
24:00 Is the product Safe Enough? US OSHA, Ontario OHSA & Regulation 851.

Contact the Safety Guy at dnix@ieee.org, check out the blog at http://homepage.mac.com/dnix/iblog/ or by phone at (519) 729 5704.

Posted: Wed - December 20, 2006 at 08:57 PM          

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