February 5, 2007—Safety, health, and environmental (SH&E) research and design need to keep pace with emerging new technologies, according to presenters at the January 21-27 American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE) SeminarFest seminars in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Dan Markiewicz, MS, CSP, CIH, CHMM, president, Markiewicz & Associates Ltd in Toledo, OH, noted in his seminar, “Nanotechnology: Being Prepared for the Next Best Thing,” that “safety professionals need to be more skeptical of, dig deep into, and communicate more about nanotechnology research because there is not enough research about possible risks and hazards of exposure to nanotechnology or nanoparticles. We need to be able to identify and show how to regulate possible SH&E risks.” According to Markiewicz, at least ten percent of all nanotechnology research should be devoted to SH&E issues.
Dr. Michael J. Kalsher, associate professor of psychology at Renssalaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY, during his seminar entitled “Building Safety into the Design,” said, “Technology plays a crucial role in modern society by providing many benefits ranging from dramatic increases in human performance and work productivity to an enhanced quality of life. However, technology is evolving rapidly while the human thought processes remain constant. Incorporating new technology into products and environments can have unintended consequences if people’s physical and cognitive limitations are not considered as part of the product design.”
Dr. Kalsher, an expert in human factors, noted that to increase safety through design, designers should use the Human Factors Design Principles, which include: providing a good conceptual or “mental” model of the product; making things visible–such as controls or buttons on devices; using natural mapping; providing feedback; simplifying the structure or tasks; striking a balance between knowledge in the world vs. knowledge in the head; making it easy to evaluate current state of the system; exploiting the power of constraints; designing to allow for easy recovery; and standardizing.
For more information, see the ASSE Web site.
