Safety Management

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Safety Management
Given society's increasing demands for personnel safety and health programs and
product safety programs, it is apparent that risk control will certainly be the
major function of risk management and the area where the greatest growth is
likely to take place. Some of these approaches are principally geared to
educating the public, the customers or the employees regarding their exposure to
risks. It is interesting to note that, in many countries, the decision to implement
a loss-control program is frequently imposed to the firm because the benefits
that are realized extend beyond the enterprise itself and tend to benefit the whole
society. Legal requirements do not themselves optimize safety, but they create a
climate for the development of reliable means.
Organized safety developed at the end of last century under the pressures
created by the new worker's compensation laws in Germany (1885) and in Great
Britain (1897). In the United States, the first law passed in the State of
Maryland in 1902, but it was so restrictive that it had no practical value until
the 1930s. Work injuries were a focal point of the developing safety specialty.
It was believed by the proponents of worker's compensation legislations that the
indemnification costs imposed on the employer would motivate the development
of occupational safety programs ( Grimaldi and Simonds, 1989, Chap. 2).
The concept of safety management (Grimaldi and Simonds, 1989) is an
integral part of management responsibilities. The objective of "safety first" is
similar to the risk control objective, i.e., the elimination of hazards, or their
control to levels of acceptable tolerance. In industrialized societies, the question
"How safe is safe enough?, has emerged as a major policy issues of the 1980's
and many hazards or risks are still poorly known or understood by society. 1 6
Beyond the particular studies reported here, a growing interest has developed
for political and policy studies on risk assessment. Baram (1982) has discussed
a wide variety of alternatives to regulation of managing risks to health, safety,
and the environment. These include private voluntary self-regulation, taxation
as an alternative to rules, insurance, and other compensatory plans.

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