Measures
Safety measures are activities and precautions taken to improve safety, i.e. reduce risk related to human health. Common safety measures include:
- Chemical analysis
- Destructive testing of samples
- Drug testing of employees, etc.
- Examination of activities by specialists to minimize physical stress or increase productivity
- Geological surveys to determine whether land or water sources are polluted, how firm the ground is at a potential building site, etc.
- Government regulation so suppliers know what standards their product is expected to meet.
- Industry regulation so suppliers know what level of quality is expected. Industry regulation is often imposed to avoid potential government regulation.
- Instruction manuals explaining how to use a product or perform an activity
- Instructional videos demonstrating proper use of products
- Root cause analysis to identify causes of a system failure and correct deficiencies.
- Internet safety or Online Safety, is protection of the user’s safety from cyber threats or computer crime in general.
- Periodic evaluations of employees, departments, etc.
- Physical examinations to determine whether a person has a physical condition that would create a problem.
- Process safety management is an analytical tool focused on preventing releases of highly hazardous chemicals.
- Safety margins/Safety factors. For instance, a product rated to never be required to handle more than 200 pounds might be designed to fail under at least 400 pounds, a safety factor of two. Higher numbers are used in more sensitive applications such as medical or transit safety.
- Self-imposed regulation of various types.
- Implementation of standard protocols and procedures so that activities are conducted in a known way.
- Statements of ethics by industry organizations or an individual company so its employees know what is expected of them.
- Stress testing subjects a person or product to stresses in excess of those the person or product is designed to handle, to determining the “breaking point”.
- Training of employees, vendors, product users
- Visual examination for dangerous situations such as emergency exits blocked because they are being used as storage areas.
- Visual examination for flaws such as cracks, peeling, loose connections.
- X-ray analysis to see inside a sealed object such as a weld, a cement wall or an airplane outer skin.
Standards organizations
A number of standards organizations exist that promulgate safety standards. These may be voluntary organizations or government agencies. These agencies first define the safety standards, which they publish in the form of codes. They are also Accreditation Bodies and entitle independent third parties such as testing and certification agencies to inspect and ensure compliance to the standards they defined. For instance, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) formulated a certain number of safety standards in its Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code (BPVC) and accredited TÜV Rheinland to provide certification services to guarantee product compliance to the defined safety regulations.
United States
American National Standards Institute
A major American standards organization is the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). Usually, members of a particular industry will voluntarily form a committee to study safety issues and propose standards. Those standards are then recommended to ANSI, which reviews and adopts them. Many government regulations require that products sold or used must comply with a particular ANSI standard.
Government agencies
Many government agencies set safety standards for matters under their jurisdiction, such as:
- the Food and Drug Administration
- the Consumer Product Safety Commission
- the United States Environmental Protection Agency
Testing laboratories
Product safety testing, for the United States, is largely controlled by the Consumer Product Safety Commission. In addition, workplace related products come under the jurisdiction of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), which certifies independent testing companies as Nationally Recognized Testing Laboratories (NRTL), see.
European Union
Institutions
- the European Commission (EC)
- the European Committee for Standardization (CEN)
- the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA)
- the European Safety Federation (ESF)
Testing laboratories
The European Commission provides the legal framework, but the different Member States may authorize test laboratories to carry out safety testing.
Other countries
Standards institutions
- British Standards Institution
- Canadian Standards Association
- Deutsches Institut für Normung
- International Organization for Standardization
- Standards Australia
Testing laboratories
Many countries have national organizations that have accreditation to test and/or submit test reports for safety certification. These are typically referred to as a Notified or Competent Body.