Misuse analysis

Misuse analysis examines the corollary to Murphy s Law that states What can be misused, will be misused. Product liability litigation has been a major driving force in misuse analysis because many times a manufacturer may be held liable for damages resulting from purchasers using or attempting to use products for other than their intended purpose. 

The age, education level, and other qualifications and characteristics of the potential users are very significant factors to consider in performing misuse analysis. That is the reason children s toys have been the subject of much litigation and significant design improvements. Products or facilities to be used by the elderly and/or the handicapped also deserve special attention. 

Misuse analysis. Has careful consideration been given to the way items can be used improperly and the possible effects of misuse Is the system designed to be as idiot-proof as practical ... 

Misuse analysis. Are modifications as idiot-proof as practical How can modified facilities or hardware be misused ... 

Human factors Were stereotypes violated during the design process Were ergonomic principles properly applied Were human-machine interfaces adequately evaluated Was adequate misuse analysis performed ... 

Hirsch, R. F. Analysis of Variance in Analytical Chemistry, Anal. Chem., 49 691A (1977). Jaffe, A. J., and H. F. Spirer, Misused Statistics—Straight Talk for Twisted Numbers, Marcel Dekker, New York, 1987. 

Measurement Selection The identification of which measurements to make is an often overlooked aspect of plant-performance analysis. The end use of the data interpretation must be understood (i.e., the purpose for which the data, the parameters, or the resultant model will be used). For example, building a mathematical model of the process to explore other regions of operation is an end use. Another is to use the data to troubleshoot an operating problem. The level of data accuracy, the amount of data, and the sophistication of the interpretation depends upon the accuracy with which the result of the analysis needs to oe known. Daily measurements to a great extent and special plant measurements to a lesser extent are rarelv planned with the end use in mind. The result is typically too little data of too low accuracy or an inordinate amount with the resultant misuse in resources. 

In the past, qualitative approaches for hazard evaluation and risk analysis have been able to satisfy the majority of decision makers needs. In the future, there will be an increasing motivation to use QRA. For the special situations that appear to demand quantitative support for safety-related decisions, QRA can be effective in increasing the manager s understanding of the level of risk associated with a company activity. Whenever possible, decision makers should design QRA studies to produce relative results that support their information requirements. QRA studies used in this way are not subject to nearly as many of the numbers problems and limitations to which absolute risk studies are subject, and the results are less likely to be misused. 

Hydrocarbon distillates in the gas oil range ( diesel or derv ) are subject to duty when used as a road fuel. Gas oil, which is often identical to diesel oil in hydrocarbon composition, is exempt from duty when used for stationary machines. In order to prevent its misuse as a road fuel, gas oil is marked with a mixture of 1,4-dfhydroxyanthraquinone (quinizarin), 2-fiirfuraldehyde (furfural) and a red dye. An automatic method for the extraction, identification and determination of quinizarin in gas oil has been used hy the Laboratory of the Government Chemist (LGC) for some years. The presence of furfiiral provides evidence for legal prosecution and the numbers of analyses ordered in the UK merit automatic analysis. 

Two statistical terms involving error analysis that are often used and misused are accuracy and precision. Precision refers to the extent of agreement among repeated measurements of an experimental value. Accuracy is defined as the difference between the experimental value and the true value for the quantity. Since the true value is seldom known, accuracy is better defined as the difference between the experimental value and the accepted true value. Several experimental measurements may be precise (that is, in close agreement with each other) without being accurate. 

The conclusion of this case study is that in certain conditions the traceability ideas could be misused to promote methods with the status of a pseudo primary method of analysis. 

Source From Analysis of Addictive and Misused Drugs, John A. Adamovics, ed., Marcel Dekker, Inc., New York (1995). 

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