Scope and Functions of the Professional Safety Position

A highly regarded professor in industrial engineering observed, after participating with safety practitioners in what he considered a baffling discussion of concepts, that what we who call ourselves safety professionals actually do will never be accepted as a profession by those outside our field until we agree on a clear definition of our practice. 1 agree with that premise, and I will explore in this chapter the scope and function of the professional safety position and will define the practice of safety in terms of a societal responsibility. 

Mention is made in more than one place in this book of the Scope and Functions of the Professional Safety Position. As a position description, it is exceptionally well done. Because of its thoroughness and accuracy, I recommend it as a knowledge source and as reference. With the permission of ASSE, the entirety of the document appears as the Addendum to this chapter. ASSE has requested that I state that the Scope and Functions paper may become an American National Standard. 

My behef is that the definition I give here of the practice of safety is in concert with the Scope and Functions of the Professional Safety Position. ... 

ADDENDUM SCOPE AND FUNCTIONS OF THE PROFESSIONAL SAFETY POSITION... 

The Scope and Functions of the Professional Safety Position issued... 

ASSE s Scope and Functions of the Professional Safety Position is a widely quoted document. It has served its purpose well. It is a good... 

In MORT Safety Assurance Systems by WilMam G. Johnson, the chapter on The Safety Function also quotes the ASSE Scope and Functions of the Professional Safety Position (p. 463). Introduction to Safety Engineering by David S. Gloss and Miriam Gayle Wardle contains the only reference I found in a safety-related text that speaks of the requirements of a profession. This is what they wrote. 

In MORT Safety Assurance Systems, William G. Johnson (1980) includes a chapter titled The Safety Function. It commences with these questions. What is the nature of the safety function What are the safety professional s responsibilities, qualifications, and methods. This 1980 publication pleads for answers to those questions. Johnson quotes from Scope and Functions of the Professional Safety Position published by the American Society of Safety Engineers (1998) as a reference paper (463). 

In Analyzing Safety Performance, written by Dan Petersen and published in 1980, Chapter 1 is titled The Professional Safety Task. It opens with a duplication of the previously cited Scope and Functions of the Professional Safety Position. On several occasions, Petersen questioned the appropriateness of safety practitioners referring to themselves as professionals, as will be seen later. 

The scope and functions of the professional safety position shall be to ... 

In a brochure issued by the American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE, 1998) prior to the adoption of Z590.2 and titled Scope and Functions of the Professional Safety Position, this is the terminology that preceded the bulleted items above The major areas relating to the protection of people, property and the environment are The point is that the professional safety function encompasses all initiatives that are hazards and risks based. 

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