User-dependent safety

The development of computer capabiUties in hardware and software, related instmmentation and control, and telecommunication technology represent an opportunity for improvement in safety (see COMPUTER TECHNOLOGY). Plant operators can be provided with a variety of user-friendly diagnostic aids to assist in plant operations and incipient failure detection. Communications can be more rapid and dependable. The safety control systems can be made even more rehable and maintenance-free. Moreover, passive safety features to provide emergency cooling for both the reactor system and the containment building are being developed. 

Customer orientation and initial solution-free formulation of customers wishes, as an orientation for product development, appear to be promising approaches for innovations with regard to the application safety of chemicals-based products. However, the initiative for this is not mainly due to substance manufacturers, but rather to the chemicals users being close to the consumers. To what extent the commercial/industrial chemicals end-users (users of production auxiliary materials that are not included in the product) also transform the latent desire for application-safe products into effective demand behaviour, depends on other constellations of motives than those of private end-consumers. The employers liabihty insurance, chambers of commerce and industry, branch associations, trade unions and management boards of large-scale companies play a key role in making quality and competition effective as drivers for innovation here too. 

This definition needs some explanation. The viewpoints mentioned in it represent the stakeholders concerns about the system (the trustee) under consideration. A viewpoint can represent an individual user who decides about involving herself/himself in the co-operation with the system depending on its trustworthiness (consider for instance e-commerce or e-health applications) or can represent a class of users. An example of a latter is a non-profit institution which assesses a given Web service on behalf of its users (this is what Health On the Net foundation [1] does for the users of e-health services). A viewpoint can be highly formalized, for instance in the situation where the criteria to be met by the trust case (to consider it satisfactory) are documented and supported by regulations (like in the case for safety critical applications [2]) or are documented and widely accepted (which is the case for security critical systems [3]). For some viewpoints satisfactory may mean convincing and valid whereas for some other satisfactory may have more subjective interpretation. 

Medwar, C., Herxheimer, A. (2003-2004). A comparison of adverse drug reaction reports from professionals and users, relating to risk of dependence and suicidal behaviour with paroxetine. International Journal of Risk and Safety in Medicine, 16, 5-19. 

Safety of the product itself for the target organism, the user (who applies it) or the environment is addressed by a range of preclinical and clinical assessments which depend on the product and its use pattern. The range of safety features to be assessed includes local and systemic tolerance, acute and chronic toxicity, mutagenicity and tumorigenicity, reproductive toxicity, immunotoxicity and, for veterinary medicinal products, also the ecotoxicity. The safety tests will be described in more detail in a separate chapter below on preclinical pharmacological and safety test procedures. 

Safety considerations are of special importance in the use of these tubes, since their breaking pressure varies and may depend on microscopic faults in construction. We subjected our tubes to numerous pressure tests. In two cases the tube assemblies broke in both cases the epoxy adhesive (Araldite AV 138M and a HV 998 hardener, from Ciba-Geigy) detached at about 50 MPa. These tubes have been in use for more than one year in several laboratories, with a maximum working pressure of 10 MPa. No accident has occurred to date. Nevertheless, the tubes are always used with a protection device (Fig. 4.33) developed in our laboratory that ensures that the user is never exposed directly to the tube while it is pressurized. 

Due to changing regulatory requirements and revisions to consensus standards the user should contact the subject matter expert (e.g.. Fire Protection Engineer, Industrial Safety Engineer, Industrial Hygienist, Environmental Engineer, etc.) to ensure that the most current document is used, as applicable, depending on site contractual requirements. 

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