Leading-Edge Developments in Advanced Safety Management and Applications to Electrical Safety

This paper discusses three evolving and leading-edge developments in advanced safety management with significant potential for accelerating further improvements in prevention of serious injuries and fatalities from electrical hazards. These topics are as follows: 1) systems safety engineering as an approach integrating application of engineering and management principles, criteria, and techniques to achieve risk as low as reasonably practicable; 2) ongoing research in human error enabling new ways of thinking about the human side of safety management; and 3) the growing movement in safety management focusing on hazards with high potential for life-changing injury and fatality. This paper discusses these three topics and suggests possibilities in their application to electrical safety.