by Kathleen M. Reade
Dr. Earl E. Hansen, CIE , is an Associate Professor at Northern Illinois University. He teaches Safety Studies in the Department of Technology, College of Engineering and Engineering Technology in DeKalb, Illinois.
He is a safety professional in the broad field of occupational safety with concentrations in ergonomics, risk management, crisis management, and transportation.
He has been very active in the American Society of Safety Engineers, National Association of Industrial Technologists, the National Safety Council and the American Driver and Traffic Education Association for many years. He is a Certified Industrial Ergonomist, Certified Hazard Control Manager, and Certified Safety Executive. He is author of many study guides and journal articles and is in great demand as a professional association seminar presenter. As founder of Ergonomics and Human Factors Associates, he has extensive experience as a consultant in the areas of safety and ergonomics.
His vitae lists the following courses that he has developed and taught: Systems Analysis in Safety, Legal Aspects of Safety, Ergonomics, Mine Safety Management, Applied Ergonomics, Toxicology for Industry, Industrial Ventilation, Agriculture Safety, Plant Layout & Material Handling, Institutional Safety, Fire Safety Engineering, Ethics, Safety Engineering Analysis, Transportation Systems, Design and Administration of Industrial Safety Programs, Human Factors in Industrial Accident Prevention, Behavioral Factors in Safety, Risk Management and Disaster Preparedness. He also teaches a variety of courses in the areas of safety and security, compliance, regulation, etc.
Question: Please identify your primary audience, or student population.
Response: The largest number we have are undergraduate students majoring in the area of occupational safety. The graduate (MS) population; for the most part, are working full time (usually in safety or a related area such as health care, Human Resources, etc) and take one or two courses a semester in their pursuit of a Master’s Degree. On occasion we will get a PhD candidate from Psychology that takes a graduate level course in Human Factors. NIU has an extensive out reach program and numerous courses are offered off campus in the greater Chicago area, on line or via TV as well as on the main campus in DeKalb.
Question: What type of work do your students go on to do?
Response: It runs a wide spectrum from sales, compliance (EPA, OSHA ), consulting, to companies and organizations in the following industries: insurance, transportation, agriculture, construction, retail as well as on to higher education such as going on to PhD and university teaching, military civilian employment (DOD), health care, and have job specific functions in industrial hygiene, ergonomics, risk management, loss control, safety engineering, etc.
Question: How does the study of legal issues benefit in their careers?
Response: It gives them a bigger picture of the legal ramifications of doing business. It takes them past basic worker compensation and product liability issues and on to ethical considerations in doing their job. Consequently they are better prepared to move into upper management and corporate positions related to the broad field of Occupational Safety, Health, Industrial Hygiene, Ergonomics and Security.
Question: Please provide a description of your classes and how you incorporate legal issues into class material and discussions.
Response: This is a tough one, as we teach such a wide area of courses in the broad area of Occupational Safety. I will try to present this in both a broad concept and a course specific concept. From the broad perspective point of view one’s need to understand that the areas listed below are the broad areas of concentration a student (undergraduate as well as a graduate) can concentrate in. They are:
The following courses are required of all majors: Standards and Regulations and the introduction to Occupational Safety and Health. Both courses are sophomore level.
The Human Factors and Accident Prevention course is required of all Technology majors and is a senior level course. This course touches on Worker Compensation, Product Liability, and Legal Issues that relate to occupational safety in the work place. The major concentration is in human error as it relates to accidents with specific content in the in the risks found in general industry, construction, health care and transportation.
“Legal Aspects of Safety” goes in depth into the legal issues related to worker compensation and product liability. It also covers other legal issues that are common in the work place.
The courses that are in the Risk Management area (Risk Management and the Crisis Management, Homeland Security and Disaster Preparedness related courses) cover points of law that relate to specific content areas in the various courses.
Question: Do you teach regulation compliance? If so, how do you balance teaching regulation compliance and legal responsibility because an industrial site can be in compliance and still have a lawsuit filed against it?
Response: While compliance standards are covered, the emphasis is on “Best Practices” and it is noted that standards are only minimum requirements. The role of the organization and its management is covered from a legal point of view in the Risk Management content courses as well as in the “Legal Aspects in Safety “course.
Question: How do human factors enter into an engineering and safety curriculum?
Response: Human Error is by far the leading cause of injuries, illness, and fatalities in industry. Consequently students receive instruction in the cybernetics aspects of accidents, etc. in order to give the students an understanding of how accidents and incidents occur.
Question: In your experience with human factors do you see a need for the plethora of warnings seen on virtually every consumer or commercial product?
Response: From the CYOA perspective that exists because of a suit happy society yes. The one thing that has to be kept in mind that no matter how “idiot proof” one makes something, there is always a better idiot that will come along and by pass the system.
Question: If not, how would you change the system of warnings?
Response: Until society in the USA begins to hold individuals accountable for the actions and ceases to continually go after the “deep pocket” groups, it is best to warn and hope that such a warning is deemed adequate in protecting the individual from injury if the instructions and warnings are followed. While training, education, and physical barriers along with no go systems are used, constant supervision of workers is almost impossible. I have stories of how workers have gone out of their way to break safety rules and regulations and how the organization they work for has paid dearly for stupid and deliberate unsafe behavior of workers. The misuse of products by users continues to be an issue. That is not to say that there are not products on the market that should be withdrawn or redesigned. One example of a manufacturer’s ignorance (I prefer the term to that of stupidity) was the lawn dart game with pointed metal points on the tip of the dart that was to be thrown into plastic circles placed in the yard. There were numerous cases of children being injured while playing the game.
Needless to say, the legal ramifications of the design of equipment, tools, machines, vehicles, furniture, toys, and health care products have improved due to the legal ramifications of producing unsafe items.
Question: What industry trends have you seen in response to legal issues?
Response: Better warning signs, improved working conditions, ergonomically and human factor consideration in design and communications of potential hazards and dangers in using/misusing an item.
Question: Please give us an overview of Safety Engineering.
Response: First of all the term is used in various applications. The majority of the members of the American Society of Safety Engineers are not engineers. In essence the broad field of safety uses the terms engineer and technician as one and the same until they get to very technical aspects. An example of having and using ones degree in engineering to examine a safety issue would be the amount of stress it takes to have a material collapse. That engineer may be a material engineer, mechanical engineer, or a technician (depending upon the latter’s training and experiences).
Question: What is your opinion on the recent Sago mine incident?
Response: Management exposing workers to risk due to the drive to turn a profit and not take the time to perform the appropriate risk assessments for the environment they were working in. In essence, management not wanting to spend money on basic safety needs. This opinion is based on the cursory amount of information that has come out at this time. Upon the completion of the MSHA investigation one will have a better grasp of what has occurred and why. •