Course Outline &

Introduction to
Professional Responsibility
ENGG 517 Engineering Safety

Kathryn Grant
May 3, 2023
What is engineering safety?

• Definition of safety: The expectation that a system does not,

under defined conditions, lead to a state in which human life,
economics or environment are endangered – Center for
Chemical Process Safety
• What role do engineers play?

2
What is engineering safety?

• Using engineering knowledge and skills to:

• Identify hazards
• Reduce, eliminate, or control risks to acceptable levels

• Goal:
• Prevent accidents
• Protect against loss
• Design safer systems, processes, and products

3
My background

• BSc, Chemical Engineering, University of Calgary

• MSc, Biomedical Engineering, University of Calgary
• Process Safety Engineer, Icarus-ORM

• Contact: [email protected]

4
Teaching Assistants

• Faranak Afsar [email protected]

• Aakash Vijayaraghavan Ramesh [email protected]

5
Course Topics
• Introduction to Professional Responsibility
• Risk management and identification
• Process Safety Management
• Incident Investigation and Reporting
• Engineering Ethics and Public Safety
• Key National Safety Codes, Standards and Regulations
• Business Case for Safety
• Crisis and Emergency Management
• Change Management
• How to incorporate Safety into Teams and Design Process
• Electrical, Chemical, and Biological Risks
• Fire, Dust Hazard and Explosions

6
Learning Outcomes
1. Understand the importance of Professional Responsibility (Laws, practices and engineering ethics) and the
resources and commitment required for public safety. This should include important incidents and how these
incidents affected the practice of engineering.
2. Employ hazard identification and risk assessment techniques: For example, What-if, Checklist, HAZOP, LOPA,
etc. Characterize the hazards associated with various energy sources.
3. Understand safety management system and be able to apply concepts of inherently safer design.
4. Understand how to control and mitigate hazards to prevent accidents. This should include generally accepted
management systems, procedures and designs to prevent accidents associated with identified hazards; for
example fire, dust hazards and explosions.
5. Be familiar with the major regulations, codes and standards that impact the engineering. Understand crisis
and emergency management.
6. Understand incident investigation.
7. Be proficient with at least one hazard identification/risk assessment procedure, for example, What-if,
Checklist, HAZOP, LOPA, etc.

7
Textbook

• Icarus-ORM. (2018). Process Hazard Analysis Handbook - Advanced Edition

• Available online through U of C library

8
Timetable

Section Day(s) of the Week Time Location

L01 MW 18:00 - 20:45, MT ENE 241

9
Course Expectations
• Lectures will be delivered through synchronous learning. Course material will be covered in real-time sessions
held during registrar-scheduled class times for the course. Students are expected to attend synchronous class
sessions at the designated time in order to keep up with course content and deliverables.
• Please submit all assignments and your project reports electronically using the dropbox in D2L. Assignments and
reports should be in pdf format and have a file name as follows: “First Name Last Name Assignment Number”
(e.g., Alex Smith Homework 2). Assignments and reports must be submitted by 11:59 pm on their due date. It is
the student's responsibility to keep a copy of each submitted assessment component and to ensure that the
proper version is submitted. No late submissions will be accepted.
• Quizzes will be completed during lecture time on the designated dates.

10
Grades

Component Details Weight

Assignments 2 assignments 20%
Quizzes 5 quizzes 30%
Project Group project 20%
Final Examination 30%

11
Exams
• Final Exam: The date and time of the final exam will scheduled by the Registrar.

• Quizzes (Closed book/Closed notes)

• Held during class time
• Quiz #1: Wednesday, May 10
• Quiz #2: Wednesday, May 17
• Quiz #3: Wednesday, May 24
• Quiz #4: Wednesday, May 31
• Quiz #5: Wednesday, June 7

12
Discussion

• Why are you interested in engineering safety and what are you
hoping to get out of this course?

13
What is engineering safety?

• Using engineering knowledge and skills to:

• Identify hazards
• Reduce, eliminate, or control risks to acceptable levels

• Goal:
• Prevent accidents
• Protect against loss
• Design safer systems, processes, and products

14
Why is engineering safety important?

• Impact to employees/personnel
• Impact to the public
• Impact to the environment
• Economic impact

15
Banqiao Dam Failure

Image: Jonkman, S.N. & Maaskant, Bob & Kolen, Bas & Needham, J.T.. (2016). Loss of life estimation – Review, developments and challenges. E3S Web of Conferences. 7. 06004. 10.1051/e3sconf/20160706004.

16
Tesoro Anacortes Refinery Explosion and Fire

• April 2, 2010
• Rupture of a heat exchanger in catalytic reformer/naphtha
hydrotreater unit
• High temperature hydrogen attack
• Release of hydrogen and naphtha at >500F
• Explosion and fire burned >3 hours
• 7 fatalities

17
Tesoro Refinery Explosion and Fire - Impact

18
What went wrong?

Chemical Safety Board

19
High Temperature Hydrogen Attack

Chemical Safety Board

20
Impact of engineering

Chemical Safety Board

21
What is your role as an engineer?

• Understanding limits of design

• Understanding use case for your designs
• Participating in risk assessments
• Developing engineered controls
• Compliance to standards and regulations

22
APEGA Professional Practice Guideline - Ethical Practice

• Ethics
• From Greek work “ethos”
• Study of standards of right and wrong
• Dealing with moral conduct, duty, judgement
• Voluntary actions taken by an individual with sufficient knowledge of
the options available to him or her
• Excellence
• Shared commitment with peers to strive for excellence
• Competent in practice and strive for more than adequate service

23
APEGA Professional Practice Guideline - Ethical Practice

• Purpose
• Provide a common set of values with the profession
• Maintain a relationship of trust with clients and the public
• Build trust with public in order to provide societal leadership and guide
society in adopting technology for the advancement of human welfare

24
Rules of Conduct

1. Professional engineers and geoscientists shall, in their areas of

practice, hold paramount the health, safety and welfare of the
public, and have regard for the environment.

25
Rules of Conduct

1. Professional engineers and geoscientists shall, in their areas of

practice, hold paramount the health, safety and welfare of the
public, and have regard for the environment

• Health, safety, welfare takes precedence over all other considerations

26
Public Interest Considerations

• People
• Environment
• Traditional land uses
• Sustainability
• Future generations
• Emerging technology
• Societal values and needs
• Economic interests of the public

27
Factors to consider

• Safeguards required to protect the public

• Methods of identifying and mitigating adverse impacts
• Importance of public engagement
• Diverse needs of the community
• Long-term impacts of the work
• Relationship between the engineering and geoscience activity and the
public interest

28
Example

From APEGA Professional Practice Guideline – Ethical Practice

29
Example

From APEGA Professional Practice Guideline – Ethical Practice

30
Safe Workplaces and Environment

• To provide direction and hold paramount the overall health, safety and
welfare of the public, which includes workers
• Develop and maintain awareness and understanding of environmental
issues and follow the laws pertaining to the environment for their area of
practice
• Be aware of any specific sustainability clauses that apply to their area of
practice, and they should consider how sustainability principles could be
applied and promoted in their specific work
• Professional leadership
• Maintain knowledge about or gain competence in the use of emerging
technologies within their area of practice

31
Rules of Conduct

2. Professional engineers and geoscientists shall undertake only

work that they are competent to perform by virtue of their
training and experience.

32
Competence and Knowledge

• Understand scope of responsibilities

• Present qualifications factually, without exaggeration
• Express opinions on engineering topics only on the basis of adequate skill,
knowledge, training, experience and honest conviction
• Only stamp and sign reports, plans and documents that they prepared or
were prepared under their direct supervision or control
• Engage experts and specialists whenever it would be in the public’s,
employer’s, or client’s best interests
• Assess their needs and plan appropriately to maintain competence in their
area of practice

33
Example

From APEGA Professional Practice Guideline – Ethical Practice

34
Example

From APEGA Professional Practice Guideline – Ethical Practice

35
Rules of Conduct

3. Professional engineers and geoscientists shall conduct

themselves with integrity, honesty, fairness and objectivity in their
professional activities.

36
Examples

• Documenting, reporting, and addressing errors or omissions. This may include completing
an error or omission risk assessment and communicating the findings to affected
stakeholders
• Discussing with employers or clients the risks inherent in projects and how to manage
those risks
• Providing timely notification and advice to employers or clients when a project will not be
successful
• Communicating in a clear, respectful, and purposeful manner
• Making objective decisions and examining the outcomes of those decisions to ensure they
uphold the respect and dignity of others and do not show favouritism. Identifying who
benefits and who is excluded from these decisions is also key to ensuring equitable and
fair decisions
• Interpreting agreements and contracts to reflect the spirit and the intent of the
documents
37
Rules of Conduct

4. Professional engineers and geoscientists shall comply with

applicable statutes, regulations and bylaws in their professional
practices.

38
Statutes, Regulation, Bylaws

• Maintain adequate knowledge of the law relating to area of

practice
• Ensure employers, clients, and those under their direct
supervision and control have knowledge of and comply with the
laws governing their work
• Responsibility to advise employers and clients if they become
aware of any proposed activities that conflict with the law

39
Discussion

What statutes, regulations and bylaws have you had to adhere to

during your internship or work terms?

40
Rules of Conduct

5. Professional engineers and geoscientists shall uphold and

enhance the honour, dignity, and reputation of their professions
and, thus, the ability of the professions to serve the public
interest.

41
Honour, Dignity and Reputation

• Ensure advertisements and presentations are factual, clear and

dignified
• Courteous, fair conduct towards other professionals
• Reviewing work of other professionals
• Supervising members-in-training
• Personal behaviour and conduct
• Reconciliation
• Discrimination and human rights

42
Challenger Disaster

43
Hazard Recognition
ENGG 517 Engineering Safety

Kathryn Grant
May 3, 2023
How does this fit in with the rest of the course?

• Understand hazards
• Understand risk and exposure to hazards
• Understand framework to assess them
• Implement engineering controls
• How to manage accidents when they happen
• How to learn from those incidents

45
Definitions

• Hazard: An inherent chemical or physical characteristic that has

the potential for causing damage to people, property, or the
environment.
• Acute hazard: The potential for injury or damage to occur as a
result of an instantaneous or short duration exposure to the
effects of an incident.
• Chronic hazard: The potential for injury or damage to occur as a
result of prolonged exposure to an undesirable condition (e.g.,
smoking, with the potential for causing lung cancer).

Center for Chemical Process Safety

46
Common classifications

• Biological
• Chemical
• Ergonomic
• Physical
• Psychosocial
• Environmental

47
Winterization Safety Message

48
1910 Rogers Pass Avalanche

Image: Revelstoke Museum & Archives

49
Hazard identification checklist

• List of potential hazards

• Covers hazards in different categories

50
51
What hazards do you see?

52
What hazards do you see?

53
Energy based hazard recognition

• Injuries are the result of undesirable contact between a person

and one or more sources of energy

54
Energy based hazard recognition

Images: Safety Function

55
Biological hazards

• Living organisms and viruses

Images: Creative Commons

56
Routes of entry

• Inhalation
• Absorption
• Ingestion
• Injection

57
Chemical hazards

• Substances with health risk or toxic objects

Images: Creative Commons

58
Electrical hazards

• Electrical current or charge

Images: Creative Commons

59
Electrical hazards

Electric current (1 second of contact) Physiological effect

1 mA Tingling, threshold of feeling
5 mA Maximum harmless current
10-20 mA Sustained muscular contraction
100-300 mA Ventricular fibrillation
6A Sustained ventricular contraction then
defibrillation
Possible burns
Temporary respiratory paralysis

60
Gravity hazards

• Force caused by the attraction of an object with mass to the

mass of the earth

Images: Creative Commons

61
Mechanical hazards

• Vibration, rotation, tension and compression from working parts

of a machine or assembly

Images: Creative Commons

62
Motion hazards

• Change in space or position of substances or objects

Images: Creative Commons

63
Pressure hazards

• Compressed gas or liquid or substances under vacuum

Images: Creative Commons

64
Radiation hazards

• Substances or objects which emit subatomic particles or

electromagnetic waves

Images: Creative Commons

65
Sound hazards

• Contact of two or more objects resulting in audible vibration

Images: Creative Commons

66
Temperature hazards

• Heat in a substance or object

Images: Creative Commons

67
Discussion

• What are some of the hazards you observed when on internship

or work terms?

68
Discussion

• Why is hazard recognition important for engineers?

69
Confined space - sewer

Images: Safety Function

70
Confined space - sewer

Images: Safety Function

71
Confined space

• Flowing liquids or solids resulting in drowning, suffocation, or

injuries
• Falls when climbing in or out of space
• Unintended contact with walls or surfaces

72
Confined space

• Flammable or explosive atmosphere

• Oxygen deficient atmosphere
• Toxic atmosphere

73
Confined space

• Noise amplification
• Hearing damage

74
Confined space

• Presence of animals or insects

• Human waste or infectious materials

75
Confined space

• Excessive heat in enclosed space

• Increased risk of heat stress or heat stroke

76
Confined space

• Slippery surfaces
• Small entry and egress points
• Potential for slips, trips, and falls
• Difficult to positions ladders

77
Confined space

• Defective extension cords, welding cables, or electrical

equipment
• Failure to use GFCI in wet environment

78