The American Society of Safety Engineers recently launched a standard initiative to develop the ‘Prevention through Design: Guidelines for Addressing Occupational Risks in Design and Redesign Processes’ standard. This standard is the first of its kind. Before this was created there was much talk between the members to have such a standard in place.
The Prevention through Design is defined as the integration of hazard analysis and risk assessment methods early in the design and engineering stages and taking necessary actions so that risks of injury or damage are prevented. Recent studies indicate that approximately 40 percent of work related fatalities are design related. The hope is that this approach can eliminate or reduce work related hazards by designing them out of the project. With this new standard it will help increase the knowledge on occupational safety, health, and environmental issues in the design/redesign process.
