Hazard Analysis and Hazard-Control Hierarchy

This chapter is the !rst of two chapters concerning general methodologies and techniques frequently used in Forensic Human Factors and Ergonomics (HFE) analyses. This chapter concerns the topics of hazard analyses and the hazard-control hierarchy. The next chapter (Wogalter, 2019b, Chapter 3, in this volume) concerns the Communication-Human Information Processing (C-HIP) Model, which describes the #ow of safety information (i.e., warnings) from a source to end users who process the information. The purpose of these two chapters is to provide greater detail on major concepts that are only brie#y mentioned, or assumed, in some of the case study chapters that follow. In the legal world within which HFE professionals participate as consultants and expert witnesses, there are some fundamental concepts relevant to this work. In the next few sections, a few main ones are reviewed. CONTENTS Responsibility for Manufacturing a Safe Product .................................................................... 18 Foreseeable Misuse ....................................................................................................................... 18 Hazard Analyses ........................................................................................................................... 19 Government Regulations and Industry Standards .................................................................. 20 Data on Product Injury ............................................................................................................ 20 Consumer and Usability Testing ............................................................................................ 21 Hazard-Control Hierarchy ...........................................................................................................22 Design Out the Hazard ............................................................................................................23 Guarding against the Hazard ................................................................................................. 24 Warnings .................................................................................................................................... 24 Factors That In#uence Decisions ...........................................................................................25 Human Error .............................................................................................................................25 Product Stewardship ...............................................................................................................25 Issues About the Hierarchy..................................................................................................... 26 Training/Supervisory Control ............................................................................................... 27 Responsibility for Product Safety: Importers Need to Consider Safety ...........................28 Distribution of Safety Communications ............................................................................... 29 Discussion/Conclusions ..............................................................................................................30 References ...................................................................................................................................... 31