e le c t r i c a l s a f e t y ı mary capelli-schellpfeffer

Building the Future

ertain places draw us in construction, Cawley and Homce the comment, ‘‘During the first ten

C
in by their natural beau- showed in their 2006 IEEE report that years of the second millennium . . .’’
ty, such as the Grand construction accounted for 47% of all Descriptions of world events might
Canyon, the Galapagos fatalities associated with electrical follow. Leaders committed to exe-
Islands, or Victoria Falls. contact across all cution of the assem-
Other sites are remarkable for their industries between blies might be
human construction, including the 1992 and 2002. Be- introduced.
Brooklyn Bridge, the Panama Canal, cause of how the
THE U.S. Then the com-
or the Great Wall of China. The crea- U.S. Bureau of La- NATIONAL mentary might detail
tivity and collaboration embedded in bor Statistics col- highlights. The text
these wonders are marvelous. lects its data, this INSTITUTE FOR could read, ‘‘No one
Of course, we appreciate that great percentage did not was injured, made
accomplishment may come at a signif- include the experi- OCCUPATIONAL ill, or killed during
icant cost. Henry Petroski, professor ence of self-employed construction.’’
of civil engineering at Duke Univer- owner operators or SAFETY AND Just as we cele-
sity, has addressed this awareness, public employees brate the vision and
HEALTH IS
IEEE INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS MAGAZINE
SEPT j OCT 2009
WWW.IEEE.ORG/IAS

notably in his 1985 book To Engineer Is performing construc- determination of the

Human: The Role of Failure in Successful tion (another 4 mil- ADDRESSING IEEE founders, who
Design and through continued research lion people based on 125 years ago initi-
on the interrelationships between suc- U.S. Census Bureau THE DESIGN ated the formation
cess and failure in design. estimates). of our organization,
With the recognition of the design’s As the U.S. and PROCESS there will be a day
long legacy over risk, the prevention global economies ahead when others
through design (PtD) movement is emerge from recent TO REDUCE seek our landmarks.
growing in its scope. In particular, fiscal constraints, What will they find?
the U.S. National Institute for Oc- financial stimulus CONSTRUCTION Like the brid-
cupational Safety and Health is ad- funds dedicated to WORKER ges, canals, and
dressing the design process to reduce infrastructure prom- edifices we honor,
construction worker injuries, illnesses, ise investments in INJURIES, using the meta-
and fatalities. hydro, wind, solar, phor of a journey,
Although many large engineering and fossil fuel elec- ILLNESSES, AND we have been con-
and construction enterprises regularly trical generation con- sidering electrical
incorporate PtD principles in their nected by a smarter FATALITIES. safety as a destina-
work, the implementation of PtD is wired grid via new tion in this column.
sometimes not as available as in small- transmission corri- It’s not a feat of
scale assignments. This scalar differ- dors through vast geographies. nature, and we’re not there yet. Electri-
ence signals a substantial opportunity. Imagine travelers in another time cal safety is a destination we must
Identifying contact with elec- visiting these still-to-be installa- build together.
tricity as a significant cause of death tions. Tourist notes might start with IAS

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Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MIAS.2009.933396