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Construction is one of the most dangerous occupations in the world, incurring more occupational fatalities than any other sector in both the United States and in the European Union. In 2009, the fatal occupational injury rate among construction workers in the United States was nearly three times that for all workers. Falls are one of the most common causes of fatal and non-fatal injuries among construction workers. Proper safety equipment such as harnesses and guardrails and procedures such as securing ladders and inspecting scaffolding can curtail the risk of occupational injuries in the construction industry. Other major causes of fatalities in the construction industry include electrocution, transportation accidents, and trench cave-ins.

Other safety risks for workers in construction include hearing loss due to high noise exposure, musculoskeletal injury, chemical exposure, and high levels of stress.

Construction is the process of constructing a building or infrastructure. Construction differs from manufacturing in that manufacturing typically involves mass production of similar items without a designated purchaser, while construction typically takes place on location for a known client. Construction as an industry comprises six to nine percent of the gross domestic product of developed countries. Construction starts with planning,[citation needed] design, and financing; and continues until the project is built and ready for use.

Large-scale construction requires collaboration across multiple disciplines. An architect normally manages the job, and a construction manager, design engineer, construction engineer or project manager supervises it. For the successful execution of a project, effective planning is essential. Those involved with the design and execution of the infrastructure in question must consider zoning requirements, the environmental impact of the job, the successful scheduling, budgeting, construction-site safety, availability and transportation of building materials, logistics, inconvenience to the public caused by construction delays and bidding, etc. The largest construction projects are referred to as megaprojects.

Construction is a general term meaning the art and science to form objects, systems, or organizations, and comes from Latin constructionem (from com- “together” and struere “to pile up”) and Old French construction. Construction is used as a verb: the act of building, and a noun: how a building was built, the nature of its structure.

In general, there are three sectors of construction: buildings, infrastructure and industrial. Building construction is usually further divided into residential and non-residential (commercial/institutional). Infrastructure is often called heavy/highway, heavy civil or heavy engineering. It includes large public works, dams, bridges, highways, water/wastewater and utility distribution. Industrial includes refineries, process chemical, power generation, mills and manufacturing plants. There are other ways to break the industry into sectors or markets.

Engineering News-Record (ENR) is a trade magazine for the construction industry. Each year, ENR compiles and reports on data about the size of design and construction companies. They publish a list of the largest companies in the United States (Top-40) and also a list the largest global firms (Top-250, by amount of work they are doing outside their home country). In 2014, ENR compiled the data in nine market segments. It was divided as transportation, petroleum, buildings, power, industrial, water, manufacturing, sewer/waste, telecom, hazardous waste plus a tenth category for other projects. In their reporting on the Top 400, they used data on transportation, sewer, hazardous waste and water to rank firms as heavy contractors.

The Standard Industrial Classification and the newer North American Industry Classification System have a classification system for companies that perform or otherwise engage in construction. To recognize the differences of companies in this sector, it is divided into three subsectors: building construction, heavy and civil engineering construction, and specialty trade contractors. There are also categories for construction service firms (e.g., engineering, architecture) and construction managers (firms engaged in managing construction projects without assuming direct financial responsibility for completion of the construction project).

Building construction

Building construction is the process of adding structure to real property or construction of buildings. The majority of building construction jobs are small renovations, such as addition of a room, or renovation of a bathroom. Often, the owner of the property acts as laborer, paymaster, and design team for the entire project. Although building construction projects typically include various common elements, such as design, financial, estimating and legal considerations, many projects of varying sizes reach undesirable end results, such as structural collapse, cost overruns, and/or litigation. For this reason, those with experience in the field make detailed plans and maintain careful oversight during the project to ensure a positive outcome.

The National Cement Share Company of Ethiopia’s new plant in Dire Dawa.

Commercial building construction is procured privately or publicly utilizing various delivery methodologies, including cost estimating, hard bid, negotiated price, traditional, management contracting, construction management-at-risk, design & build and design-build bridging.

Residential construction practices, technologies, and resources must conform to local building authority regulations and codes of practice. Materials readily available in the area generally dictate the construction materials used (e.g. brick versus stone, versus timber). Cost of construction on a per square meter (or per square foot) basis for houses can vary dramatically based on site conditions, local regulations, economies of scale (custom designed homes are often more expensive to build) and the availability of skilled tradespeople. As residential construction (as well as all other types of construction) can generate a lot of waste, careful planning again is needed here.

Residential construction

The most popular method of residential construction in North America is wood-framed construction. Typical construction steps for a single-family or small multi-family house are:

• Develop floor plans and obtain a materials list for estimations (more recently performed with estimating software)
• Obtain government building approval if necessary
• Clear the building site
• Survey to stake out for the foundation
• Excavate the foundation and dig footers.
• Pour a foundation and footers with concrete
• Build the main load-bearing structure out of thick pieces of wood and possibly metal I-beams for large spans with few supports. See framing (construction)
• Add floor and ceiling joists and install subfloor panels
• Cover outer walls and roof in OSB or plywood and a water-resistive barrier.
• Install roof shingles or other covering for flat roof
• Cover the walls with siding, typically vinyl, wood, or brick veneer but possibly stone or other materials
• Install windows
• Frame interior walls with wooden 2x4s
• Add internal plumbing, HVAC, electrical, and natural gas utilities
• Building inspector visits if necessary to approve utilities and framing
• Install insulation and interior drywall panels (cementboard for wet areas) and to complete walls and ceilings
• Install bathroom fixtures
• Spackle, prime, and paint interior walls and ceilings
• Additional tiling on top of cementboard for wet areas, such as the bathroom and kitchen backsplash
• Install final floor covering, such as floor tile, carpet, or wood flooring
• Install major appliances
• Unless the original owners are building the house, at this point it is typically sold or rented.

New construction techniques and sustainability

As efficiency codes have come into effect in recent years, new construction technologies and methods have emerged. University Construction Management departments are on the cutting edge of the newest methods of construction intended to improve efficiency, performance and reduce construction waste.

New techniques of building construction are being researched, made possible by advances in 3D printing technology. In a form of additive building construction, similar to the additive manufacturing techniques for manufactured parts, building printing is making it possible to flexibly construct small commercial buildings and private habitations in around 20 hours, with built-in plumbing and electrical facilities, in one continuous build, using large 3D printers. Working versions of 3D-printing building technology are already printing 2 metres (6 ft 7 in) of building material per hour as of January 2013, with the next-generation printers capable of 3.5 metres (11 ft) per hour, sufficient to complete a building in a week. Dutch architect Janjaap Ruijssenaars’s performative architecture 3D-printed building is scheduled to be built in 2014.

In the current trend of sustainable construction, the recent movements of New Urbanism and New Classical Architecture promote a sustainable approach towards construction, that appreciates and develops smart growth, architectural tradition and classical design. This is in contrast to modernist and short-lived globally uniform architecture, as well as opposing solitary housing estates and suburban sprawl. Both trends started in the 1980s.

The construction site may be shut down due to bad weather. Erecting scaffolded tents over the site may reduce the number of lost work days, increasing productivity.

The first huts and shelters were constructed by hand or with simple tools. As cities grew during the Bronze Age, a class of professional craftsmen, like bricklayers and carpenters, appeared. Occasionally, slaves were used for construction work. In the Middle Ages, these were organized into guilds. In the 19th century, steam-powered machinery appeared, and later diesel- and electric powered vehicles such as cranes, excavators and bulldozers.

Fast-track construction has been increasingly popular in the 21st century. Some estimates suggest that 40% of construction projects are now fast-track construction.

List of countries by the largest output in construction

List of countries with the largest construction output in 2015

Economy	Construction output in 2015 (billions in USD)
(01)  India	849
(02)  United States	599
(03)  China	569
(04)  Japan	333
(05)  France	147
(06)  Germany	143
(07)  United Kingdom	131
(08)  Canada	131
(09)  Australia	115
(10)  Russia	111
(11)  Brazil	109
(12)  Italy	107
(13)  Spain	104
(14)  Indonesia	93
(15)  Mexico	92
(16)  South Korea	58
(17)  Turkey	35
(18)  United Arab Emirates	34
(19)  Venezuela	34
(20)  Netherlands	34
(21)  Poland	34
(22)   Switzerland	33
(23)  Saudi Arabia	32
(24)  Iran	29
(25)  Colombia	29

Oil & Gas, any of a group of fuel gases produced from oil by exposing it to high temperatures. High-Btu oil gas is so called because of its high heating value; it is often used to supplement natural gas during periods of high demand. Refinery oil gases are produced as byproducts during normal heat treatment in oil refining. Their chief use is in the heating of refinery equipment. Typically, oil gas consists of methane, ethane, propane, butane, and some of their derivatives.

The American Petroleum Institute divides the petroleum industry into five sectors:

• upstream (exploration, development and production of crude oil or natural gas)
• downstream (oil tankers, refiners, retailers and consumers)
• pipeline
• marine
• service and supply

Upstream

Oil companies used to be classified by sales as “supermajors” (BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips, Shell, Eni and Total S.A.), “majors”, and “independents” or “jobbers”. In recent years however, National Oil Companies (NOC, as opposed to IOC, International Oil Companies) have come to control the rights over the largest oil reserves; by this measure the top ten companies all are NOC. The following table shows the ten largest national oil companies ranked by reserves  and by production in 2012.

Petroleum in an unrefined state has been utilized by humans for over 5000 years. Oil in general has been used since early human history to keep fires ablaze and in warfare.

Its importance to the world economy evolved slowly, with whale oil used for lighting in the 19th century and wood and coal used for heating and cooking well into the 20th century. The Industrial Revolution generated an increasing need for energy which was met mainly by coal, and with other sources including whale oil. However, when it was discovered that kerosene could be extracted from crude oil and used as a lighting and heating fuel, petroleum was in great demand, and by the early twentieth century had become the most valuable commodity traded on world markets.

Petroleum is a naturally occurring liquid found in rock formations. It consists of a complex mixture of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights, plus other organic compounds. It is generally accepted that oil is formed mostly from the carbon rich remains of ancient plankton after exposure to heat and pressure in the Earth’s crust over hundreds of millions of years. Over time, the decayed residue was covered by layers of mud and silt, sinking further down into the Earth’s crust and preserved there between hot and pressured layers, gradually transforming into oil reservoirs.

The petroleum industry includes the global processes of exploration, extraction, refining, transporting (often by oil tankers and pipelines), and marketing petroleum products. The largest volume products of the industry are fuel oil and gasoline (petrol). Petroleum (oil) is also the raw material for many chemical products, including pharmaceuticals, solvents, fertilizers, pesticides, and plastics. The industry is usually divided into three major components: upstream, midstream and downstream. Midstream operations are usually included in the downstream category.

Petroleum is vital to many industries, and is of importance to the maintenance of industrial civilization in its current configuration, and thus is a critical concern for many nations. Oil accounts for a large percentage of the world’s energy consumption, ranging from a low of 32% for Europe and Asia, to a high of 53% for the Middle East.

Other geographic regions’ consumption patterns are as follows: South and Central America (44%), Africa (41%), and North America (40%). The world consumes 30 billion barrels (4.8 km³) of oil per year, with developed nations being the largest consumers. The United States consumed 25% of the oil produced in 2007. The production, distribution, refining, and retailing of petroleum taken as a whole represents the world’s largest industry in terms of dollar value.

Governments such as the United States government provide a heavy public subsidy to petroleum companies, with major tax breaks at virtually every stage of oil exploration and extraction, including the costs of oil field leases and drilling equipment.

Top 10 largest world oil companies by reserves and production
Rank	Company (Reserves)	Worldwide Liquids Reserves (109bbl)	Worldwide Natural Gas Reserves (1012 ft3)	Total Reserves in Oil Equivalent Barrels (109 bbl)		Company (Production)	Output (Millionsbbl/day)[1]
1	Saudi Aramco	260	254	303		Saudi Aramco	12.5
2	NIOC	138	948	300		NIOC	6.4
3	Qatar Petroleum	15	905	170		ExxonMobil	5.3
4	INOC	116	120	134		PetroChina	4.4
5	PDVSA	99	171	129		BP	4.1
6	ADNOC	92	199	126		Royal Dutch Shell	3.9
7	Pemex	102	56	111		Pemex	3.6
8	NNPC	36	184	68		Chevron	3.5
9	NOC	41	50	50		Kuwait Petroleum Corporation	3.2
10	Sonatrach	12	159	39		ADNOC	2.9

The Petroleum industry is a favorite subject in contemporary fiction. Films with oil-industry themes include There Will Be Blood (2007) set around Southern California’s oil boom of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and Syriana (2005) set in present-day Middle-East.

Some petroleum industry operations have been responsible for water pollution through by-products of refining and oil spills. The industry is the largest industrial source of emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), a group of chemicals that contribute to the formation of ground-level ozone (smog).

The combustion of fossil fuels produces greenhouse gases and other air pollutants as by-products. Pollutants include nitrogen oxides, sulphur dioxide, volatile organic compounds and heavy metals.

As petroleum is a non-renewable natural resource the industry is faced with an inevitable eventual depletion of the world’s oil supply. The BP Statistical Review of World Energy 2007 listed the reserve/production ratio for proven resources worldwide. The study placed the ratio of proven reserves to production in the Middle East at 79.5 years, Latin America at 41.2 years and North America at 12 years. A simplistic interpretation of the ratio has led to many false predictions of immanent “running out of oil” since the early years of the oil industry in the 1800s. This has been especially true in the United States, where the ratio of proved reserves-to-production has been between 8 years and 17 years since 1920. Many have mistakenly interpreted the result as the number of years before the oil supply is exhausted. Such analyses do not take into account future reserves growth.

The Hubbert peak theory, which introduced the concept of peak oil, questions the sustainability of oil production. It suggests that after a peak in oil production rates, a period of oil depletion will ensue. Since virtually all economic sectors rely heavily on petroleum, peak oil could lead to a partial or complete failure of markets.

According to research by IBIS World, biofuels (primarily ethanol, but also biodiesel) will continue to supplement petroleum. However output levels are low, and these fuels will not displace local oil production. More than 90% of the ethanol used in the US is blended with gasoline to produce a 10% ethanol mix, lifting the oxygen content of the fuel.

Researchers have discovered that the petrochemical industry can produce ground-level ozone pollution at higher amounts in winter than in summer.

Midstream operations are sometimes classified within the downstream sector, but these operations compose a separate and discrete sector of the petroleum industry. Midstream operations and processes include the following:

Gathering: The gathering process employs narrow, low-pressure pipelines to connect oil- and gas-producing wells to larger, long-haul pipelines or processing facilities.

Processing/refining: Processing and refining operations turn crude oil and gas into marketable products. In the case of crude oil, these products include heating oil, gasoline for use in vehicles, jet fuel, and diesel oil. Oil refining processes include distillation, vacuum distillation, catalytic reforming, catalytic cracking, alkylation, isomerization and hydrotreating. Natural gas processing includes compression; glycol dehydration; amine treating; separating the product into pipeline-quality natural gas and a stream of mixed natural gas liquids; and fractionation, which separates the stream of mixed natural gas liquids into its components. The fractionation process yields ethane, propane, butane, isobutane, and natural gasoline.

Transportation: Oil and gas are transported to processing facilities, and from there to end users, by pipeline, tanker/barge, truck, and rail. Pipelines are the most economical transportation method and are most suited to movement across longer distances, for example, across continents. Tankers and barges are also employed for long-distance, often international transport. Rail and truck can also be used for longer distances but are most cost-effective for shorter routes.

Storage: Midstream service providers provide storage facilities at terminals throughout the oil and gas distribution systems. These facilities are most often located near refining and processing facilities and are connected to pipeline systems to facilitate shipment when product demand must be met. While petroleum products are held in storage tanks, natural gas tends to be stored in underground facilities, such as salt dome caverns and depleted reservoirs.

Technological applications: Midstream service providers apply technological solutions to improve efficiency during midstream processes. Technology can be used during compression of fuels to ease flow through pipelines; to better detect leaks in pipelines; and to automate communications for better pipeline and equipment monitoring.

Industry pioneers Faustino Piaggio, an early oil industry pioneer Oil production Oil well Oil terminal Oil refinery Oil supplies Integrated operations Instrumentation in petrochemical industries Standardization in oil industry List of crude oil products Financial and political List of oil exploration and production companies List of largest oil and gas companies by revenue Chronology of world oil market events (1970–2005)

Energy crisis: 1973 oil crisis, 1979 energy crisis Energy development Petroleum politics Oil imperialism theories World oil market chronology from 2003 Oil-storage trade OPEC Peak oil Oil and gas law in the United States Fossil fuels lobby Environmental issues Environmental impact of the petroleum industry Greenhouse gases Oil spills Renewable energy Oil geology Abiogenic petroleum origin Fossil fuel

Oil sands Petroleum geology Thermal depolymerization Oil-producing areas History of the petroleum industry in Canada History of the petroleum industry in the United States List of oil fields Oil megaprojects List of countries by oil production Oil industry in Azerbaijan Industry Research Projects TaskForceMajella Other articles All pages with titles containing oil industry All pages with titles containing petroleum industry All pages with titles containing gas industry

All of the physical, chemical, and biological conditions that together act on an organism or an ecological community and influence its growth and development. Soil, air, water, climate, plant and animal life, noise level, and pollution are all components of an environment. To survive, organisms must often adapt to changes in their environments.

The sum total of all surroundings of a living organism, including natural forces and other living things, which provide conditions for development and growth as well as of danger and damage. See also environmental factors

The environment is something you are very familiar with. It’s everything that makes up our surroundings and affects our ability to live on the earth—the air we breathe, the water that covers most of the earth’s surface, the plants and animals around us, and much more.

In recent years, scientists have been carefully examining the ways that people affect the environment. They have found that we are causing air pollution, deforestation, acid rain, and other problems that are dangerous both to the earth and to ourselves. These days, when you hear people talk about “the environment”, they are often referring to the overall condition of our planet, or how healthy it is.

Useful Links

Earth Day Recycling Facts What Is the Environment? Global Warming The Greenhouse Gas Effect Earth Timeline: How People Have Affected the Environment Waste Not, Water Not Recipe for Planet Earth All About Ozone Major Air Pollutants Perils of Pollution Earth-Altering Accidents The Three R’s of the Environment What Americans Throw Away Environmental Organizations User’s Guide to Environmental Language A Look at the Recycling Process

Major Biomes of the World Environment Quiz Non-Native Species Invade the United States The Top Carbon Dioxide Emitters Global Food Crisis A Warming Ocean Marine Debris in the United States Top Ten Greenest Colleges, 2012 America’s Ten Most Endangered Rivers, 2013 America’s 25 Most Ozone-Polluted Metropolitan Areas, 2012 Water Supply of the World Top Ten Types of Debris Littering the Oceans America’s Troubled Waters Top Ten Most Polluted Places in the World, 2012 Top Carbon Dioxide Emitters Cleanest U.S. Cities for Ozone Air Pollution World’s Worst Pollution Problems

Relative freedom from danger, risk, or threat of harm, injury, or loss to personnel and/or property, whether caused deliberately or by accident. See also security.

Safety is the state of being “safe” (from French sauf), the condition of being protected from harm or other non-desirable outcomes. Safety can also refer to the control of recognized hazards in order to achieve an acceptable level of risk.

Relative freedom from danger, risk, or threat of harm, injury, or loss to personnel and/or property, whether caused deliberately or by accident. See also security.

Meaning

There are two slightly different meanings of safety. For example, home safety may indicate a building’s ability to protect against external harm events (such as weather, home invasion, etc.), or may indicate that its internal installations (such as appliances, stairs, etc.) are safe (not dangerous or harmful) for its inhabitants.

Discussions of safety often include mention of related terms. Security is such a term. With time the definitions between these two have often become interchanged, equated, and frequently appear juxtaposed in the same sentence. Readers unfortunately are left to conclude whether they comprise a redundancy. This confuses the uniqueness that should be reserved for each by itself. When seen as unique, as we intend here, each term will assume its rightful place in influencing and being influenced by the other.

Safety is the condition of a “steady state” of an organization or place doing what it is supposed to do. “What it is supposed to do” is defined in terms of public codes and standards, associated architectural and engineering designs, corporate vision and mission statements, and operational plans and personnel policies. For any organization, place, or function, large or small, safety is a normative concept. It complies with situation-specific definitions of what is expected and acceptable.

Using this definition, protection from a home’s external threats and protection from its internal structural and equipment failures (see Meanings, above) are not two types of safety but rather two aspects of a home’s steady state.

In the world of everyday affairs, not all goes as planned. Some entity’s steady state is challenged. This is where security science, which is of more recent date, enters. Drawing from the definition of safety, then:

Security is the process or means, physical or human, of delaying, preventing, and otherwise protecting against external or internal, defects, dangers, loss, criminals, and other individuals or actions that threaten, hinder or destroy an organization’s “steady state,” and deprive it of its intended purpose for being.

Using this generic definition of safety it is possible to specify the elements of a security program.

Limitations

Safety can be limited in relation to some guarantee or a standard of insurance to the quality and unharmful function of an object or organization. It is used in order to ensure that the object or organization will do only what it is meant to do.

It is important to realize that safety is relative. Eliminating all risk, if even possible, would be extremely difficult and very expensive. A safe situation is one where risks of injury or property damage are low and manageable.

Types of Safety

It is important to distinguish between products that meet standards, that are safe, and those that merely feel safe. The highway safety community uses these terms:

Normative safety

Normative safety is achieved when a product or design meets applicable standards and practices for design and construction or manufacture, regardless of the product’s actual safety history.

Substantive safety

Substantive or objective safety occurs when the real-world safety history is favorable, whether or not standards are met.

Perceived safety

Perceived or subjective safety refers to the users’ level of comfort and perception of risk, without consideration of standards or safety history. For example, traffic signals are perceived as safe, yet under some circumstances, they can increase traffic crashes at an intersection. Traffic roundabouts have a generally favorable safety record yet often make drivers nervous.

Low perceived safety can have costs. For example, after the 9/11/2001 attacks, many people chose to drive rather than fly, despite the fact that, even counting terrorist attacks, flying is safer than driving. Perceived risk discourages people from walking and bicycling for transportation, enjoyment or exercise, even though the health benefits outweigh the risk of injury.

Security

Also called social safety or public safety, security addresses the risk of harm due to intentional criminal acts such as assault, burglary or vandalism.

Because of the moral issues involved, security is of higher importance to many people than substantive safety. For example, a death due to murder is considered worse than a death in a car crash, even though in many countries, traffic deaths are more common than homicides.

Risks and responses

Safety is generally interpreted as implying a real and significant impact on risk of death, injury or damage to property. In response to perceived risks many interventions may be proposed with engineering responses and regulation being two of the most common.

Probably the most common individual response to perceived safety issues is insurance, which compensates for or provides restitution in the case of damage or loss.

System safety and reliability engineering

System safety and reliability engineering is an engineering discipline. Continuous changes in technology, environmental regulation and public safety concerns make the analysis of complex safety-critical systems more and more demanding.

A common fallacy, for example among electrical engineers regarding structure power systems, is that safety issues can be readily deduced. In fact, safety issues have been discovered one by one, over more than a century in the case mentioned, in the work of many thousands of practitioners, and cannot be deduced by a single individual over a few decades.

A knowledge of the literature, the standards and custom in a field is a critical part of safety engineering. A combination of theory and track record of practices is involved, and track record indicates some of the areas of theory that are relevant. (In the USA, persons with a state license in Professional Engineering in Electrical Engineering are expected to be competent in this regard, the foregoing notwithstanding, but most electrical engineers have no need of the license for their work.)

Safety is often seen as one of a group of related disciplines: quality, reliability, availability, maintainability and safety. (Availability is sometimes not mentioned, on the principle that it is a simple function of reliability and maintainability.) These issues tend to determine the value of any work, and deficits in any of these areas are considered to result in a cost, beyond the cost of addressing the area in the first place; good management is then expected to minimize total cost.

Safety measures

Safety measures are activities and precautions taken to improve safety, i.e. reduce risk related to human health. Common safety measures include:

• Chemical analysis
• Destructive testing of samples
• Drug testing of employees, etc.
• Examination of activities by specialists to minimize physical stress or increase productivity
• Geological surveys to determine whether land or water sources are polluted, how firm the ground is at a potential building site, etc.
• Government regulation so suppliers know what standards their product is expected to meet.
• Industry regulation so suppliers know what level of quality is expected. Industry regulation is often imposed to avoid potential government regulation.
• Instruction manuals explaining how to use a product or perform an activity
• Instructional videos demonstrating proper use of products
• Root cause analysis to identify causes of a system failure and correct deficiencies.
• Internet safety or Online Safety, is protection of the user’s safety from cyber threats or computer crime in general.
• Periodic evaluations of employees, departments, etc.
• Physical examinations to determine whether a person has a physical condition that would create a problem.
• Safety margins/Safety factors. For instance, a product rated to never be required to handle more than 200 pounds might be designed to fail under at least 400 pounds, a safety factor of two. Higher numbers are used in more sensitive applications such as medical or transit safety.
• Self-imposed regulation of various types.
• Implementation of standard protocols and procedures so that activities are conducted in a known way.
• Statements of ethics by industry organizations or an individual company so its employees know what is expected of them.
• Stress testing subjects a person or product to stresses in excess of those the person or product is designed to handle, to determining the “breaking point”.
• Training of employees, vendors, product users
• Visual examination for dangerous situations such as emergency exits blocked because they are being used as storage areas.
• Visual examination for flaws such as cracks, peeling, loose connections.
• X-ray analysis to see inside a sealed object such as a weld, a cement wall or an airplane outer skin.

Standards organizations

A number of standards organizations exist that promulgate safety standards. These may be voluntary organizations or government agencies. These agencies first define the safety standards, which they publish in the form of codes. They are also Accreditation Bodies and entitle independent third parties such as testing and certification agencies to inspect and ensure compliance to the standards they defined. For instance, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) formulated a certain number of safety standards in its Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code (BPVC) and accredited TÜV Rheinland to provide certification services to guarantee product compliance to the defined safety regulations

United States

American National Standards Institute

A major American standards organization is the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). Usually, members of a particular industry will voluntarily form a committee to study safety issues and propose standards. Those standards are then recommended to ANSI, which reviews and adopts them. Many government regulations require that products sold or used must comply with a particular ANSI standard.

Government agencies

Many government agencies set safety standards for matters under their jurisdiction, such as:

• theFood and Drug Administration
• theConsumer Product Safety Commission
• theUnited States Environmental Protection Agency

Testing laboratories

Product safety testing, for the United States, is largely controlled by the Consumer Product Safety Commission. In addition, workplace related products come under the jurisdiction of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), which certifies independent testing companies as Nationally Recognized Testing Laboratories (NRTL), see

European Union

Institutions

• theEuropean Commission (EC)
• theEuropean Committee for Standardization (CEN)
• theEuropean Food Safety Authority (EFSA)
• the European Safety Federation (ESF)

Testing laboratories

The European Commission provides the legal framework, but the different Member States may authorize test laboratories to carry out safety testing.

Other countries

Standards institutions

• British Standards Institution
• Canadian Standards Association
• Deutsches Institut für Normung
• International Organization for Standardization
• Standards Australia

Testing laboratories

Many countries have national organizations that have accreditation to test and/or submit test reports for safety certification. These are typically referred to as a Notified or Competent Body.

See Also

Accident Aircraft Air safety Accidents and incidents in aviation List of aircraft accidents Aisles: Safety and regulatory considerations American Society of Safety Engineers Arc Flash Safety in Australia Automobile Car accident Automobile safety Traffic safety Bicycle Bicycle safety Behavior-based safety Boat Boat safety

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention CDC Certified safety professional Child Child safety seat Toy safety Poison control Safe Kids USA Consumer product safety Door#Door-related accidents Electrical safety Explosives safety Fire safety Gun safety List of rail accidents List of nuclear accidents Motorcycle safety Patient safety Pedestrian safety Private security Risk management Road safety Sailing ship accidents

Safety engineering Fail-safe Fail-secure Poka-yoke Software System Safety Safety statement Security Seismic performance Sports injury safety Occupational Safety and Health Criticality accident Safety data sheet Personal protective equipment Work accident

Health is the level of functional or metabolic efficiency of a living organism. In humans it is the ability of individuals or communities to adapt and self-manage when facing physical, mental or social challenges.

The World Health Organization (WHO) defined health in its broader sense in its 1948 constitution as “a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.” This definition has been subject to controversy, in particular as lacking operational value and because of the problem created by use of the word “complete”. Other definitions have been proposed, among which a recent definition that correlates health and personal satisfaction.

Classification systems such as the WHO Family of International Classifications, including the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) and the International Classification of Diseases (ICD), are commonly used to define and measure the components of health.

Physical exercise enhances or maintains physical fitness and overall health and wellness. It strengthens muscles and improves the cardiovascular system

Age and condition	Sleep Needs
Newborns (0–3 months)	14 to 17 hours
Infants (4–11 months)	12 to 15 hours
Toddlers (1–2 years)	11 to 14 hours
Preschoolers (3–5 years)	10 to 13 hours
School-age children (6–13 years)	9 to 11 hours
Teenagers (14–17 years)	8 to 10 hours
Adults (18–64 years)	7 to 9 hours
Older Adults (65 years and over)	7 to 8 hours

In addition to safety risks, many jobs also present risks of disease, illness and other long-term health problems. Among the most common occupational diseases are various forms of pneumoconiosis, including silicosis and coal worker’s pneumoconiosis (black lung disease). Asthma is another respiratory illness that many workers are vulnerable to. Workers may also be vulnerable to skin diseases, including eczema, dermatitis, urticaria, sunburn, and skin cancer. Other occupational diseases of concern include carpal tunnel syndrome and lead poisoning.

As the number of service sector jobs has risen in developed countries, more and more jobs have become sedentary, presenting a different array of health problems than those associated with manufacturing and the primary sector. Contemporary problems, such as the growing rate of obesity and issues relating to stress and overwork in many countries, have further complicated the interaction between work and health.

Many governments view occupational health as a social challenge and have formed public organizations to ensure the health and safety of workers. Examples of these include the British Health and Safety Executive and in the United States, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, which conducts research on occupational health and safety, and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which handles regulation and policy relating to worker safety and health.