From Safety to Safety Science: The Evolution of Thinking and Practice

How do accidents and disasters occur? How has knowledge of accident processes evolved? A significant improvement in safety has occurred during the past century, with the number of accidents falling spectacularly within industry, aviation and road traffic. This progress has been gradual in the context of a changing society. The improvements are partly due to a better understanding of the accident processes that ultimately lead to damage. This book shows how contemporary crises instigated the development of safety knowledge and how the safety sciences pieced their theories together by research, by experience and by taking ideas from other domains.

From Safety to Safety Science details 150 years of knowledge development in the safety sciences. The authors have rigorously extracted the essence of safety knowledge development from more than 2,500 articles to provide a unique overview and insight into the background and usability of safety theories, as well as modelling how they developed and how they are used today. Extensive appendices and references provide an additional dimension to support further scholarly work in this field.

The book is divided into clear time periods to make it an accessible piece of science history that will be invaluable to both new and experienced safety researchers, to safety courses and education, and to learned practitioners.

Paul Swuste is an associate professor of the Safety Science Group, Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands, with an MSc degree in Biochemistry (Leiden University, 1978) and a PhD thesis, 'Occupational Hazards and Solutions' (Delft University of Technology, 1996). He has conducted research on risk assessments in high-tech-high-hazard industries, on the history of knowledge developments in safety science and on various occupational hazards. He has published frequently on these topics and co-organised the post-graduate master course 'Management of Safety Health and Environment' from 1994 to 2008.

Jop Groeneweg graduated as a cognitive psychologist from Leiden University in the early 1980s. In a career spanning about four decennia, he was involved in many projects, in and outside the university, to improve safety, predominantly in industrial organisations. As a professor of Safety in Healthcare at Delft University of Technology and a human performance expert at Leiden University and the TNO research institute, in the Netherlands, he aims to transfer his knowledge to the medical domain to reduce preventable adverse events while at the same time getting new insights that might help to further improve safety in the industry.

Frank W. Guldenmund graduated from Leiden University with degrees in both cognitive psychology and methods and statistics. In February 1992 he joined the Safety Science Group at Delft University of Technology. In his research, he focusses on the management of safety in industrial organisations and on the behavior of people within those organisations. He has been teaching safety science for nearly 30 years to both graduate and undergraduate students as well as to safety practitioners. Since 2002 he has been a trainer in the safety culture program of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), providing lectures and workshops on this topic worldwide. Currently, he is on the board of the Dutch Society for Safety Professionals (NVVK) and responsible for embedding (more) science into the work of safety professionals. He is editor of the society’s journal as well as associate editor of Safety Science.

Coen van Gulijk is a senior scientist at TNO Healthy Living, a vising professor at the University of Huddersfield and affiliate researcher of the Safety Science Group of the Delft University of Technology. He is investigating and accelerating the digital transformation of safety models and safety management. He has taught safety science on an academic level in four universities in the Netherlands, one university in Belgium and one in the UK, and actively engages in international networks and scientific dissemination.

Saul Lemkowitz was an associate professor of the Chemical Engineering department at Delft University of Technology. He studied chemical engineering at Rutgers University, in the United States, and at Delft. His PhD thesis (Delft, 1975) focused on ‘Phase and corrosion studies of the ammonia-carbon dioxide water system’. Dust explosions and explosion safety in the process industries were his fields of research and education, together with sustainability, industrial ecology and technology and society. He frequently published on these topics. Regrettably, Saul passed away on 13 February 2020.

Yvette Oostendorp finished her master's studies at Wageningen University and Research in environmental and industrial hygiene in 1983 and worked as a researcher at Wageningen UR on agreement between qualitative estimates and quantitative exposure measurements. From 1986 until 2004 she worked as an industrial hygienist at an occupational health service. She is author or co-author of several handbooks on chemical risk assessment for professionals in occupational health services. In 2004 she started as a senior advisor at the former Hazardous Substances Council, the advisory council for the Dutch parliament. Since 2012 she has worked at the Dutch Council for Environment and Infrastructure (RLI).

Walter Zwaard studied chemistry at Leiden University and received his PhD in 1983. He worked at Leiden University as risk manager, radiation safety officer and lecturer on laboratory safety. From 2004 until 2012 he was a member of the former Hazardous Substances Council. He has published widely on safety issues such as hazardous substances, accident prevention and risk management. He has written a number of books and edited several textbooks on safety. Since 1992 he has worked as a safety practitioner and consultant in both public and private sectors. As an instructor and lecturer, he participates in many courses for risk professionals.