Re: Safety Culture

[Bernard L Cohen <blc+@pitt.edu>]

	Since this thread has grown from referring to nuclear plant
operation to include Society's safety culture, some might be interested in
the tremendous progress in that area. In 1906, when the U.S. population
was 86 million, there were 80,000 people killed in non-motor vehicle
accidents, whereas in 1988, when the U.S. population was 246 million,
there were only 47,000 such deaths, a five-fold reduction in mortality
rate. This progress has been continuous: between 1978 and 1988, per capita
death rates decreased by 18% for all accidents, by 16% for motor vehicle
accidents, by 27% for occupational accidents, by 11% for accidents in the
home. Some insight into the effects of safety culture can be seen by
comparing different nations with different safety cultures: annual
mortality rates per 100,000 population from accidents is 23 in England and
Japan, 30-35 in Germany, Sweden, and Australia, 39.5 in U.S., 50-60 in
Switzerland, Austria, and Czechoslovakia, 62 in France, and 73 in Hungary
and Cuba. The difference between France and England amounts to a full year
difference in life expectancy for the average citizen. For comparison, all
the risks of nuclear power, including reactor accidents, radioactive waste
(assuming that all deaths caused over millions of years were concentrated
on our generation), transport accidents, routine emissions, etc reduce our
life expectancy by only 0.2 days (1.5 days according to Union of Concerned
Scientists, the principal anti-nuclear organization).    

Bernard L. Cohen
Physics Dept.
University of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, PA 15260
Tel: (412)624-9245
Fax: (412)624-9163
e-mail: blc+@pitt.edu