Download or read book Normal Accidents written by Charles Perrow and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2011-10-12 with total page 462 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Normal Accidents analyzes the social side of technological risk. Charles Perrow argues that the conventional engineering approach to ensuring safety--building in more warnings and safeguards--fails because systems complexity makes failures inevitable. He asserts that typical precautions, by adding to complexity, may help create new categories of accidents. (At Chernobyl, tests of a new safety system helped produce the meltdown and subsequent fire.) By recognizing two dimensions of risk--complex versus linear interactions, and tight versus loose coupling--this book provides a powerful framework for analyzing risks and the organizations that insist we run them. The first edition fulfilled one reviewer's prediction that it "may mark the beginning of accident research." In the new afterword to this edition Perrow reviews the extensive work on the major accidents of the last fifteen years, including Bhopal, Chernobyl, and the Challenger disaster. The new postscript probes what the author considers to be the "quintessential 'Normal Accident'" of our time: the Y2K computer problem.
Download or read book There Are No Accidents written by Jessie Singer and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2023-02-28 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A journalist recounts the surprising history of accidents and reveals how they’ve come to define all that’s wrong with America. We hear it all the time: “Sorry, it was just an accident.” And we’ve been deeply conditioned to just accept that explanation and move on. But as Jessie Singer argues convincingly: There are no such things as accidents. The vast majority of mishaps are not random but predictable and preventable. Singer uncovers just how the term “accident” itself protects those in power and leaves the most vulnerable in harm’s way, preventing investigations, pushing off debts, blaming the victims, diluting anger, and even sparking empathy for the perpetrators. As the rate of accidental death skyrockets in America, the poor and people of color end up bearing the brunt of the violence and blame, while the powerful use the excuse of the “accident” to avoid consequences for their actions. Born of the death of her best friend, and the killer who insisted it was an accident, this book is a moving investigation of the sort of tragedies that are all too common, and all too commonly ignored. In this revelatory book, Singer tracks accidental death in America from turn of the century factories and coal mines to today’s urban highways, rural hospitals, and Superfund sites. Drawing connections between traffic accidents, accidental opioid overdoses, and accidental oil spills, Singer proves that what we call accidents are hardly random. Rather, who lives and dies by an accident in America is defined by money and power. She also presents a variety of actions we can take as individuals and as a society to stem the tide of “accidents”—saving lives and holding the guilty to account.
Download or read book To Err Is Human written by Institute of Medicine and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2000-03-01 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Experts estimate that as many as 98,000 people die in any given year from medical errors that occur in hospitals. That's more than die from motor vehicle accidents, breast cancer, or AIDSâ€"three causes that receive far more public attention. Indeed, more people die annually from medication errors than from workplace injuries. Add the financial cost to the human tragedy, and medical error easily rises to the top ranks of urgent, widespread public problems. To Err Is Human breaks the silence that has surrounded medical errors and their consequenceâ€"but not by pointing fingers at caring health care professionals who make honest mistakes. After all, to err is human. Instead, this book sets forth a national agendaâ€"with state and local implicationsâ€"for reducing medical errors and improving patient safety through the design of a safer health system. This volume reveals the often startling statistics of medical error and the disparity between the incidence of error and public perception of it, given many patients' expectations that the medical profession always performs perfectly. A careful examination is made of how the surrounding forces of legislation, regulation, and market activity influence the quality of care provided by health care organizations and then looks at their handling of medical mistakes. Using a detailed case study, the book reviews the current understanding of why these mistakes happen. A key theme is that legitimate liability concerns discourage reporting of errorsâ€"which begs the question, "How can we learn from our mistakes?" Balancing regulatory versus market-based initiatives and public versus private efforts, the Institute of Medicine presents wide-ranging recommendations for improving patient safety, in the areas of leadership, improved data collection and analysis, and development of effective systems at the level of direct patient care. To Err Is Human asserts that the problem is not bad people in health careâ€"it is that good people are working in bad systems that need to be made safer. Comprehensive and straightforward, this book offers a clear prescription for raising the level of patient safety in American health care. It also explains how patients themselves can influence the quality of care that they receive once they check into the hospital. This book will be vitally important to federal, state, and local health policy makers and regulators, health professional licensing officials, hospital administrators, medical educators and students, health caregivers, health journalists, patient advocatesâ€"as well as patients themselves. First in a series of publications from the Quality of Health Care in America, a project initiated by the Institute of Medicine
Download or read book The Health Effects of Cannabis and Cannabinoids written by National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2017-03-31 with total page 487 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Significant changes have taken place in the policy landscape surrounding cannabis legalization, production, and use. During the past 20 years, 25 states and the District of Columbia have legalized cannabis and/or cannabidiol (a component of cannabis) for medical conditions or retail sales at the state level and 4 states have legalized both the medical and recreational use of cannabis. These landmark changes in policy have impacted cannabis use patterns and perceived levels of risk. However, despite this changing landscape, evidence regarding the short- and long-term health effects of cannabis use remains elusive. While a myriad of studies have examined cannabis use in all its various forms, often these research conclusions are not appropriately synthesized, translated for, or communicated to policy makers, health care providers, state health officials, or other stakeholders who have been charged with influencing and enacting policies, procedures, and laws related to cannabis use. Unlike other controlled substances such as alcohol or tobacco, no accepted standards for safe use or appropriate dose are available to help guide individuals as they make choices regarding the issues of if, when, where, and how to use cannabis safely and, in regard to therapeutic uses, effectively. Shifting public sentiment, conflicting and impeded scientific research, and legislative battles have fueled the debate about what, if any, harms or benefits can be attributed to the use of cannabis or its derivatives, and this lack of aggregated knowledge has broad public health implications. The Health Effects of Cannabis and Cannabinoids provides a comprehensive review of scientific evidence related to the health effects and potential therapeutic benefits of cannabis. This report provides a research agendaâ€"outlining gaps in current knowledge and opportunities for providing additional insight into these issuesâ€"that summarizes and prioritizes pressing research needs.
Download or read book World Report on Child Injury Prevention written by M. M. Peden and published by World Health Organization. This book was released on 2008 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Child injuries are largely absent from child survival initiatives presently on the global agenda. Through this report, the World Health Organization, the United Nations Children's Fund and many partners have set out to elevate child injury to a priority for the global public health and development communities. It should be seen as a complement to the UN Secretary-General's study on violence against children released in late 2006 (that report addressed violence-related or intentional injuries). Both reports suggest that child injury and violence prevention programs need to be integrated into child survival and other broad strategies focused on improving the lives of children. Evidence demonstrates the dramatic successes in child injury prevention in countries which have made a concerted effort. These results make a case for increasing investments in human resources and institutional capacities. Implementing proven interventions could save more than a thousand children's lives a day.--p. vii.
Download or read book Driver Distraction written by Michael A. Regan and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2008-10-15 with total page 674 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Certain activities and events both inside and outside a vehicle can distract drivers and lead to degraded performance. New technologies- such as entertainment, communication, and driver assistance systems- play a significant role in distraction. This unique volume defines driver distraction, discusses various causes, and explains how to measure acceptable and unacceptable levels of distraction. Several chapters address measurement techniques based on performance and epidemiological studies. Most importantly, the text explores ways to mitigate driver distraction as well as countermeasures including vehicle design and effective legislation.
Download or read book Pedestrian and Cyclist Impact written by Ciaran Simms and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2009-07-21 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The aim of this book is to present pedestrian injuries from a biomechanical perspective. We aim to give a detailed treatment of the physics of pedestrian impact, as well as a review of the accident databases and the relevant injury criteria used to assess pedestrian injuries. A further focus will be the effects on injury outcome of (1) pedestrian/vehicle position and velocity at impact and (2) the influence of vehicle design on injury outcome. Most of the content of this book has been published by these and other authors in various journals, but this book will provide a comprehensive treatment of the biomechanics of pedestrian impacts for the first time. It will therefore be of value to new and established researchers alike.
Download or read book World Report on Road Traffic Injury Prevention written by Marjorie Peden and published by DIANE Publishing. This book was released on 2008-09 with total page 67 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Every day thousands of people are killed and injured on our roads. Millions of people each year will spend long weeks in the hospital after severe crashes and many will never be able to live, work or play as they used to do. Current efforts to address road safety are minimal in comparison to this growing human suffering. This report presents a comprehensive overview of what is known about the magnitude, risk factors and impact of road traffic injuries, and about ways to prevent and lessen the impact of road crashes. Over 100 experts, from all continents and different sectors -- including transport, engineering, health, police, education and civil society -- have worked to produce the report. Charts and tables.
Download or read book Fission Product Processes In Reactor Accidents written by J. T. Rogers and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2020-11-26 with total page 742 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Three Mile Island and Chernobyl nuclear incidents emphasized the need for the world-wide nuclear community to cooperate further and exchange the results of research in this field in the most open and effective manner. Recognizing the roles of heat and mass transfer in all aspects of fission-product behavior in sever reactor accidents, the Executive Committee of the International Centre for Heat and Mass Transfer organized a Seminar on Fission Product Transport Processes in Reactor Accidents. This book contains the eleven of the lectures and all the papers presented at the seminar along with four invited papers that were not presented and a summary of the closing session.
Download or read book Commercial Motor Vehicle Driver Fatigue Long Term Health and Highway Safety written by National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2016-09-12 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There are approximately 4,000 fatalities in crashes involving trucks and buses in the United States each year. Though estimates are wide-ranging, possibly 10 to 20 percent of these crashes might have involved fatigued drivers. The stresses associated with their particular jobs (irregular schedules, etc.) and the lifestyle that many truck and bus drivers lead, puts them at substantial risk for insufficient sleep and for developing short- and long-term health problems. Commercial Motor Vehicle Driver Fatigue, Long-Term Health and Highway Safety assesses the state of knowledge about the relationship of such factors as hours of driving, hours on duty, and periods of rest to the fatigue experienced by truck and bus drivers while driving and the implications for the safe operation of their vehicles. This report evaluates the relationship of these factors to drivers' health over the longer term, and identifies improvements in data and research methods that can lead to better understanding in both areas.
Download or read book Phineas Gage written by John Fleischman and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. This book was released on 2002 with total page 100 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Phineas Gage was truly a man with a hole in his head. Phineas, a railroad construction foreman, was blasting rock near Cavendish, Vermont, in 1848 when a thirteen-pound iron rod was shot through his brain. Miraculously, he survived to live another eleven years and become a textbook case in brain science. At the time, Phineas Gage seemed to completely recover from his accident. He could walk, talk, work, and travel, but he was changed. Gage "was no longer Gage," said his Vermont doctor, meaning that the old Phineas was dependable and well liked, and the new Phineas was crude and unpredictable. His case astonished doctors in his day and still fascinates doctors today. What happened and what didn't happen inside the brain of Phineas Gage will tell you a lot about how your brain works and how you act human.
Download or read book Fatal Influence written by Kevin Matthews and published by . This book was released on 2004 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Fatal Influence" challenges and revises many widely held assumptions about a pivotal moment in both British and Irish history and persuasively demonstrates that Ireland's impact on British politics lasted far longer and was far greater than has been realized. Kevin Matthews places the settlement of the Irish Question in the 1920s within the broader context of a revolution then taking place in British politics and shows how each affected the other. In a detailed investigation, he explores the Irish partition and the often conflicting motives that led to this momentous decision. Far from solving the Irish Question, dividing the country into two parts merely created what one politician at the time called its "elements of dynamite". These explosive elements were thrown into an already unstable political situation in Britain, with three political parties - Liberals, Conservatives, and Labour - all vying for a place in that nation's traditional two-party system. The book brings together some of the most colourful characters of 20th-century British and Irish history, from Winston Churchill and Michael Collins to David Lloyd George and Eamon de Valera.Looming behind is Sir James Craig, the rock-like embodiment of Ulster Unionism. But this story of "high politics" also involves men whose careers are not normally associated with the Irish conflict, figures such as Stanley Baldwin, Ramsay MacDonald, Neville Chamberlain and, even, Oswald Mosley and Anthony Eden.
Download or read book Pre Accident Investigations written by Dr Todd Conklin and published by Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.. This book was released on 2012-10-28 with total page 161 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is a set of new skills written for the managers that drive safety in their workplace. This is Human Performance theory made simple. If you are starting a new program, revamping an old program, or simply interested in understanding more about safety performance, this guide will be extremely helpful.
Download or read book Prevention Policy and Public Health written by Amy A. Eyler and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2016 with total page 409 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Prevention, Policy, and Public Health provides a basic foundation for students, professionals, and researchers to be more effective in the policy arena. It offers information on the dynamics of the policymaking process, theoretical frameworks, analysis, and policy applications. It also offers coverage of advocacy and communication, the two most integral aspects of shaping policies for public health.
Download or read book Accident Precursor Analysis and Management written by National Academy of Engineering and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2004-09-16 with total page 221 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the aftermath of catastrophes, it is common to find prior indicators, missed signals, and dismissed alerts that, had they been recognized and appropriately managed before the event, could have resulted in the undesired event being averted. These indicators are typically called "precursors." Accident Precursor Analysis and Management: Reducing Technological Risk Through Diligence documents various industrial and academic approaches to detecting, analyzing, and benefiting from accident precursors and examines public-sector and private-sector roles in the collection and use of precursor information. The book includes the analysis, findings and recommendations of the authoring NAE committee as well as eleven individually authored background papers on the opportunity of precursor analysis and management, risk assessment, risk management, and linking risk assessment and management.
Download or read book Injury in America written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 1985-01-01 with total page 175 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Injury is a public health problem whose toll is unacceptable," claims this book from the Committee on Trauma Research. Although injuries kill more Americans from 1 to 34 years old than all diseases combined, little is spent on prevention and treatment research. In addition, between $75 billion and $100 billion each year is spent on injury-related health costs. Not only does the book provide a comprehensive survey of what is known about injuries, it suggests there is a vast need to know more. Injury in America traces findings on the epidemiology of injuries, prevention of injuries, injury biomechanics and the prevention of impact injury, treatment, rehabilitation, and administration of injury research.
Download or read book Influence written by Sara Shepard and published by Ember. This book was released on 2022-01-04 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Get ready to delve into the world of teen influencers like you've never done before--from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of PRETTY LITTLE LIARS Sara Shepard and eighteen-year-old actress and social media personality Lilia Buckingham comes a twisty mystery that takes place in the fiercely competitive world of Internet stars. After a video she makes goes viral, everyone knows Delilah Rollins. And now that she's in LA, Delilah's standing on the edge of something incredible. Everything is going to change. She has no idea how much. Jasmine Walters-Diaz grew up in the spotlight. A child star turned media darling, the posts of her in her classic Lulu C. rainbow skirt practically break the Internet. But if the world knew who Jasmine really was, her perfect life? Canceled. Fiona Jacobs is so funny--the kind of girl for whom a crowd parts--no wonder she's always smiling! But on the inside? The girl's a hot mess. And when someone comes out of the shadows with a secret from her past, it's one that won't just embarrass Fiona: it will ruin her. Who wouldn't want to be Scarlet Leigh? Just look at her Instagram. Scarlet isn't just styled to perfection: she is perfection. Scarlet has a gorgeous, famous boyfriend named Jack and there's a whole fanbase about their ship. To everyone watching online, their lives seem perfect . . . but are they really? The sun is hot in California . . . and someone's going to get burned.
