I. Introduction – Occupational Safety and Health Responsibilities of the Design Engineer

Design engineers have many diverse responsibilities to consider for the products they help create. These can relate to function, cost, reliability, maintainability, expected life, and others. The concepts of safety and health usually play a secondary role. This is not due to a lack of importance, but rather because many design engineers have had no formal training in these subjects. The ASME Code of Ethics states as the first of its seven fundamental canons that: “Engineers shall hold paramount the safety, health and welfare at the public in the performance of their professional duties.” Despite this recognition, undergraduate M.E. coursework in this area is quite limited.