Industrial safety perception among post-graduate engineering students Mohamad Fahmi Hussin * , Bin Wang Safety Engineering Department, Aberdeen University, Aberdeen AB24 3UE, Scotland, UK article info Article history: Received 14 July 2009 Received in revised form 25 April 2010 Accepted 25 April 2010 Available online 13 May 2010 Keywords: Risk perception Occupational risk Health and safety Questionnaire Industrial risk abstract This paper describes industrial safe perception among University of Aberdeen post-graduate engineering student. The immediate objective of this research is to identify safety perceptions of different high risk occupational industries. Results obtained were analyzed and compared with Health and Safety Execu- tives (HSE) reports as well as the Oil and Gas Producer Safety Performance Report. The result showed that the participants perceive the Oil and Gas Industry is safe, second only to the Aviation Industry and that the Oil and Gas Industry is safest in the European Region. The research also concluded that participants’ perceptions were more influenced towards the concept of accident severity/dread rather than the con- cept of accident probability. Ó 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction The general definition of risk is the possibility of suffering harm or loss. The definition of risk used by many researchers is the prob- ability of loss, given the amount of exposure to risk situations or hazards [1,2]. Two main components of risk are the probability and the severity of a consequence. It is important to understand the differences of the two elements. Individuals usually only con- sider the severity aspect in risk, thus ignoring the likelihood of event occurring, as individuals tend to not understand probability [3]. For example, more individuals are afraid of flying on an air- plane rather than driving a car, even though statistics suggest that car drivers are more likely to be involved in a fatal accident as com- pared to airline passengers. People are more focused on severity of airline accident, ignoring the higher rate of car accident probability [4]. A high risk industry can be interpreted as a working environ- ment that may contain a high probability or severity of an accident occurrence or both. Referring to the Health and Safety Executives (HSE) statistical report, the Construction Industry as well as the Oil and Gas Industry are considered high risk [5]. This is because of the number of fatal and non-fatal accidents associated with these industries are high. The mining industry, the aviation, the space industry, the chemical industry as well as the military indus- try are example of high risk industry due to statistically high acci- dent probability and severity [6]. Occupational risk and safety are terms that are correlated. It is important to manage occupational risk as this reflects the safety levels for employers and employees. In a survey conducted by the National Council of Examiners in Engineering and Surveying (formerly known as National Council of Engineering Examiners), it was concluded that nearly all disciplines of engineering as well as all kinds of engineering job industry had significant amount of health and safety responsibilities [7]. Therefore, it is in the engi- neer’s responsibility to protect both the occupational and the pub- lic health and safety. Engineers must bear the important role of managing risk ensuring risks are kept to a minimum or acceptable level [8]. Engineers must also recognize other professions role in man- aging risk, and work with them on safety issues. Identifying haz- ards and managing risk often requires inter-disciplinary efforts to develop effective solutions to safety problems. No one person can be an expert in every aspect of managing risk. To be an ex- pert in ‘every’ aspect of managing risk, one would require to be an expert in engineering, law, psychology, management, indus- trial process and many more. Thus, it is impossible for one per- son or one profession to be an expert in managing risk on its own [9,10]. There is a support for a stronger community participation in dealing with health and safety issue. Such support must come from participations of students and professional in health and safety re- search areas. It is important to understand the perceptions that are associated with industries. Understanding safety perceptions of various industries could pave for better ways to manage the exploitation of industrial perceptions, such as the Nuclear Industry and the Oil and Gas Industry, in a community. Managing industrial 0950-7051/$ - see front matter Ó 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.knosys.2010.04.013 Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: Mohamad.fahmi.hussin@abdn.ac.uk, r01mfh7@abdn.ac.uk (M.F. Hussin), bin.wang@abdn.ac.uk (B. Wang). Knowledge-Based Systems 23 (2010) 769–771 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Knowledge-Based Systems journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/knosys