Nektarios Karanikas
Associate Professor in Health, Safety & Environment
Queensland University of Technology
Safety Simplified: Unravelling Health, Risk, and Safety
While definitions that are explicitly scoped and unambiguous are important in practice and research to steer developments, organizations often pursue safety without a clear understanding of what safety is or how to achieve it. The absence of a single accepted definition can be attributed to influences of personal experiences, social perspectives, unclarities in regulatory guidelines and industry publications, and, especially, academic opinions that find their way into the industry.
Indeed, various viewpoints on safety can enrich scholarly discussions and increase our understanding. However, transferring unresolved debates into industry practice can be confusing, counterproductive, even misleading. Professionals, employers, academics, regulators and other stakeholders conversing about safety might all refer to something different and still believe they are on the same page.
As such, this presentation will promote a shared understanding of the fundamental terms of health, risk and safety and highlight their trans-disciplinarity. It combines literature references and research findings to define these three specific constructs, explaining how they relate and differ in various contexts. The presentation will also examine the practical implications of the proposed definitions on concepts like risk assessment, safety performance, and hierarchy of controls.
Nektarios Karanikas is Associate Professor in the Health, Safety and Environment discipline of the School of Public Health & Social Work at QUT. He studied MSc Human Factors and Safety Assessment in Aeronautics at Cranfield University (UK), and he was awarded his doctorate in Safety and Quality Management from Middlesex University (UK). Before starting his full-time academic career in 2014, Nektarios worked for more than 19 years as an officer at the Hellenic Air Force where he served in various positions related to maintenance, safety and quality management, including accident investigations.
In addition to his academic qualifications, he has held professional credentials in occupational health & safety, human factors, project management and engineering and has been a member of various national and international bodies and associations. Nektarios has published two edited books and several book chapters, has authored various peer-reviewed journal and conference articles with a focus on safety/risk management, has presented his work in more than 100 events, and he actively volunteers in a wide range of scientific and professional activities.