We recognize that risk is inherent in many aspects of our lives.  And most of us will do what is prudent to avoid unreasonable risk in our activities, such that we are left with some level of tolerable risk.  It may be safer to stay home and not travel in our cars, but we balance that risk with a desire to be somewhere else.  We wear our seat belts and we obey traffic signals. Maybe we trust ourselves very much to be alert and careful while driving, but we have limited trust in other drivers to be so careful. 

If I need to climb a ladder to work on my house or a tree limb, I’m not going to tie myself to it every time I climb. I consider my ability to climb and balance to meet the demands of the task most of the time.  But I will consider extra safety measures if I’m going to spent a lot of time on that ladder.  And I’m careful to review a mental checklist before I try to climb.  (Is the ladder at a proper angle, and is it level to the ground?  What am I carrying up/down the ladder?)  But at some point I may decide I’m too old to do this, maybe due to lack of physical or mental capability.  Eventually, even tying myself to the ladder will present more risk than I can accept.

The risk analysis process in an industrial setting is not all that different.  What has to be protected and what will the cost of failure be?  Naturally, human life must be protected, and then you should consider effects of injury as well.  Failure consequences and costs generally include plant, personnel, surrounding neighborhoods, and other process material that are part of the application.  Sometimes it comes down to time and money; we can be very safe if we spend enough time and money to eliminate risk.  But there are usually constraints to eliminate or reduce risk, and most often it is money.

How safe do we want to be?  And how safe do we want to make it for others?  If all risk is personalized, you will begin to think about the safety of others in the same way you consider your own safety.  In many ways, following standards and regulations provides for protection of others when someone else performs an activity such as designing a pressure transmitter for functional safety applications.  The question to ask is: “what if I was trying to protect myself?”  While this does not necessarily mean spending more time and money to reduce risk, at least it will mean that more consideration has been given to reduce the risk on a personal level, and perhaps a more complete analysis with fewer shortcuts.