Safety in a changing environment: Can we draw lessons from other industrial sectors?

Many industries confront vital economic and political changes at key times of their development, which may have an impact on their level of safety. As an example, the safety records of the air transport industry in the USA and the rail transport sector in the UK are contrasted through the two major changes these sectors underwent in recent history: deregulation under President Carter in the late 1970s and privatization of British Rail under Mrs. Thatcher. While deregulation did not seem to adversely affect the safety of air travel in the USA, safety in the rail sector in the UK has apparently dropped markedly. Using parallels involving mergers or splitting up scenarios from industrial sectors, some lessons are drawn for all safety critical industrial systems, in particular for the nuclear industry, and the concept of cyndinics, a methodical and scientific approach to danger and risk, is introduced. (author)