[chbot] Why galvanic isolation is important

[Helmut Walle]

Risk management today as it applies to electrical appliance and many 
other kinds of equipment is overall more rational and systematic than it 
has ever been in the past. Regulations have moved away from being 
technology-centred and prescriptive to being more process and 
framework-based and deliberately leaving technology choices open, while 
putting more responsibility for due process within defined frameworks on 
equipment manufacturers. We really have come a long way in this regard.

Regarding the matches, kitchen knives, blenders and electricity in our 
houses - they do not present a useful comparison to mail delivery UAVs 
at all when it comes to risk management. The key difference is that your 
kitchen knife is in your kitchen where it poses absolutely no risk to 
people outside your household (and, sorry to say it like that, the 
general public care relatively little about how much you are cutting 
your own fingers off while dicing onions - as long as the 
benefit-to-risk ratio stacks up for yourself, feel free to use your 
knife in your kitchen as much as you please). But someone's mail 
delivery UAV is travelling through everyone's sky and could potentially 
make a hard landing on anyone's head - and this is why we are rightly 
concerned, and why this kind of business needs to be regulated in a 
slightly different way than the use of kitchen knives (notwithstanding 
that surely there are rules for the safe use of knives just as well, and 
I am sure professional chefs will know them all).

And yes, ultimately we will all end up dead. But as long as we have some 
sort of social contract that includes trying to live together peacefully 
and doing what we can to minimise accidents and injuries, managing 
safety risks is simply part of the deal. This has become ever so much 
more obvious again since Pike River... and the legal changes following 
on from that are just coming through now. There is some good work being 
done now - it only is a shame that we are doing all this too late to 
help the miners who lost their lives... Check it out: it's not only 
rules and regulations either. There actually is some very hands-on and 
useful guidance in the "Information & guidance" section under 
http://www.business.govt.nz/worksafe

Kind regards,

Helmut.

On 30/06/14 21:58, Charles Manning wrote:
> [...]
>
> Risk management is surrounded by stupid polices because we have an
> irrational understanding of risk. We are fearful of modern risks "What
> if a UAV falls out the sky?" "What if the kids swallow powerful
> magnets?" yet happily have matches, kitchen knives, blenders and
> electricity in our houses. These were thankfully invented before
> people became pathetic. You have a 100% chance of dying from
> something.
>
> [...]