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 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING TRANSACTIONS  
 

VOL. 53, 2016 

A publication of 

 
The Italian Association 

of Chemical Engineering 
Online at www.aidic.it/cet 

Guest Editors: Valerio Cozzani, Eddy De Rademaeker, Davide Manca
Copyright © 2016, AIDIC Servizi S.r.l., 
ISBN 978-88-95608-44-0; ISSN 2283-9216 

A Role of Education System in Creation of Safety Culture  
Anatoly A. Aleksandrov, Vladimir A. Devisilov, Mikhail V. Ivanov*  
Bauman Mocow State Technical University, Moscow, Russia, 105005, 2-ya Baumanskaya, 5-1  
mivanov@bmstu.ru  

The human factor is one of the main causes of accidents, violations of safety requirements in management 
and design solutions, the operation of dangerous objects. Low safety culture, way of thinking and behavior is 
often caused by the fact that man himself is the source of danger.  
This paper represents the analysis of specific industrial failures. The role of human factors in the causes of 
their occurrence is described. It is shown that the value of culture in general in the post-industrial society is 
extremely high. Culture is able to harmonize the interests of people and the technosphere, while the culture of 
safety is a general tool for such harmonization. Safety culture is formed in the process of education and 
depends largely on the level of competence of employees and management at various levels of competence 
in security related subjects. 
The paper studies the concepts of the basis for safety education, which is formed from synergetic principles 
and techniques of interdisciplinary training. The grounds of the security education are civilizational changes, 
changes of cultural values, scientific and educational paradigms; humanistic, pedagogical, national, pragmatic, 
conceptual, and terminological base, the content of which is disclosed and justified. The general and particular 
features of human factors and safety culture in Russia, the former Soviet Union, the Eastern European States 
and Western European countries are discussed. 
The creation of human-friendly environment is the major task for engineering. The experience of  training 
process organization in the field of security in Russia and CIS countries is described. A successfully 
implemented study programme is described, that aims training and formation of security competencies. Also, 
presented the system of organization of educational process, feed-back system and the results of 
implementation of the education model in the field of security in Russia. The system of training in the field of 
industrial and environmental safety, occupational safety and protection in emergency situations. 

1. Human Factor and Safety  

There is an obvious connection between technical failure and their associated disasters and knowledge, 
culture and public morality. The present-day human habitat is technosphere - biosphere that has been 
transformed by humanity for its needs. Engineering plays the key role in creating a human-friendly technical 
environment. Humanity is faced with the need to be aware of many factors and to apply a rational approach 
when creating an environment that ensures proper living conditions for the humanity. 
The main causes of man-made disasters are the people, who design, operate and maintain production 
facilities and who take decisions in emergency situations. The study of man-made disasters often reveals that 
they are human factors that are responsible for their occurrence, development and associated strong negative 
effects.  
The table summarizes the human factor failures, which according to experts, became the main cause of 
recent large-scale industrial disasters. 
The development of modern, industrial civilization and the fact that technical facilities become more energy 
demanding increase the role of the human factors in industrial disasters. This occurs despite the introduction 
of automation and remote manufacturing systems. Discrepancies in control systems design and failure to 
ensure safety can result in major accidents. 

                               
 
 

 

 
   

                                                  
DOI: 10.3303/CET1653036

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Please cite this article as: Aleksandrov A., Devisilov V., Ivanov M., 2016, A role of education system in creation of safety culture, Chemical 
Engineering Transactions, 53, 211-216  DOI: 10.3303/CET1653036 

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Table 1. Accidents and their causes 

Accident One of the reasons caused by the human factor 
Chemical production 
plant in Seveso, Italy 
10 July 1976. 

Deliberate divergence from standard operating procedure during the product 
synthesis.   The accident would not have happened if the flow process had not 
been stopped immediately after the synthesis, if overheated steam had not 
been used in the heating system, if there had been forced cooling of the 
reactor and the stirring process had continued until the mixture had cooled to 
reach the temperature when any runaway reactions would be impossible. 

Three Mile Island 
nuclear power plant 
(Three Mile Island 
accident,  
USA, Pennsylvania)  
28 March 1979. 

Maintenance errors (pilot-operated relief valves of emergency pumps were not 
opened) and inadequate training of maintenance staff who performed incorrect 
operations guided by ambiguous level gauge indicators. 

Chemical production 
plant in  Bhopal, India 
3 December 1984. 

Safety breach and insufficient protective measures. 

Chernobyl nuclear power 
plant, USSR (Ukraine) 
26 April 1986 

Maintenance errors, which lead to incompliance with technical regulations 
during the systems test. 

Fukushima nuclear 
power plant, Japan  
11 March 2011 

Human factors, but not natural disaster was the major reason of Fukushima-1 
nuclear accident. This was the conclusion by the experts of the Japanese 
parliamentary commission. The commission has established that the main 
cause of the accident was major negligence by the supervisory bodies and 
Tepco (Tokyo Electric Power Company), the operator of Fukushima-1, as well 
as poor accident management. The commission also listed Japanese mentality 
among the reasons – shifting of the responsibility, blaming the management, 
as well as failure to adopt advanced international modernization and safety 
practices. 

2. Safety Culture and Education  

Society is undergoing great change, and this is accompanied by the shift of cultural and scientific educational 
paradigms. The process of transition to the post-industrial stage of industrial society is marked by the 
emergence of global risk society and shifts in the value systems of present-day high-risk society. 
Growing technological and anthropogenic impact on the environment and the increasing number and severity 
of hazards of the outer world have become present-day reality. These objective tendencies as well as the 
need for sustainable development of the human society force the shift of priorities in the socio-economic 
development of modern society towards environmental and social safety. Objective social factors include 
changes in science and technology aimed to develop risk theory and study natural and technological hazards 
and ways to reduce their negative impact on the human and natural environment.  These factors demand we 
improve the education so as to put more emphasis on environmental safety issues, prepare the individual to 
perceive rapidly changing everyday reality and ensure personal and collective safety. 
Presently, developed countries list environmental, personal and collective safety issues among priority 
development tasks in their policies and ideology.  
In the present day the benefits for society is the main criterion of effective education. Great Russian writer Leo 
Tolstoy wrote that the main criterion of good education is its importance for human life.  Albert Einstein 
formulated it as follows: ‘Caring for the human and their life should be the main goal in science. Never forget 
about it in your drawings and equations’.  
Studies by many well-known scientists - philosophers, social and political scientists, physicists, environmental 
scientists, engineers and educational experts Ulrich Beck (1992), G.Bechmann (2010), Anthony Giddens – 
(1999), N. Luhmann (2006), V. S. Stepin (1999), V. N. Kuznetsov (2002), etc. are devoted to the research of 
transition to risk society. They see the process as a new inevitable social phenomenon and emphasize the 
need in substantial paradigmatic changes in the content of science, education, human knowledge, world 
vision, way of thinking, activities and culture.  
The humanity has too little time to understand the structure of the world through trial and error. It is time to 
develop and introduce noxological education.  

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Noxological education involves personality, upbringing and development, targeted to build behavioural norms, 
competences and world vision and ensure life safety and safe activities of both the individual and the society. 
Noxology - is the science that studies the hazards of the outer world (derived from Latin noxius - ‘dangerous, 
harmful’ and Greek logos - ‘teaching’). 

An integrated approach to safety could be achieved through eliminating the borders between the 
humanities and sciences. Synthesis of various sciences allows a new methodological approach to research 
and teaching techniques, which could be called noxological approach characterized by: 

- classification of various material and social phenomena and processes based on their being either 
‘dangerous’ or ‘safe’; 

- optimizing the pace of social development as well as the development of technosphere and biosphere 
based on making material and energy processes more efficient to ensure sustainable development of risk 
society; 

- significance and importance of axiological and culturological factors in scientific research and teaching 
methodologies; 

- the fact that all scientific research is integrated to form metadiscipline about life safety and safe activities. 
Let us introduce a few definitions to safety studies. 
Individual’s noxological culture (synonym - personality’s safety culture) - is a set of norms, views and 
presuppositions related to the individual’s perception of danger and risks as well as personal, public and 
national safety. 
Noxological culture of the society (synonym - society safety culture) - is a set of views and presuppositions 
related to dangers, risks, emergencies and health threats that may affect human life and activities shared by 
all members of the society and social groups, alongside with the norms, presuppositions and social and 
technical achievements aimed to minimize risks. 
Noxological worldview (risk oriented worldview) - integrated worldview and concept of the individual’s place in 
the world, their self-attitude, attitude to the environment, life stances, ideals, beliefs, cognitive principles and 
values, which treat safety as the main priority in human life and everyday activities.   
Risk thinking - is the way reality is reflected in conclusions, concepts, theories, judgements that assess and 
analyse danger and risk as an objective factor. 
Noxological competences - are the knowledge and skills in identifying danger, reducing risks, ensuring safety, 
as well as readiness and ability to utilize them in everyday life and professional activities.  
Noxological competence - is an integral personality characteristic, preconditioned by the individual’s 
noxological culture, noxological worldview and noxological competences.  
Concepts of safety education based on synergetic principles and interdisciplinary teaching approaches have 
been thoroughly researched in a number of papers (Aleksandrov A.A., 2013, Devisilov V.A., 2008, 2010, 
2011) and noxological education has been introduced in Russia. 

3.  Russian Higher Education in Safety 

The chart (Fig. 1) shows competence building techniques in the field of safety and safety culture implemented 
in the Russian system of higher education. The system presented on the chart is still being developed and 
some stages have only recently been introduced at some of the Russian universities. Ecology and Industrial 
Safety Department of Bauman Moscow State Technical University was the first to introduce and promote 
safety education at Russian educational institutions. 
One of the core disciplines in safety education is Health and Safety, compulsory academic subject on the 
curriculum in any field and speciality according to the Russian standards of higher education. The discipline is 
meant to build safety competence in students based on the acquired knowledge and promote safety 
worldview. It includes eight modules: 

1. Introduction to safety. Basic concepts and definitions. 
2. The individual and technosphere. 
3. Identification of hazardous factors of human habitat and their impact on the individual. 
4. Protection of the individual and the habitat against natural, technogenic and anthropogenic hazards. 
5. Ensuring safe and comfortable living conditions for the individual. 
6. Psychophysiological and ergonomic basics of safety.  
7. Emergency situations and ways to handle them. 
8. Life and health safety management. 

This extended group of disciplines and specialities in the field of Technospere Safety and Environmental 
Engineering has been created in Russia. The disciplines are meant to train safety specialists at three levels - 
Bachelor’s, Master’s (or Specialist degree) and postgraduate degree programmes.  
  

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Fig. 1: Competence building techniques in the field of safety and safety culture implemented in the Russian 
system of higher education 
 

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REASONS, NEEDS, 
MOTIVES 

OBJECTIVE – NEED OF SUSTAINABLE 
DEVELOPMENT IN RISK SOCIETY 

SUBJECTIVE – CHANGES IN SOCIAL 
POLICY AND PUBLIC IDEOLOGY 

OBJECTIVE – GROWTH OF SCIENTIFIC AND 
TECHNICAL POTENTIAL, INCREASE OF HUMAN 

SUBJECTIVE – PERSONALITY'S NEED FOR 
SAFETY 

 
HUMANIZATION OF 

EDUCATION, 
ANTHROPOCENTRIC AND 

SCIENTIFIC AND 

EDUCATIONAL PARADIGMS

GOALS AND TASKS

FORMATION OF 
PROFESSIONAL 

NOXOLOGICAL 

FORMATION OF 
PROFESIONAL 

NOXOLOGICAL 

FUNCTIONS

GNOSEOLOGICAL 
(FORMATION OF WORLDS SCIENTIFIC 

AND EDUCATIONAL PICTURE)

AXIOLOGICAL  
(VALUES SYSTEM FORMATION) 

PRAXIOLOGICAL  
(FORMATION OF SAFETY'S VALUABLE 

PRIORITIES IN PROFESSIONAL 

ACMEOLOGICAL 
(FORMATION OF ABILITIES TO 

PRODUCTIVE WORK IN AREA OF 

SAFETY IN VIGOROUS PROFESSIONAL 
COGNITIVE 

(FORNATION OF NOXOSPHERE'S 
COGNITIVE IMAGE) 

MOTIVATIONAL 
(MOTIVATION 

FORMATION TO 

SAFETY IN 

PROFESSIONAL 

ACTIVITY)

M
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IN
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Y
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SUBSTANTIAL COMPONENT PROCEDURAL COMPONENT (EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY) 

IMPLICIT CONTENT APICAL 
CONTENT

HUMANITARIAN 
AND SOCIAL AND 

ECONOMIC 

NATURAL 
SCIENCES 

GENERAL 
PROFESSIONAL 

PROFESSIONAL 
MODULES S

A
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(M
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MODULE COURSE 
«HEALTH MODULES 

MODULES 

EDUCATION FORMS EDUCATION METHODS 

CONTEXTUAL 

PROBLEMATIC 

PROJECTIVE AND 
RESEARCH 

INTERACTIVE 

INDIVIDUALLY-
ORIENTED 

LIBERAL 
ASYNCHRONOUS

QUASIADMINISTRATIVE 
SYNCHRONOUS

MIXED 

MODULE 
CREDIT AND 

ACCUMULATIVE

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ZUN'S DIAGNOSTICS TOOLS  
(DISCIPLINARY NOXOLOGICAL COMPETENCIES) 

 

RATING SYSTEM 

FUND OF ESTIMATED MEANS 

MAIN EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM IN DIRECTION SPECIALITY PROFILE

FUND OF TESTS 

FUND OF PRACTICAL 
QUESTIONS

FUND OF THEORETICAL 
QUESTIONS 

FUND OF PROBLEMATIC 
QUESTIONS

«HEALTH AND 
SAFETY» SECTION  

GQW 

CRITERIA AND INDICATORS OF 
GQW EXPERT ASSESSMENT 

NOXOLOGICAL COMPETENCE 
QUALIMETRY SYSTEM  

(INTEGRATED RESULTS OF TRAINING)

RATING SCALE 

ASSESSMENT OF 
INTEGRATED 

RESULTS 
(FORMEDNESS OF 
NOXOLOGICAL 

COMPETENCE) 
 
LEVELS: 
 
HIGH 
 
MIDDLE 

SYSTEM OF DIAGNOSTICS AND QUALIMETRY RESULTS' 
ANALYSIS AND CORRECTING DECISIONS DEVELOPMENT 

CONTENT 
CORRECTION 

CORRECTION OF 
EDUCATION'S 
FORMS AND 

CORRECTION OF 
GQW AND 

CONTROL TOOLS

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Core specialities in Bachelor’s degree course include: 1 Industrial Safety; 2. Occupational Safety; 3. 
Environmental Safety; 4. Protection in Emergency Situations; 5. Nuclear and Electromagnetic Safety; 5. 
Environmental Protection and Environmental Engineering; 6. Water Resources Management. 
Fire Safety is also on the academic curriculum.  
A number of Master’s degree academic programmes are available at Russian universities. Current academic 
programmes include: 1 Acoustics of the Human Habitat; 2. Multipurpose Utilization of Water Resources; 3. 
Industrial Risk Management and Protection in Emergency Situations. New academic programmes are being 
presently devised: 1 Occupational Safety and Professional Risk Management; 2. Protection of the 
Atmosphere. Means and Techniques. 
Bauman Moscow State Technical University benefits from international experience and cooperates with the 
European and Chinese universities when devising academic programmes in safety and environmental 
protection. Multipurpose Utilization of Water Resources programme was devised in cooperation with Italian 
universities (the University of Genoa) and was awarded an international certificate. Professor of the University 
of Genoa delivers lectures in Risk Assessment and Safety Monitoring at Bauman Moscow State Technical 
University on a regular basis. Students and professors of the department take part in internship programmes 
run by the European universities. Cooperation with the Chinese universities was organized by the Association 
of Technical Universities of Russia and China, the initiative of Bauman Moscow State Technical University and 
Harbin Institute of Technology.  
Bauman Moscow State Technical University has developed the concept and didactics of noxological 
education that are being implemented in the academic curriculum. Presently, a new world vision is being 
formed, and integrated knowledge about the new world should lay the corner stone of new noxological 
worldview and risk oriented thinking. A human-centered approach in education is only possible through 
integrating various modern teaching techniques and new approaches. Coherent concept of present-day 
society, which is viewed as ‘individual – machine - habitat’ system, can only be communicated through 
integrating the knowledge in the humanities, sciences as well as technical knowledge. Such synergism is not a 
goal in itself, but is crucial for studying the individual, the society, the nature and technology, whose symbiosis 
forms technosphere. 
At the moment integration of scientific knowledge is in process. It is also important that teaching techniques 
and methodologies should undergo similar integration. 

4. Conclusions 

Noxological education is gaining importance in the academic curriculum due to the human-sizedness of 
‘individual – machine - habitat’ system and the key role the human plays in it.  As the science about hazards 
and safety of human-sized systems involving complex cause-and-effect relations between their elements 
based on various branches of science about the individual, technology, nature, as well as physical, chemical, 
biological and psychological processes of development and self-organization noxology should benefit from 
synergetic approach.  
Synergetic principles in studying ‘individual - machine - habitat’ systems requires interdisciplinary approach, 
which allows to reveal the complexity of the form and the content as well as the multiplicity of interrelations 
and establish causal links between them. 
Various academic disciplines contain some segmentary knowledge about the individual and their relation with 
the environment, however only partial and implicit, which brings about pressing need in more systematic 
knowledge. It would be too naive to hope that creating a discipline that would embrace all the knowledge 
about the individual and their place in the world is possible. However, it is necessary to create the concept 
base for applied use in various subject fields, which could form the basis of sociocultural education in post-
industrial society and become the means to study the individual and present-day post-industrial risk society, 
embracing not only traditional subjects and disciplines, but benefitting from interdisciplinary ties. 
Synergetic principles and interdisciplinary approach in noxological education would equip the graduates with 
the instruments and ability to independently analyse and assess professional risks both their own and those of 
colleagues in other fields. A university graduate should be aware of the impact of their and their colleagues’ 
professional activity on natural, social and technogenic environment in the long-term perspective and be able 
to communicate such ideas to others.  
Noxological education based on interdisciplinary approach can form the basis of noxological worldview and 
risk oriented thinking and create safety culture to meet present-day challenges. 
Noxology (health and safety) is a new and unique phenomenon in science and education, a synergetic unity, 
which requires further integration of knowledge about the world, including the humanities, sciences and 
technology. Only such combination can embrace the complexity of relations between the individual and the 
environment, reveal hazards and shed light on cause-effect relations that predetermine the level of risks.   

215



We hope for further cooperation with overseas universities in the field of safety education aimed to form safety 
culture. The cooperation can have the form of student and teacher exchanges, on-site internships at leading 
universities and companies as well as collaboration in devising academic disciplines and further training 
programmes. 

Reference  

Aleksandrov A.A., Devisilov V.A., 2013, Conceptual and Didactic Bases of Engineering Skills Training in the 
Safety Area. International Conference on Interactive Collaborative Learning (ICL). 25-27 September 2013, 
Kazan National Research Technological University, Kazan, Russia 

Bechmann G., 2010, Modern society: risk society, information society, knowledge society. Moscow, Logos.  (in 
Russian) 

Beck Ulrich ,1992, Risk Society: Towards a New Modernity. London, Sage 
Devisilov V.A., 2008, Conceptual foundations of education in the field of safety, Higyer education in Russia 

(Vysshee obrazovanie v Rossii), 9, 27-31 (in Russian) 
Devisilov V.A., 2010, System noxological education as a factor of safety in risk society, 

Work safety in industry (Bezopasnost' truda v promyshlennosti), 5, 55-61. (in Russian) 
Devisilov V.A., Kubrushko P.F., 2011, Noxological education in the context of humanization and 

humanitarization of professional education at higher school, Safety in Technosphere (Bezopasnost´ v 
tekhnosfere), 1, 59-64 (in Russian) 

Giddens Anthony,1999, Runaway World: How Globalization is Reshaping Our Lives. London, Profile. 
Kuznetsov V. N. ,2002, Sociology of safety: building a culture of safety in transforming society. Moscow. (in 

Russian) 
Luhmann N., 2006,The society of society. Part IV. Differentiation. Moscow, Logos. (in Russian) 
Stepin V. S. , Gorokhov V. G. , Rozov M. A.,1999, Philosophy of science and technology. Moscow, Gardariki. 

(in Russian) 
 

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