ABSTRACT
The causes of technological hazards tend to be more diverse, and possibly less predictable, than the causes of most natural hazards. Technological hazards result in ‘man-made accidents’ because the trigger event is human action – or inaction – when dealing with dangerous technologies; thus these hazards arise not simply from faults in technology alone but are linked to human fallibility in decisionmaking. Accordingly, technological hazards are really failures in complex systems caused by technical, social, organisational or operational defects (Chapman, 2005; Shaluf et al., 2003). Turner (1994) and others went further and estimated that largescale accidents may attribute about 20-30 per cent to technical failings and 70-80 per cent to social, administrative or managerial failings. Some observers have recognised links between technological hazards and terrorism and warfare. But terrorism and warfare are examples of the deliberately harmful use of technology, rather than the accidental release of hazardous energy or material from civilian processes. As such, they are acts of violence – like crime – and are not ‘accidental’. The only direct link between warfare and technological hazards exists when a destructive technology developed for military purposes gets out of control. In effect, this
means either the accidental release of toxic material from weapons of mass destruction or the accidental starting of a war where such weapons are deployed.
