13.4 Life Saving – and the Performance of Society
Saving lives in society is as already highlighted several times a responsibility of the societal
decision makers. Engineers among several other types of professionals provide societal
decision makers decision support on how life saving activities can be undertaken in the most
efficient manner. It is clear that professionals working in the health sector such as medical
doctors, nurses and researchers in general are much more directly involved with life saving
activities than engineers. But there are many other professions with the same underlying
agenda. In Table 13.2 it is illustrated that the efficiency in regard to life saving depends
significantly on the sector and the type of activity considered.
Risk reduction cost in SFr per saved person life
100 Multiple vaccination - third world
1 103
2 103 Medical X-ray facility
5 103 Wearing motorbike helmet
10 103 Cardiac ambulance
20 103 Emergency helicopter service
100 103 Safety belts in cars
to Crossway restructuring
Kidney dialysis
500 103 Structural reliability
1 106
2 106
5 106 City railway Zurich, Alp Transit
10 106 Earthquake standard SIA
20 106 Mine safety USA
50 106 DC 10 out of service
100 106 Multi-storey buildings regulation
1 109 Removal of asbestos from public buildingsTable 13.2 Risk reduction cost (SFr per saved person life, Schneider (1994)).
From Table 13.2 it is seen that there is a significant difference in the cost efficiency of the
various risk reduction measures, which may be implemented with the purpose of saving the
lives of persons. The table also clearly points to the irrationality of some of the measures
taken in the past, e.g. the exchange of asbestos building materials in schools and public
buildings in the 1990’s. The economical recourses used to save one person by this extreme
measure might have saved 10 million persons in the third world had the money been spend on
multiple vaccinations.
For societal decision making at the highest level, the big issue concerns how to prioritize
between investments into different societal sectors, such as e.g. the health sector, the public
transportation sector, the sector of societal infrastructure, the energy sector, etc. It is clear that
such decisions cannot only focus on the safety of the individuals of society but that
considerations must also be given to the general development of society and the other factors
which influence the quality of life of the individuals of society. This is a complex problem
involving many aspects such the availability of natural resources, effective production,