How Safety Science Can Be Strengthened by Clarifying Its Foundation and Increasing Its Interaction With Risk Science

Today, there is no authoritative accepted definition of safety science, although, empirically, delineations can be drawn based on the papers published in safety science journals. The meaning, object, and scope of safety science have been extensively discussed by leading scholars in recent years. The present paper aims to contribute to this discussion by clarifying safety science's foundation and relationship to risk science. The paper argues that there is a potential for further enhancement of the understanding, assessment, communication, and handling of safety issues by a stronger interaction with risk science, both generic and applied risk science. Safety science is concerned with topics which all relate to risk, yet we often see safety science literature on such topics without addressing risk. A main conclusion of the paper is that safety science can be included in risk science, with the main topics as part of applied risk science but also contributions to generic, fundamental risk science.