Questions on Production Design and Ecology

Question 1: How does green engineering differ from product design paradigms of the past?

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Green Engineering is a production design. It employs the use of both financially and technologically feasible approaches of processing and producing goods. These possible approaches are geared towards reduction of pollution and exposure to hazardous substances. This design of production also makes sure that health of humans are protected without straining commercial sources or threatening the growth of the economy. It should be realized. Therefore, that green engineering is not just an engineering discipline but a way of approaching environmentally and economically friendly design in production.

Product design paradigms, on the other hand, refer to a production design which ensures that production conforms to influencing the mass consumer. Its success is associated with market share or by a measure of how traditional production might be. Examples include the production of devices like eMate and Apple Newton that are famous and influential even in their subsequent designs though they have failed to hit the commercial mark of success.

Question 2: Describe each of the four sources of life cycle assessment process.

Life cycle assessment or rather LCA is a method or technique of analyzing and assessing the possible aspects of the environment about the issues associated with production or service giving. Its four components include:

Goal definition and scoping: the primary activity in this source is to identify the purpose of LCA plus all the expected results of the study in association with the boundaries and assumptions made on the process of goal definition.

Life-Cycle Inventory: under this component, the energy consumed and raw material used is quantified.

Impact Analysis: in this process, the impact of energy and raw material input on human health is determined. Toxic chemicals and gasses released into the environment are also quantified in the inventory.

Improvement Analysis: This component is involved in evaluating the opportunities for reducing energy consumption, the amount of raw material consumed and the impact they have on the environment at each stage of the life-cycle.

Question 3: Imagine that you are responsible for providing an assessment of risk to your community for the expansion of a local power plant. A new smokestack will be built which will emit mercury, arsenic and sulfur dioxide. Discuss the four steps of risk assessment and how they would apply to the situation.

The risk assessment procedure would include steps such as:

Identifying all hazards that can be foreseen within the workplace with the potential of harming anyone. In this case, we must notice that the potential dangers include mercury, arsenic and sulfur dioxide.

Next, assessments of the quantity of risk produced by the hazard are calculated. In this section, it is potentially the identification of health implications of the risks and calculating the chances of such health consequences happening. In our scenario, we must identify the health effects caused by the production of the toxic gasses detected. Though the health implications of the gasses are drastic and could not be felt until after an extended period, the consequences are severe and could include death to the native inhabitants.

The next step is to control or if possible eliminate the hazard. The best method of elimination is through the application of strategies for monitoring and eradication. In our case, we could control the production of these toxic gasses through fitting toxic emission guards or apply the use of personal protective devices to avoid inhaling the gasses produced.

The last step is to review the whole risk assessment procedures to improve control measure and finding safer methods of doing things in the workplace. In our scenario, the management of the plant should ensure that the system is regularly audited to make sure that control methods are enacted.