Art: SAFE: Design Takes on Risk
Authors: Janice Hopkins Tanne
Journal: BMJ (2005)

For doctors and others who convey risk to the public, the most important document from this exhibition is a free handout. The card uses ever larger dots to show the risk from venomous snakes and lizards (invisible), from non-opioid analgesics, antipyretics, and antirheumatics (a teeny dot), to air and space transport crashes (a slightly bigger dot), to exposure to forces of nature (a good sized dot). Then we hit the big time risk dots: motorcycling, poisoning, drowning or submersion, or being the occupant of a pickup truck or van, or a pedestrian. And the biggest dot, the most dangerous risk: being the occupant of a car.

The show, at the large, pure white, glassy, and newly expanded Museum of Modern Art in New York, looks at designs that protect people in different settings. Golden street barriers for New York's financial district and silver security bollards are both protection and handsome street furniture.

Graphic designs, such as an image of a mother cat carrying a kitten, and an egg held between thumb and forefinger, indicate that contents need to be handled gently. Wave warning designs tell people to get out of tsunami areas.

Imaginative, simple, cheap buildings provide housing for people displaced in disasters. A house built of paper snaps together, has windows and a door that can be locked, and lasts for 12 months. Such houses were used in the reconstruction of Grenada in the West Indies after a hurricane. Another house uses plastic beer crates for an above-ground foundation, corrugated cardboard tubes for walls, and plastic sheeting for the roof, because these materials are found almost everywhere. A white, faceted, igloo-like house snaps together out of plastic. Inflatable homeless shelters provide plastic cocoons against the weather. Plastic sheeting—folded for shipping, used by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees—is more compact yet.​yet.




Figure 1



Treetent, 1998

Credit: ROBBERT R ROOS




To protect communities against flooding, air-filled tubes lock together; they are lighter and easier to handle than sand bags, and they have already been used successfully.

A water desalination cone uses the sun's heat to condense clean water. A clay jar removes arsenic from contaminated water. Water poured through a sari strains out almost all harmful bacteria, and the sari can be dried in the sun and worn again.

Other devices offer personal protection. A sleeve protects against sunburn (and possible skin cancer) for Australians who drive with one arm outside the window. A full-body suit of chain mail protects those who swim with sharks, although the face is uncovered. Perhaps the swimmer could use a barred face mask like fencers, also in the show.​show.




Figure 2





Inflatable homeless shelters provide plastic cocoons against the weather

Credit: CAMERON McNALL




For Muslim women, there's a chain mail scarf like the hijab. Its elegantly connected stainless steel links conform to modesty requirements and also protect against attacks. Other protective devices are Wellington-like boots to protect from industrial chemicals and mines, earplugs to protect hearing, helmets to protect bicycle riders' heads, goggles to protect the eyes, and protective clothing.

Some “safety devices” are simple, such as a plastic raincoat made in Cuba of discarded clear plastic sugar sacks, alarm hooks for women hanging their handbags at restaurants, and plastic water containers used by the UN that are designed to resist contamination. Plastic clips prevent infants from sticking their fingers in electrical outlets, spoons with soft coatings prevent infants from biting down too hard, and door guards prevent youngsters from pinching their fingers. Three trendy silver rings, designed for women, can be turned together into a dangerous knuckleduster.

Among medical devices, there's a “do not resuscitate” necklace from the Netherlands, an intradermal identification system the size of a grain of rice, a device for applying a condom in the heat of the moment, a pocket sheet that street sex workers can fold out as a soft blanket, and a tissue cover to protect from germs lurking on street phones. A green-orange-red plastic strip used by Medecins Sans Frontieres is wrapped around the upper arm of a child and tells the health worker whether the malnourished child is at mild risk or at risk of death from malnutrition.