UNIT IV

ETHICAL ISSUES IN ENGINEERING PRACTICE

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INDUSTRIAL STANDARDS

Industrial standards are important for any industry. Specification helps in

achieving interchangeability. Standardization reduces the production costs and
at the same time, the quality is achieved easily. It helps the manufacturer,
customers and the public, in keeping competitiveness and ensuring quality
simultaneously. Industrial standards are established by the Bureau of Indian
Standards, in our country in consultation with leading industries and services.

International standards have become relevant with the development of the

world trade. The International Standards Organization has now detailed
specifications for generic products/services with procedures that the
manufacturers or service providers should follow to assure the quality of their
products or service. ISO 9000-2000 series are typical examples in this direction.

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ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS

Environmental ethics is the study of

(a) moral issues concerning the environment, and
(b) Moral thoughts, beliefs, or attitudes concerning enviornment
Engineers in the past are known for their negligence of environment, in their
activities.
It is important now that engineers design eco-friendly tools, machines,
sustainable products, processes, and projects.
These are essential now to
(c) ensure protection (safety) of environment
(d) prevent the degradation (spoiling)of environment, and
(e) slow down the exploitation of the natural resources, so that the
future
generation can survive.

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 Engineers as experimenters have certain duties towards environmental ethics,
namely:
1.Environmental impact assessment: One major but sure and unintended effect of
technology is wastage and the resulting pollution of land, water, air . Study how the
industry and technology affects the environment.
2. Establish standards: Study and to fix the tolerable and actual pollution levels.
3.Counter measures: Study what the protective or eliminating measures are
available for immediate implementation
4.Environmental awareness: Study on how to educate the people on environmental
practices, issues, and possible remedies.

Disasters
1. Plastic Waste Disposal
In our country, several crores of plastic bottles are used as containers for water and oil,
and plastic bags are used to pack different materials ranging from vegetables to gold
ornaments. Hardly any of these are recycled. They end up in gutters, roadsides, and
agricultural fields. In all these destinations, they created havoc. The worse still is the
burning of plastic materials in streets and camphor along with plastic cover in temples,
since they release toxic fumes and threaten seriously the air quality. Cities and
local administration have to act on this, collect and arrange for recycling through
industries. G.C.Yadavannavar 4
 2. e-Waste Disposal
The parts of computers and electronic devices which have served its useful life
present a major environmental issue for all the developing countries including India.
This scrap contains highly toxic elements such as lead, cadmium, and mercury.

The toxic chemical agents such as mercury, arsenic, and cadmium retain toxicity
unending for ever.
But these scraps are illegally imported by dishonesty agencies to salvage some
commercially valuable inputs. Instead of spending and managing on the scrap,
unethical organizations sell them to countries such as India
This is strictly in violation of the Basel Convention of the United Nations
Environment Program, which has banned the movement of hazardous waste.

A recent report of the British Environment Agency, has revealed that the discarded computers,
television sets, refrigerators, mobile phones, and electrical equipments have been dispatched
to India and Pakistan in large quantity, for ultimate disposal in environmentally- unacceptable
ways and at great risk to the health of the labour.

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3. Industrial Waste Disposal
There has been a lot of complaints through the media, on
(a) against the Sterlite Copper Smelting Plant in (1997) against its pollution, and
(b) when Indian companies imported the discarded French Warship Clemenceau for
disposal, the poisonous asbestos compounds were expected to pollute
the atmosphere besides exposing the labor to a great risk, during the disposal.
The government did not act immediately. Fortunately for Indians, the French
Government intervened and withdrew the ship, and the serious threat was averted!
Human-centered Environmental Ethics

This approach assumes that only human beings have only moral worth duly to be taken
care of.
Other living being and ecosystems are only instrumental in nature..
Most of the goods are engineered products made out of natural resources.
Human beings have also
(c) recreational interests (enjoy leisure through mountaineering, sports, and pastimes),
(d) aesthetic interests (enjoy nature as from seeing waterfalls and snow-clad
mountains)
c) scientific interests to explore into nature or processes, and
(d) a basic interest to survive, by preservation as well as conservation of nature and
natural resources.

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The eco-balance is the need of the hour and the engineers are the right
experimenters to achieve this.

COMPUTER ETHICS

Computer ethics is defined as

(a) study and analysis of nature and social impact of computer technology,
(b) formulation and justification of policies, for ethical use of computers.

This subject has become relevant to the professionals such as designers of computers,
programmers, system analysts, system managers, and operators.

The use of computers have raised a host of moral concerns such as free
speech, privacy, intellectual property right, and physical as well as mental harm.

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 T ypes of Issues
Different types of problems are found in computer ethics
1. Computer as the Instrument of Unethical Acts
(a)The usage of computer replaces the job positions. This has been overcome to a
large extent by readjusting work assignments, and training everyone on
computer applications such as word processing, editing, and graphics.
(b)Breaking privacy. Information or data of the individuals accessed or erased or
the ownership changed.
(c)Defraud a bank or a client, by accessing and withdrawing money from other’s
bank account
2. Computer as the Object of Unethical Act

(a)Hacking :The software is stolen or information is accessed from other computers. This
may cause financial loss to the business or violation of privacy rights of the individuals or
business
(b)Spreading virus ; Through mail or otherwise, other computers are accessed and the files are
erased or contents changed altogether. ‘Trojan horses’ are implanted to distort the messages
and files beyond recovery

(c)Health hazard: The computers pose threat during their use as well as during
disposal
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3. Problems Related to the Autonomous Nature of Computer

(a) Security risk

(b)Loss of human lives: Risk and loss of human lives lost by computer, in the
operational control of military weapons.

There is a dangerous instability in automated defense system.

An unexpected error in the software or hardware or a conflict during interfacing
between the two, may trigger a serious attack and cause irreparable human loss
before the error is traced.

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Computers In Workplace
The ethical problems started by computers in the workplace are:
1.Elimination of routine and manual jobs -This leads to unemployment, but the creation of
skilled and IT-enabled service jobs are more advantageous for the people. For example, in
place of a typist, we have a programmer or an accountant
2.Health and safety-The ill-effects due to electromagnetic radiation, especially on women and
pregnant employees, mental stress, wrist problem known as Carpel Tunnel Syndrome, and
backpain due to poor ergonomic seating designs, and eye strain due to poor lighting and
flickers in the display and long exposure, have been reported worldwide.
3. Computer failure -Failure in computers may be due to errors in the hardware or software.
Hardware errors are rare and they can be solved easily and quickly. But software errors are
very serious as they can stop the entire network

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 Computer Crime

The ethical features involved in computer crime are

1. Physical Security
computers are to be protected against theft, fire, and physical damage
2. Logical security

The aspects related are

(a) the privacy of the individuals or organizations,
(b) confidentiality,
(c) integrity, to ensure that the modification of data or program are done only by
the authorized persons,
(d) uninterrupted service.
(e) protection against hacking that causes dislocation or distortion

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ENGINEERS AS MANAGERS

The characteristics (role) of engineers as managers are:

1. Promote an ethical climate, through framing organization policies,
responsibilities and by personal attitudes and obligations.
2. Resolving conflicts, by evolving priority, developing mutual
understanding,
generating various alternative solutions to problems.
3. Social responsibility to stakeholders, customers and employers. They act to
develop wealth as well as the welfare of the society.
Ethicists project the view that the manager’s responsibility
is only to increase the profit of the organization,
and only the engineers have the responsibility to protect
the safety, health, and
welfare of the public.

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CODE OF ETHICS
The Codes of Ethics promote and sustain the ethical environment and assist in
achieving the ethical goals in the following manner:

1. It creates an environment in a profession, where ethical behavior is the basic

criteria
2. It guides and reminds the person as to how to act, in any given situation.
3. It provides support to the individual, who is being pressurized or tortured by
a
superior or employer, to behave unethically.
4. Apart from professional societies, companies and universities have framed their
own codes of ethics, based on the individual circumstances and specific mission of
the organisations.

These codes of conduct help in employees’ awareness of ethical issues, establish,

and nurture a strong corporate ethical culture.

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Assignment -2
1. list the situations when moral dilemmas arise
2. Define corporate responsbility & corporate accountability
3. State the specific virtues relating to honesty
4. Why do people behave unethically
5. Explain the difficulties in solving moral problems
6. Define profession, professional, professionalism
7. Explain the pre-conventional level of moral development
8. What is meant by professional responsibility
9. Explain the terms autonomy & authority
10. Why and how do moral problems arise in a profession

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