Product Environmental, Health and Safety Standards

TC S372 Product Environmental, Health and Safety Standards is a five- credit, one-semester higher-level undergraduate course. It is one of the compulsory courses for the BSc/BSc (Hons) in Product Design, Testing and Certification Programme at Hong Kong Metropolitan University.

This course aims to provide you with a broad understanding of the various requirements set by national and international standards bodies in product environmental, health and safety (EHS) performance. The advisory prerequisites are SCI S319 Quality Management for Science and Technology, and SCI S409 Safety and Reliability for Science and Technology.

This course will provide you with a broad understanding of the various requirements set by national and international standards in product environmental, health and safety (EHS) performance. Design considerations and testing methodologies for ensuring compliance with these standards will be introduced. Case studies and practical laboratory sessions will be integrated into the course in order to consolidate your understanding of the underlying concepts and principles.

Aims

TC S372 aims to:

• Develop a broad understanding of the various requirements of national and international standards bodies in product environmental, health and safety performance.
• Introduce the design principles and testing methodologies for ensuring products' continual compliance with existing environmental, health and safety standards.
• Review existing and emerging quality management systems from the perspective of product environmental, health and safety performance.

Course learning outcomes

Upon completion of TC S372, you should be able to:

• Identify and apply the basic requirements for product environmental, health and safety performance.
• Analyse and apply the general principles for designing products to comply with environmental, health and safety standards.
• Categorize and select appropriate testing methods for product conformity with environmental, health and safety requirements.
• Categorize and compare national/international and industry-specific standards for product environmental, health and safety performance.
• Evaluate the environmental, health and safety compliances of commercial products based on product test results, and national/international and industry-specific standards.

The following table gives a general overview of the course structure. It suggests the amount of time you should allow for completing units and provides a broad schedule for you to plan your work. These times are intended as a guide only and should be adjusted to fit your personal needs more closely. You will need about 12–14 hours per week to work through the course. This estimation includes time for reading the units, completing activities, self-tests and assignments, attending tutorials and preparing for your final examination.

The course materials include a printed Course Guide, study units, online readings and an Assignment File. There will also be a lab manual for the practical laboratory sessions that you will take part in. You will not need other additional materials. However, you are recommended to read updates on product environmental, health and safety (EHS) standards and related issues on the Internet.

Materials

In addition to this Course Guide, the course has the following components.

Study units

This course includes the following five study units:

Unit 1 Product life cycle, standards and regulations

Unit 2 Product development for environmental compliance

Unit 3 Health issues related to product design and development

Unit 4 Product safety standards

Unit 5 An integrated approach to product development

Set textbook

Shina, S (2008) Green Electronics Design and Manufacturing: Implementing Lead-Free and RoHS Compliant Global Products, New York: McGraw-Hill.

Audiovisual materials/software

You will need access to a computer with Microsoft Windows XP/Vista/7 and an Internet browser.

Assignment File

The Assignment File (available on the Online Learning Environment, or OLE) provides you with guidelines for working on your assignments. You can refer to the section on assessment below, and to the Assignment File itself for more information.

Presentation Schedule

The Presentation Schedule is available on the OLE. It gives the dates for completing assignments, attending tutorials, surgeries, and laboratory sessions.

Selected websites

Online readings from selected websites are also assigned in this course.

Laboratory/practical sessions

Two three-hour laboratory sessions will be led by your tutor. Students will work in teams to complete various assigned tasks. An attendance record will be taken, and you are required to attend at least one session in order to pass the course. The exercises in these practical sessions will not be counted towards the final course award, but will aim to enhance your overall understanding of the knowledge acquired from the study units.

Assessment

Course assessment consists of two assignments and one final examination. In addition, you are required to attend at least one of the two practical laboratory sessions in order to pass the course. The exercises in the two practical sessions will not be counted towards the final award. Informal assessment such as self-assessed activities and self- tests are included throughout the course materials.

Assignments

There will be two assignments for this course. The first assignment will cover Units 1–3, and the second assignment will cover Units 3–5. Each assignment will count for 25% of the final assessment, thereby contributing 50% of the total grade for the course.

Assignment submission extension policy

The assignment policy of the University as stated in the Student Handbook should be observed. You are required to submit assignments for this course in accordance with the dates communicated by your Course Coordinator. You may apply for a submission extension on the grounds of illness, accident, disability, bereavement or other compassionate circumstances.

Applications for extensions of up to seven days should be submitted to the tutor. The tutor shall consider valid and unexpected emergencies on an individual basis. Normally, documented proof of the extenuating circumstances is not required for extensions of up to seven days. The tutor shall decide and advise you of the revised date for submission.

For extensions of over seven days, you should note the following:

1. If you require an extension of more than seven days on the grounds of illness, accident, disability, bereavement or other compassionate circumstances, you must complete an 'Application Form for Assignment Extension over Seven Days' and submit it to the Course Coordinator through the OLE.
2. Supporting documents must be submitted along with the application for extension of over seven days in order to justify the claim.
3. Applications for extension should normally be lodged before or on the due date.
4. Applications are considered by:
   a. the Course Coordinator, for extensions of 8 to 21 days; and
   b. the Dean, for extensions of over 21 days.

If the assignment is posted to the tutor, it is your responsibility to check that the assignment has successfully arrived (see Assignment File). Extension applications which lack supporting documents on the grounds of postal loss will not be accepted. The University cannot accept any responsibility for assignments that are not received by your tutor due to problems with the post. As a precaution, you are advised to keep a copy of each assignment you submit and obtain a certificate of posting from the post office when you post your assignment.

According to the University's policy, there will be no extension of the due date for the final assignment.

Final examination and grading

The final examination will be a two-hour closed book examination that accounts for 50% of the total course grade. It will cover all of the units. Emphasis will be placed on the assessment of your ability to apply the knowledge and techniques learned in this course, as well as your understanding of the concepts and principles behind them. You will receive a Specimen Examination Paper, which resembles the actual paper in style and format. There will be no trick questions on the examination paper. Remember that it is our intention to see that as many students as possible successfully complete the course.

Course marking scheme

The assessment items are outlined in the following table.

Remember that, in order to pass the course, you must attend at least one of the two laboratory sessions, as well as pass the assignments and the examination.

There are five units in total in this course. Each of the five units consists of three to five weeks of work, and includes directions for study, commentaries on the activities, and summaries of key concepts and techniques. The units direct you to work on self-test exercises and activities related to the material covered. They can both help you to gauge your progress and to reinforce your understanding of the material covered in the unit. More importantly, they give examples to help you fully understand the concepts presented in the text, and can assist you in applying these concepts and techniques in the working environment. Also, you can read standards and websites on related issues to keep pace with the latest developments.

Please note that the biggest temptation that students face when they are short of time is to just read the course materials. When students get to a learning activity or self-test, they flip straight to the back of the study unit to see the suggested answer. This saves time, and you will still know the correct answer, right? Wrong! Terribly wrong! Many contemporary educationists believe that learning is not a process that happens when people listen to a lecture or read a book passively. They think that learning takes place as people actively construct the knowledge. Do not take shortcuts that compromise your learning: Attempt the learning activities and self-tests presented in the study units.

When done properly, working with fellow students on difficult learning activities or assignments can be beneficial. However, doing so without acknowledging the contributions of other students in your own work is plagiarism. It has happened that, after enough cosmetic changes have been made, the act of cheating may not be caught by the tutor who is marking the assignment. But in this case, the student's learning will suffer, and this lack will show up in the final examination. Be an honest and virtuous student.

Tutors and tutorials

In addition to self-study, tutorials and regular surgeries will be held throughout the course. Tutorials will be based on the major course units, and tutors may also introduce further explanation, examples and readings. Full details are given in the Presentation Schedule.

Attendance at tutorials is optional, but you are urged to take advantage of them. You can get the most from tutorials by pre-studying the relevant materials, making comments and asking questions. Remember that learning does not happen passively. Your active participation in tutorials is crucial.

Compared to the mega-classes attended by hundreds of students in a typical university, the tutorials with 30 students or so at HKMU provide a good opportunity for you to meet your classmates and to get to know your tutor. You will find that support and encouragement from classmates and tutors are very helpful.

While you may think you are studying on your own, it doesn't need to be that way. You can keep in regular contact with your tutor and, once you've met for the first tutorial, you can maintain contact with your fellow students. Make a point, when you meet fellow students, to exchange phone numbers or email addresses. In this way, you will be well on the way to developing a learning network of your own.

Your assignments will be marked and commented on by your tutor, who will keep an eye on your progress and assist you if you encounter any problems during the course. Marked assignments will be returned to you as soon as possible. It is good practice to keep a copy of each assignment submitted for marking, so that you can always refer to queries with the tutor during discussion. Please contact your tutor should any of the following arise:

1. You do not understand any part of the study units or the assigned readings.
2. You experience some difficulty with self-tests.
3. You have a question or problem with the assignment, or with your tutor's comments on or grading of an assignment.

As mentioned in the previous section, there will be two laboratory sessions. You must attend at least one of these laboratory sessions. Otherwise, you will fail the course (even if you pass both the continuous assessment and the examination). Of course, we strongly encourage you to attend both laboratory sessions.

TC S372 is designed to help you develop a broad understanding of the existing and emerging product environmental, health and safety (EHS) standards. To succeed in this course, you will need to analyse the course materials and apply the underlying concepts. We hope you will find the course interesting and useful. We wish you an enjoyable learning experience.

Dr Kevin Hung

Dr Kevin Hung received his BSc degree in Electrical Engineering from Queen's University, Canada; and his MPhil and PhD degrees in Electronic Engineering (with specialization in biomedical engineering) from The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK). His research interests are medical instrumentations, medical devices, bio-signal processing, telehealth, medical device regulatory affairs, and engineering education. Prior to joining Hong Kong Metropolitan University as a lecturer in the Engineering Sciences Team, Dr Hung worked as an assistant project manager at a biomedical engineering research centre, where he coordinated projects involving the development and commercialization of novel medical devices; he also worked as an engineer in a medical device company and as a lecturer in a vocational institute. Dr Hung is a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), The Institute of Engineering and Technology (IET), and The Chinese Institute of Electronics (CIE). He was the chairman of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Hong Kong Chapter for 2009–2010.