EthicsBite™

The fertilizer plant explosion in West, Texas was tragic and unnecessary. It may also have been unethical.

Regulation of chemical plants in general has been hobbled. Nationally, congress has resisted more stringent regulation, a successful result of industry lobbying. Texas in particular has long resisted regulation, indeed prided itself on its hands-off business philosophy. It is very possible that no one, corporation or executive, will be charged with a violation of the law.

However, there is a profession, the engineering profession, whose members are bound by a professional code of ethics and are subject to state level regulation via boards of engineering that oversee the licensing process and activities of professional engineers.

Similar to CPAs, certain activities cannot be performed without an engineering license.  The supervision of the work of non-licensed personnel with an engineering degree is one such activity. Only a licensed engineer can certify the structural integrity of buildings and bridges. A firm that holds itself out to be an engineering firm must have a licensed engineer in order to make that assertion.

Licensed engineers in particular and professional engineers in general are called upon to uphold a code of ethics. In most states that code of ethics is closely based upon or actually is the code of ethics adopted by the National Society of Professional Engineers® (NSPE).

The Preamble to the NSPE Code of Ethics states in part:

“Engineering has a direct and vital impact on the quality of life for all people. Accordingly, the services provided by engineers require honesty, impartiality, fairness, and equity, and must be dedicated to the protection of the public health, safety, and welfare.”

The Code goes on to state its “Fundamental Canons.” The very first Fundamental Canon is “Hold paramount the safety, health and welfare of the public.”

We await further investigation to determine the last time an engineer signed off on plant maintenance, what was examined, what was observed and what records were kept.