Health and Safety gone mad

[rik_uk3]

A three part series has aired on BBC call “Top Dogs”

It follows:

Sir Robin knox-johnston
http://www.robinknox-johnston.co.uk/


John Simpson
http://news.bbc.co.uk/newswatch/ifs/hi/newsid_3230000/newsid_3237600/3237686.stm

Sir Ranulph Fiennes
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ranulph_Fiennes

On three adventures. However the BBC Health and Safety people had to go along and keep them safe. The risk assessment manual given each was as thick as a telephone directory. At one point they were going to light a gas cooker (camping type) and were told they could not unless it was supervised. A young lad came in to supervise and Sir Ranulph explained he should leave, but not that politely. They also had to do an Arctic survival course which I’m sure Sir Ranulph enjoyed

This together with a report that a motoring show could not film how to change a tyre unless two St.John’s first aiders and a Paramedic was in attendance made me feel like screaming

The world has gone mad. :AR15firin :AR15firin :AR15firin :AR15firin

 

[BOD]

Oh I don't know about that.

Given Sir Ran's propensity to get into trouble with fire and otherwise and he being digitally challenged perhaps having a minder along is not such a bad idea



Ash








p.s.H & S has gone overboard I agree

 

[Chainsaw]

Life's too short to let these things bug you too much...

Cheers,

Alan

 

[jojo]

I wonder how many trees have been chopped down to produce these worthy tomes

The Panorama program tonight, called may contains nuts is looking as to why H&S has become a "laughing Stock" nowadays. Should be amusing if nothing else.

Oh and when you're dead, make sure your gravestone is not too big and heavy, cos it could fall down on your head at night and hurt you..,

 

[EdS]

thing is most of the over jealous H&S stuff is not form HSE but put in companies and insurance companies to avoid been sued.

General advise / rulings from H&S are pretty much sensible (suprsingsly so for a gov. organisation)

 

[sapper1]

A true story of health and saftey.
Abus driver saw someone leap from a bridge into the path of his vehicle,he stopped safely 50 yards from the jumper made sure his passengers were safe then called the emergency services who arrived and pronounced the jumper dead.They then congratulated him for STOPPING SAFELY BEFORE HITTING THE JUMPER.
The company then suspended him for a week without pay and sent him back to driving school( where he was assesed by someone who couldn't even drive a bus,unlike the driver who has 30 accident free years under his belt) to ensure he was still safe to drive.
And the reason for this ?He was involved in an accident where a pedestrian died.
Yes ,the world has gone mad.

 

[xylaria]

6 years ago, my children used to go to a toddler group that was run by a local mum in the church hall. The day came where the mum retired and surestart took over. This toddler group had run without any serious incident for 15 years, we drank cups of tea, and on sunny days the kiddies played on the vicars lawn.

The first week of being run by sure start we told the cups of tea were dangerous and we had to drink them in the kitchen. The next week we were banned from the kitchen as the area hadn't cleared for use. A few weeks in we had a lovely day, so the parents decided to take the children to out to lawn. The infant school use this area for sports day BTW. But it wasn't good enough surestart, because there was weeds. The organiser pointed to what she thought was ragwort and said it was noxious plant that was poisonous to touch. Of course I tried to argue it is toxic if you are a horse that is eating it, but these were children, not farm workers pulling it up everyday for week. She was adamant that if a child touch this plant they would get blisters, and whole area was H&S risk. I reminded her that I have Cert in occupational health and safety, and that my house was around the corner i could get government published toxicology advise on ragwort, and field guide to show the plant in question was groundsel. It wasn't good enough she ushered us inside. I refused to go, and me and 2 other parents and 4 children went to nature reserve to look at the tadpoles.

The toddler group closed a few weeks later, but first they spent £1000 on safety guards for the radiators that had guards already, plug covers in rooms the children never went in, room thermometers, and children gates. The vicar was very grateful even if the organiser did complain to the bishop because the vicar smoked outside his own house, so was a bad influence on children.

 

[gregorach]

thing is most of the over jealous H&S stuff is not form HSE but put in companies and insurance companies to avoid been sued.

General advise / rulings from H&S are pretty much sensible (suprsingsly so for a gov. organisation)

Especially when you're talking about TV companies making programmes involving celebrities or other public figures.

 

[Kerne]

I am no fan of risk assessments - I have to write them all the time - but most of this H&S stuff comes about as a result of fear of litigation. If judges and others had a more commonsense approach then this sort of thing would not occur. It also pains me that the press who one day complain of H&S gone mad, will the next day demand tightening of regulations over something when an accident has occurred.

 

[firecrest]

6 years ago, my children used to go to a toddler group that was run by a local mum in the church hall. The day came where the mum retired and surestart took over. This toddler group had run without any serious incident for 15 years, we drank cups of tea, and on sunny days the kiddies played on the vicars lawn.

The first week of being run by sure start we told the cups of tea were dangerous and we had to drink them in the kitchen. The next week we were banned from the kitchen as the area hadn't cleared for use. A few weeks in we had a lovely day, so the parents decided to take the children to out to lawn. The infant school use this area for sports day BTW. But it wasn't good enough surestart, because there was weeds. The organiser pointed to what she thought was ragwort and said it was noxious plant that was poisonous to touch. Of course I tried to argue it is toxic if you are a horse that is eating it, but these were children, not farm workers pulling it up everyday for week. She was adamant that if a child touch this plant they would get blisters, and whole area was H&S risk. I reminded her that I have Cert in occupational health and safety, and that my house was around the corner i could get government published toxicology advise on ragwort, and field guide to show the plant in question was groundsel. It wasn't good enough she ushered us inside. I refused to go, and me and 2 other parents and 4 children went to nature reserve to look at the tadpoles.

The toddler group closed a few weeks later, but first they spent £1000 on safety guards for the radiators that had guards already, plug covers in rooms the children never went in, room thermometers, and children gates. The vicar was very grateful even if the organiser did complain to the bishop because the vicar smoked outside his own house, so was a bad influence on children.

Crazy!!
But I got to sympathise with the H&S woman though, they construct these jobs so that if anything does go wrong, she would get it in the neck, it means they wont take any risks, no matter how small.

 

[locum76]

Aye,

I think the BBC take it a bit far, I was listening to a show the other week where they had a guest explaining how to make chocolate cake in a cup with a microwave. apparently they had to have a fire safety expert there incase of fire. the presenter was totally taking the mick.

generally I personally think that risk assessments and health and safety are fine (I do a lot of risk assessments) and in the case of the toddler group, the Care Commission just like to put these measures in place to ensure due dilligence. Once you have shown that you have minised risk and have contingency plans for anything that goes wrong you can get on with all of the things you did before.

I also think anyone who says they have had to stop an activity because of 'elf and safety' should just being so bloody lazy, fill in the forms and get on with it.

one more thing, H and S should not be confused with poltical correctness, they are completely different issues.

regards

Rob

 

[British Red]

Spot on there firecrest & Kerne


It is the public and their reactions to events that drive both policy and behaviour.

In years gone by, kids did sport at school, got a broken bone, got carted to the hospital and mum picked them up. Jon Done.

Now mumsy wants to know who to sue.

Fall down? Sue the council
Operation goes wrong? Sue the hospital
Have road accident? Sue the other driver
Kid gets hurt? Sue anyone who was in charge at the time
Lose your job? Sue the employer

And so on ad nauseam

Its because people cannot accept the notion of "personal responsibility" any more.

Sure, in extreme cases of negligence someone may be responsible. But most things in life should be filed under "sh1t happens"

 

[NatG]

i was told at work that the scraper blade made out of an old stanley knife was to be thrown away- apparently it's dangerous. Obviously much more dangerous than the mills, lathes, surface grinder, welding bays etc.

 

[xylaria]

Crazy!!
But I got to sympathise with the H&S woman though, they construct these jobs so that if anything does go wrong, she would get it in the neck, it means they wont take any risks, no matter how small.

She wasn't a H&S woman, she was a surestart delevopment worker, I was more trained in H&S than she was. As it was toddler group it doesn't come under care commisson/ofsted guidelines as the parents are present. Personally I think it was part of a dark agenda hidden in surestarts socail engineering objectives. A private child care company set up within weeks of the toddler group closing, they got a government set up grant that must of took months to process. I sat on the board of surestart, scary stuff.

 

[Sainty]

Whilst I agree that we should all take responsibility for our own actions, I must say that there is a general principal of English law that says that we have duty of care to all those we 'interact' with.

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duty_of_care_in_English_law

I have worked in the glass trade for nearly 25 years. In those days, people used to die through accidents at work and it was a near weekly occurrence for someone to be carted off to hospital with some injury that required many stitches or for glass to removed from someone's eye. No one used to wear gloves, wrist protection, hard hats or eye protection.

Health and safety legislation and regulation has reduced these 'accidents' from common place to rare. No one should have to risk their health/life unnecessarily when they go to work or go to play.

Don't get me wrong, some of these things still drive me up the wall but mainly when someone elses health & safety is involved.

I have to confess that I was infuriated at having to do a 'safe working method statement' the other day but when you consider that it was for a team of guys to install glass weighing 120kg per piece up the sides of an unguarded staircase that rose 4 floors up through a building with a 12 meter fall from the top level, it was as much for my protection as for theirs because if anything went wrong and someone got killed, it would be me who was up in court for corporate manslaughter!!!

So, on balance, I am all for the health and safety culture. I would sooner jump through a few hoops than to have to make or receive the call which says that your son/daughter/husband/wife has been killed as the result of an avoidable accident.

Martin

 

[Scots_Charles_River]

We still use razor sharp chisels every day and machines at school, we just teach how to use them safely. Adapting a dynamic risk assessment that is 'live', avoids paperwork and provides a safe environment.

Nick

 

[wingstoo]

http://www.hse.gov.uk/myth/

Perhaps a read of the Health and Safety Executives "Myths" pages will clarify who is being over sensitive.

 

[Draven]

http://www.hse.gov.uk/myth/

Perhaps a read of the Health and Safety Executives "Myths" pages will clarify who is being over sensitive.

As EdS said, it ain't normally the HSE that people complain about, it's companies and their own H&S rules. But the fact that the legal system allows such ludicrous H&S lawsuits to even come to court is enough reason to contest it.

 

[andywinkk]

Can i say that i think health and safety is great

I sell hivis and safety products so hooray for health and safety i love it