had a bit of health and safety palava this year one of our main bosses has decided that when working under a car on a lift we have to wear a hard hat all fine until you look up to see what your doing and they fall of told wear them or sacked never heard of a car garage wearing hard hats before lol
If you work for one of the big boys (ATS) you're supposed to wear a hard hat and safety glasses when working under a vehicle on a lift.
Warning message within manual of my old T595. "Please do not attempt to disembark the vehicle while moving". You dont say? However as the wise sage Douglas Adams puts to us [h=1]“A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.”[/h]An astutely accurate observation of the human condition. For is it not obvious that there are those amongst us who are destined for an early and unnecessary visit to the after life or A&E? Thus some measures are required to help ensure their calamities are contained for the protection of us others otherwise innocently going about our business.
The problem with the H&S / Nanny-State culture in the UK is that it mitigates for stupidity. In years gone by stupid people did stupid things, and hence removed themselves from the gene-pool. This continued insistence that we must protect people from their own stupidity is actually lowering the average intelligence level... In a previous job, I noticed that when we did training on German ships they did not have all the protective guards and shields that British ones have. When I asked how they stopped people from touching dangerous equipment ( rotating shafts etc ) the answer was "we tell them not to" - this was accompanied by a quizzical look that implied "you would have to be stupid to want to do that anyway...". German television does not have any equivalent of the Jeremy Kyle Show – maybe these two things are connected ? ( And before anyone starts arguing – this post is not 100% serious ).
Going back to the OP - Fig, the school banning conkers has nothing whatsoever to do with health and safety law. It has everything to do with some stupid deputy-head teacher interpreting the law in a ridiculous way or just making things up... Probably, as has been said, because of a paranoia about being sued... Lots of people who know no better make up ridiculous stuff in the name of "health and safety". I have been involved in the Ten Tors event on Dartmoor for many years. You may remember that during the training for thge 2007 event a young girl was killed when she fell in a river. The teachers responsible for that team's safety had done a risk assesment on the safety of peanuts in the food the kids were carrying - in case one of them had a nut allergy - all in the name of "health and safety", but had not considered it necessary to do a risk assesment on crossing freezing rivers on Dartmoor. That's what happens when people have little or no knowledge, but think they know what they are doing... If they had any idea about health and safety they would not have been on the moor that weekend in the first place.
johnboy - if an employer wants you to wear a hard hat, and that hard hat falls off when you are working - then they have supplied the wrong hard hat, or failed to give you correct instructions on how to wear it. It is their resonsibility to supply the correct PPE. Theoretically if your hard hat falls off because it is not the right one for the job and you are injured because you are no longer wearing it the employer is liable. ( If you are not wearing it because you can't be bothered, then that is your fault ). I would suggest that a hard hat with a chin strap would solve the problem...
Unfortunately, you're in the hands of the weakest links, and "health and safety" isn't always on their mind....
Good point. So true:frown: JR45 - does that mean that we have to pander to the lowest common denominator every time, or simply ignore the H&S regs for every activity we carry out? People die as a result of their action, but nowadays people still die, but a whole bunch of other people go to prison for it. Is that progress..?
a friend involved in nhs maintanence was sent on a two day lift course.he thought he was going to learn for example what to do in extent of lift failure etc but instead learnt how to call the lift by using the button, how to enter the lift and how to push the correct button for the floor you want to go to.two days? apparently he was told someone had managed to hurt themselves and claimed as they wernt trained to use this complicated piece of machinery. I also remember when I was still in the fire service a trainer arriving and teaching the entire watch on how to lift a box.ffs. its all about passing the blame and arse covering. if some idiot requires being trained to use a lift then no mater what training they receive they will still manage to hurt themselves somewhere. the Darwin awards anyone?
Fig - I suggest a compromise, using common sense. Unfortunately, as many people will tell you, common sense isn't that common !
yep agree hard hat supplied is type you would mainly find on a building site and not really ideal for use when mainly needing to look up and no I don't work in big franchise company its a small charity based company doing mechanical based training with kids excluded from school
The mistake people make is trying to eliminate all risk. Unfortunately risk can never be zero, it should be about what constitutes an acceptable level of risk. It is a widely misunderstood topic.
I can't say that wearing a hi viz vest has ever felt like i'm being made to suffer... I work with large earthmoving equipment, 30+ tonne dumpers and dozers and up to 70 tonne excavators, i want to make sure the drivers can see me!
For a while I worked on the London Underground. I did all sorts of courses. How to use ladders. Fire safety, electrical safety. Plus a few i needed to access places. On one occasion i was denied access to a switch room I needed to survey. Full of relays etc. So there I was stood outside when the cleaner walked into the room to collect the mop and bucket that was kept in there. She did not need a permit. And we shall just raise our eyebrows at the use of such a room to cleaning implements. Anyhoo I, an honours degree educated engineer, of wit, charm and modesty had to do another fucking safety course. A simple task that would have taken 5 mins, turned into 2 weeks until I could get a place on a course on electrical safety. The content of which was mosty so fucking obvious that by the time it was halfway through, I wanted to throw myself under a train just to be contrary.
