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Health and safety

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Following on from some other posts where health and safety has been discussed, has this issue gone too far? Do these people think we are incapable of doing basic things?
An example came through the door today. Mrs777's 16 year old son does a newspaper round, and has done for quite a while now. With his pay slip today there was a leaflet called " distributor...Health and safety guidelines ". In this leaflet there are things like,Road safety. One example they are telling you to do is," where there is a pavement use it! Where there is no pavement, walk on the right hand side of the road to face the traffic coming towards you ".
Another example is called, when it's dark. " Always wear bright clothing when delivering at night or when the weather is bad ".
It then goes on about parked cars. There is even a description on the green cross code! :shock:
It then goes on about manual handling guidelines! :shock: Most of the time adults are delivering these papers. Do they really think that people do not know this kind of thing already? Or are they covering their arses over the right to blame and claim?
Has this health and safety milarky now gone over the top with even the basic common sense things being told to us, as we are obviously not old enough to already know these things? :shock:
Are we being treated like children with no sense at all? Or do they feel we are incapable of being sensible and adult?
The central thing to H&S is risk assessment, The law requires us to document the SIGNIFICANT FINDINGS. Not the fact that you should walk on pavements not the road for example. That comes under common knowledge - something any reasonable person should be expected to know from their experiences in life. Under law this is not something we need to write a procedure for.
The issue comes where judges make daft decisions and then it sets a precedent. So people start to sue. So companies get scared of litigation and start to document everything, insignificant findings and all.
So yes, imho H&S sometimes does go too far BUT it isn't the safety officer who has made it that way - it's the money grubbing scum who take advantage of the system!!
Quote by Tiger_lily
The central thing to H&S is risk assessment, The law requires us to document the SIGNIFICANT FINDINGS. Not the fact that you should walk on pavements not the road for example. That comes under common knowledge - something any reasonable person should be expected to know from their experiences in life. Under law this is not something we need to write a procedure for.
The issue comes where judges make daft decisions and then it sets a precedent. So people start to sue. So companies get scared of litigation and start to document everything, insignificant findings and all.
So yes, imho H&S sometimes does go too far BUT it isn't the safety officer who has made it that way - it's the money grubbing scum who take advantage of the system!!

Of which there seems to be many!! :shock: :shock:
Oh trust me...there are!!!!
how about ,,,,,is sex bad for u????
should u stand ? or is that bad for yr legs
should u lay? or is that bad for ye back...
living in london is suppose to be un healthy.
was on news last yr that living in london was equivalent to smoking 15 cigs a day.....
even the birds in london r vanishing....
but they hush that under carpet...
Quote by twos_company
even the birds in london r vanishing....
but they hush that under carpet...

That's probably cos the birds cant afford to live there rolleyes
Quote by woohoo

even the birds in london r vanishing....
but they hush that under carpet...

That's probably cos the birds cant afford to live there rolleyes
Nobody can afford to live there anymore! :shock: Then again I would not want to anyways. London is a dirty smelly capital anyways. lol
When I went up to London a few months back, it just looked like it really needed a serious coat of paint. Not the grey colour it seemed to be.
I'd love top sit in on some of the meetings that discuss the literature fliers etc. I'm sure sky tv could dedicate a whole channel to 'Health and safety executive meetings' then have maybe phone in polls on the most ridiculous stuff coming up. Followed by Trinny and Suzanne coming in to do a job on them. Could get Harry Hill to host it, though his collars would have to be made safe first!
Quote by Lost
I'd love top sit in on some of the meetings that discuss the literature fliers etc.

I have sat in on meeting where we have discussed if we should put "shall do x" or "will do." Mind numbingly bad.
I think many companies & small businesses have to make it their mission to promote employee & if need be public health and safety just to satisfy liability insurance especially in the light of any possible lawsuits.
Once the can demonstrate that they have done all they can within reason, anyone seeking a legal compensation will any payouts restricted or voided
Right or wrong it's the world we live in.
I'm supposed to do a course on how to use a ladder.
Should take all of 30 seconds.
1. climb up ladder
2. climb down ladder
3. don't fall off ladder.
H&S, piece of piss realy :thumbup:
Someone nailed it on the head with the statement "common knowledge". This is because there is no such thing as common sense.
When people are born they do not know that fire burns, they are told or they stick their fingers in and get burnt. This experience then becomes common knowledge. So unless someone is told or they carry out an experience they will never have this knowledge. Chris Tarrant, on Who Wants to be a Millionaire, always says "It is only easy if you know the answer". How are people going to know the answers? By having guidance issued by the respective organisations or institutes.
The example used here, of paperboys and newspaper workers, was widely consulted to the respective organisations. They decided what should be in it, then it was published free by the HSE.
So is there a load of H&S bods hidden away dreaming up all of this? It is the industries themselves that are trying to get good practice out to their members, so they can enjoy life without work affecting them.
Is it "going over the top?". Only to those that know......those that do not know appreciate being told how to do things that will not result in a permanent injury to them.
As I said in another thread, it is usually the lazy that blame H&S because they do not want to do it right......so look for a scapegoat. H&S legislation is there to try to reduce the number killed at work approx 240 and to reduce the 140,000 seriously injured.
Dave_Notts
I work for an itsy bitsy charidee in an even itsier bitsier project.
One of the new members of staff was whinging because we didn't employ a cleaner. She felt it was beneath her to clean when she was rota'd to do it, so complained on the grounds of health and safety and felt that the '......and any ad hoc duties' wasn't relevant in her contract.
I compiled a full health and safety risk assessment for her to do every aspect of the cleaning ensuring I covered CoSHH.
Ahhh, the pleasure in watching her suiting up and cleaning the toilets. It made my year.
:twisted:
I think that protecting employees and employer is vital. Many lives have been saved by implementing measures brought about by vigilance around H&S.
Many place are worried about people being litigious. That is the way of the world. I know that I wasn't going to allow my budget to be diverted to pay for someone to do something that I had more than enough staff to do. (I was also rota'd to clean)
I compiled the risk assessment with the help of HR and the other members of the team who didn't want her to 'get away with it'
Job done.
Quote by splendid_
I work for an itsy bitsy charidee in an even itsier bitsier project.
One of the new members of staff was whinging because we didn't employ a cleaner. She felt it was beneath her to clean when she was rota'd to do it, so complained on the grounds of health and safety and felt that the '......and any ad hoc duties' wasn't relevant in her contract.
I compiled a full health and safety risk assessment for her to do every aspect of the cleaning ensuring I covered CoSHH.
Ahhh, the pleasure in watching her suiting up and cleaning the toilets. It made my year.
:twisted:
I think that protecting employees and employer is vital. Many lives have been saved by implementing measures brought about by vigilance around H&S.
Many place are worried about people being litigious. That is the way of the world. I know that I wasn't going to allow my budget to be diverted to pay for someone to do something that I had more than enough staff to do. (I was also rota'd to clean)
I compiled the risk assessment with the help of HR and the other members of the team who didn't want her to 'get away with it'
Job done.

Risk assessment for cleaning a toilet? :shock: Maybe H and S should say " do not put hand down the toilet and pull the chain " might lose your arm. :shock: Or do not scrub too hard as you may get a wrist strain! :shock:
As this is all common sense, where are peoples brains? Up their arses? lol Am glad I do not have to do a risk assessment to ride me motorbike, I would never get further than 10 yards. :lol:
What a mad country we live in.....people always trying to beat the system...and the horrid thing is, the law allows them too. :shock:
HS&E legislation ends up with fully grown, perfectly sensible adults being treated like idiot children.
I prefer to use a craft knife to sharpen my pencil and have done for years. Our building manager spotted my knife and said I couldn't have it in case I cut myself.
FFS I am 43 years old, I have been using knives safely for 30 years. The odd cut is MY responsibility. If that little pip-squeak thinks I am going to pretend I am that idiot child, she has another thing coming. I still have the knife in the pot on my desk and use it as needed.
I hope they try to force me to get rid of it - I plan to take them to the appropriate tribunal and claim they are damaging my human rights to be treated as a competent adult, that they are defaming my character and anything else I can think of under the current legislation. HUH.
Rant over biggrin
HS&E legislation ends up with fully grown, perfectly sensible adults being treated like idiot children.
I prefer to use a craft knife to sharpen my pencil and have done for years. Our building manager spotted my knife and said I couldn't have it in case I cut myself.
FFS I am 43 years old, I have been using knives safely for 30 years. The odd cut is MY responsibility. If that little pip-squeak thinks I am going to pretend I am that idiot child, she has another thing coming. I still have the knife in the pot on my desk and use it as needed.
I hope they try to force me to get rid of it - I plan to take them to the appropriate tribunal and claim they are damaging my human rights to be treated as a competent adult, that they are defaming my character and anything else I can think of under the current legislation. HUH.
Good post, I guess if your manager makes an issue of it then you could ask him how your meant to sharpen your pencils? If then he says with a pencil sharpener. Say, "whats one of those"
Then go on to say it might be just as well to find a suitable 'the using and handling of small office stationary' course.
If then he says there is no such course. Then start one up and tell him you'll charge £300:00 to take and teach each member of staff exposed to these dangerous items for half a day in works time. You could sweeten the offer by saying theres coffee and biscuits included.
Really though how absurd.
Dave_notts, Though I agree with the aims of the HSE it does go far beyond the learned experience thing in reality. I believe that what happens is that the work becomes self perpetuating and then slowely becomes a farce of its own making.
Its all well and good for the HSE to try and stop deaths and injuries in the workplace, of course it is. Once this is done then fine it just becomes prevention of smaller and smaller accidents and it goes on and on and on. Where does it stop? when everyone is issued with gloves to use the taps in an office tea making facility to stop the possibility of cross contamination?
The following says it all too me:-
On Tayside, the NHS has issued guidelines on how to use the bathroom. A four-page leaflet, entitled Good Defecation Dynamics has been published in Dundee. It gives advice on the safest way to sit on the toilet.
:shock: We're talking shit people - Unbelivable
Well i work on the railway where health and saftey is a strong issue..
Well if anyone has used the train in the day .you might have caught sight of the worker in the orange overalls and white hats..
Well have have been told at work that if we are caught three times on the tracks without the wihte helmets on,there is a chance we will lose our jobs..
Yes i know they are there to stop us getting head injuries..
Well i work perm nights and when i'm working there are no trains running,
As part of my job i have to do a lot of digging,has anyone every tryed keeping hat on when they are bending over all the time..
you would spoend most of the time trying to keeping the hardhat on..and you never know you could do something to your back bending over to pick the hat up (so please tell me where is the saftey in that )....
Payslip for a paper-round?
What's the world coming to?
lp
Quote by __random_orbit__
Payslip for a paper-round?
What's the world coming to?
lp

Oh no we can't have that now can we, no! From now on it will be rubberised and called a paynon-slip biggrin
Ha!
Risk-Assess that!
the risk involved in fluctuating heart rate when Deductions are totaled
lp
as an aside:
Recently I had to write a whole bunch of environmental risk assessments
I was extremely tempted to simply cut & paste the lot with:
Should you damage yourself, others or property performing these actions, you are truely stupid and will be presnted with you P45 immediately
Quote by __random_orbit__
as an aside:
Recently I had to write a whole bunch of environmental risk assessments
I was extremely tempted to simply cut & paste the lot with:
Should you damage yourself, others or property performing these actions, you are truely stupid and will be presnted with you P45 immediately

Don't you just wish you could!
And Villains you'll probably appreciate this then....
'track workers at Wimbledon rail depot being issued with 500ml bottles of SPF30 suncream to be applied at all times'.
Fair enough you think to yourself....
The workers in question are on permanent night shifts.
my job..involves doing risk assesments...its very much about covering arse. There are companies now out there that speicialise in law suits should an accident occur. Don't know if you saw other day a guy slipped on a grape in M&S and is sueing them for 300k !!!
all risk assessment is common sence, but how many times do we see people ignoring that. How many time have you seen people takeing chances, that they shouldn't. Companies have to protect themselves from the stupidity of their own employees.
Quote by thevillians
Well have have been told at work that if we are caught three times on the tracks without the wihte helmets on,there is a chance we will lose our jobs..
Yes i know they are there to stop us getting head injuries..
Well i work perm nights and when i'm working there are no trains running,
As part of my job i have to do a lot of digging,has anyone everytryed keeping hat on when they are =bending over all the time..
you would spoend most of the time trying to keep hat on..and you never know you could do something to your back bending over to pick the hat up (so please tell me where is the saftey in that )....

I have a horrible feeling this is one of my pet hates...
When you do a Risk Assessment you put processes in place that reduce the risk - obvious. If the risk isn't reduced the process is pointless.
Now I don't understand your job so I am guessing here. But is the hard hat to protect you if you got hit by a train? Cos if so.....a train is quite heavy. You get hit, you're going to be quite squashed. And the hats cost, what - £10-15 a piece? Perhaps 20 blokes? At least one hat provided each year?
Unless you have teams working over head and there is a significant risk of falling tools and debris - what a waste of money...
While most companies moan about the short-term cost of health and safety, very few consider the long-term cost to the employee. And, it must be said; most companies vision of health and safety is of minimising the risk to themselves of a compensation claim.
I promise not to mention the several hundred people who die each year due to (mostly avoidable) accidents, or the several tens of thousands who die each year of illness/disease due to exposure to various substances at work. The substances also include dust, which may turn out to be the largest killer.
As for ladders, the bulk of injuries on building sites are "fall from height". Hence, ladder training. You would be amazed at the amount of people who fall from ladders because they were not secured or were used on unsafe surfaces (such as mud)
Most training used to be "this is how you should do it, if you do it any other way it's your fault" but following a few cases where that philosophy was challenged, employers now have to ensure that proper procedures are in place to ensure that the work is done in a safe manner....ie: how they were trained to do it.
Cleaners: they particularly need some training. Most "cleaning products" contain components that are just a bit dangerous. Lots contain, in the instructions, phrases like "do not mix with other cleaning products", as if cleaners read them !
Mixing bleach with many other products generates chlorine gas. In the quantities used in general, it causes few problems. Generated in, for instance, a toilet it will be an acute annoyance causing nose and mouth irritation and eventually respiratory problems. Note: No antidote exists for chlorine exposure. Treatment consists of removing the chlorine from the body as soon as possible and providing supportive medical care in a hospital setting.
And Finally:
My sister in law did some cleaning in pubs. She was hospitalised after having mixed chemicals & injested the fumes- so you're right JTS, it does happen.
Control of Substances Hazardous to Health
lp
Quote by JTS
While most companies moan about the short-term cost of health and safety, very few consider the long-term cost to the employee. And, it must be said; most companies vision of health and safety is of minimising the risk to themselves of a compensation claim.
I promise not to mention the several hundred people who die each year due to (mostly avoidable) accidents, or the several tens of thousands who die each year of illness/disease due to exposure to various substances at work. The substances also include dust, which may turn out to be the largest killer.
As for ladders, the bulk of injuries on building sites are "fall from height". Hence, ladder training. You would be amazed at the amount of people who fall from ladders because they were not secured or were used on unsafe surfaces (such as mud)
Most training used to be "this is how you should do it, if you do it any other way it's your fault" but following a few cases where that philosophy was challenged, employers now have to ensure that proper procedures are in place to ensure that the work is done in a safe manner....ie: how they were trained to do it.
Cleaners: they particularly need some training. Most "cleaning products" contain components that are just a bit dangerous. Lots contain, in the instructions, phrases like "do not mix with other cleaning products", as if cleaners read them !
Mixing bleach with many other products generates chlorine gas. In the quantities used in general, it causes few problems. Generated in, for instance, a toilet it will be an acute annoyance causing nose and mouth irritation and eventually respiratory problems. Note: No antidote exists for chlorine exposure. Treatment consists of removing the chlorine from the body as soon as possible and providing supportive medical care in a hospital setting.
And Finally: Compensation

Is that not the very reason why you wear rubber gloves when cleaning? :shock:
If people fall from ladders because of their negligence, then tough shit. If an individual is incompetent then that is their problem. But if an employer is negligent and an employee gets injured then that is another story completly.
The H and S laws are quite clear in that employees are responsible for their safety as well as employers!If people fail to follow basic common sense guidelines by that I mean use their brain on occasions, and then injure themselves then really they only have their own silly selves to blame.
Still we have to keep the litigation firms in business who make large sums of money out of personal injury claim issues.
This is quite funny though. My local Asda has a large main door which is automated as you walk up to it to open. On Sunday night the mat inside the door was replaced. On Monday morning the new mat became a bit loose and somebody tripped on it. Not injured though. So after that they closed the main doors and opened an emergency door to allow people in. About 3 hours later some moron could not see the main doors were shut and because the glass was so clean, walked straight into it. After he picked himself up he then demanded to see the manager and then promptly said he was ringing a solicitor up. When asked why he stated " I walked into the glass door because I thought it was open as the glass was too clean " ! :shock:
What a pratt! lol No doubt he will be awarded half a million quid, and a new house. :lol:
Yes, I know all about COSHH.
So do most employers.
Most pay no attention to the regulations.
As a matter of fact, in an industrial situation (and cleaning is that) it is required for the supplier of the product, to enclose with the product the MSDS (manufacturers safety data sheet), and for the EMPLOYER to pass that onto the OPERATIVE. As if that ever happens much.
The regulations are quite specific: The employee receives training, the employee does the task using that training, and the employer is required to see that he/she does use it.
The employee is not only required to protect his/her H&S but also to ensure that others who may be affected by his/her work are also protected.
We have risk assessments to work-out the risk attached to the work.
We then have a method statement to state how the work should be done.
We do not give a cleaner bleach and then a pair of gloves, alone they are useless. Once we have sorted-out that there is a risk attached to using bleach (sodium hyperchlorite) (generation of chlorine when mixed with other products, specifically acids such as hydrochloric acid used in other cleaners) we then look at whether we need to use bleach and what other, less harmful,. products would do the job.
Of course, we could go to the other extreme:
Bleach = chlorine when mixed with other products.
Bleach is harmful when ingested or in contact with skin.
Chlorine is harmful when ingested, inhaled or in contact with skin.
PPE required for that task....full body protection, head to toe and face. RPE to protect against inhalation of possible fumes.
The RPE would not be a simple face mask, but would need a more effective respirator because of the chlorine.
As for compensation, most claims are for a few thousand if that.
Over 70% of claims are never proceeded with (no win/no fee people need to live too, and claims that fail are a loser)
Maybe we should look at deaths from asbestos related (mainly work related) diseases ?
Over the next ten years more than 100,000 people will die from asbestos related diseases
Thousands more will die each year from other industrial diseases.
Over 200 from accidents, each year.
Maybe half of all road deaths can be counted as "industrial", in one way or another.
Yes, you can ignore 'elf 'n safety.
Most employers do !
HSE notice:
“Over one in three construction sites visited put the lives of workers at risk and operated so far below the acceptable standard that our inspectors served 395 enforcement notices and stopped work on 30% of the sites”, Geoffrey Podger, HSE’s Chief Executive said today.
This comes after HSE carried out over 1000 spot checks of refurbishment sites across Great Britain during February.
The HS&E stuff really falls into 2 areas.
Any organisation that employs or otherwise welcomes people into their vicinity must protect them from damage. Providing safe locations, equipment and materials. and they also have a responsibility to promote safety among those people. And this has made huge improvements to many industries - I would never take a way from that.
But when it comes down to it - organisations can only do so much.
Individuals have a primary responsibility to take care of themselves. Summarised as :
Look where you are putting any part of your body.
If you can't see into it, don't stick anything you treasure into it.
If you don't know how to do it - ASK.
Ask yourself - is it heavy, hot, cold, slippery, sharp, poisonous, electrically live? Act accordingly.
Would you let someone you love do this?
Companies spending money distributing leaflets on how to use toilets are wasting their time and money. And the courts make the situation worse allowing compensation claims when the person could have avoided the incident by simply looking where they were going.
That chap who slipped on the grape - in the car-park as I understand it - should have been given sympathy and then sent away with a reminder to get his glasses prescription checked.