Are Health and Safety rules too safe?
Health and Safety rules are getting more and more ridiculous. With more and more rules making living harder it is impossible not to breach Health and Safety rules.
Workplaces are even showing employees how to make tea and coffee without the risk of an accident! This is insane! And of course, it is all to do with companies getting sued. Accidents can sometimes be prevented, but not always. Hence why it is called an accident.
Even manufacturers have jumped on the H&S bandwagon and brought out sensor hand sanitizers so you don’t have to touch the pump on the top. Now to me this is just stupid, it would make no difference if the top is touched or not because surely the doors, or items you touch before you wash your hands would already have the bacteria transferred to them. So what difference does it make? What are you supposed to do? Wash all the door handles and anything else you are likely to have touched after you wash your hands?
And what is up with the H&S in schools? Conkers, for example, children can’t play conkers these days, unless they are wearing protective eyewear, in case they break and hit someone in the eye. What are the chances of that happening?
When I was at school, if you fell over due to someone leaving something on the floor, you got back up, got Elastoplasts stuck on your knee and got on with it. These days’ children can’t even play on a park if there is a chance they could fall over and injure themselves. THEY’RE CHILDREN! Of course they are going to fall over and injure themselves, everyone has done it, it’s part of growing up.
Next they will be telling us that when we handle paper we must wear gloves to reduce the risks of paper cuts. Or that we must test the temperature of our hot drinks before drinking in case we burn ourselves. Whatever!
The no-win, no-fee adverts on TV are what really annoy me the most. The one where the woman falls over the plastic ribbon in the warehouse is the most annoying one, should she have not been looking where she was going? And the one where the man uses the wrong ladder to install the burglar alarm, surely he should have used his common sense and thought “this is the wrong ladder for the job therefore I am not going to risk it just in case I injure myself” and get the appropriate ladder? It’s not rocket science. Ok, the advert where the woman is walking through reception and slips on the wet floor, is a little more believable but was there any need for the advert to claim that she got £35,000 for her knee injury? Seriously? I mean how many of us have fallen over because we have slipped on a wet floor? Supermarkets/ businesses would be bankrupt if they got sued every time someone slipped, especially if it is raining. I have slipped on the wet floor at home, does that mean I am therefore able to sue my parents? Its crazy!
Jennifer Allan
