‘Ealth & Safety Gone Mad…

The myth

We know it has, we have heard it down the pub, on the bus, in the shops. "'ealth and safety has gone mad mate". Can't have a conker fight in school, can't put up hanging baskets in the park, can't blow your nose without some officious idiot with a clipboard putting a stop to it because it is in breach of health and safety regulations. No risk assessment – no fun.

Leaving aside the fact that many newspaper reports of health and safety overkill are simply untrue and a recycling of popular myths, it might just be worth taking a moment to look at the Health & Safety Executive Annual Statistics, published in July each year.

Deaths at work

Did you know that last year 144 people were killed during the course of their work? Quite a lot of families with no husband, no father, no main breadwinner (and before you raise an accusation of sexism, 96% of all fatalities at work were male).