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Occupational Health And Safety Training

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In one small UK village, the local market hall clock winders have been doing their job for over 150 years and have now been told it's dangerous and they must stop. Without the appropriate health and safety training or aids, an accident could happen and somebody could be held liable. So, what is the problem? Are the clock winders concerned for their safety? Is winding the clock beyond the realms of the clock winders job description?

Winding this clock has been the job of the family for five generations. It involves climbing through a narrow hatch and onto the roof of the building and, the current winder admits, is a little precarious. However, in all the years this has been going on, not one accident has occurred. The family see that the potential for danger is there but what is life without a little danger? Why take away the traditions of a family, indeed of a whole town, simply because the health and safety training is not in place?

This isn't a job that you do for money - the current winder earns 8 pounds a week - this is a job that is done for the love of it, to keep tradition alive. The local council now want the clock mechanised to allow for winding at the push of a button. I hardly think that will bring the same satisfaction.

Another gem from the health and safety department, is that of making Santa wear a seatbelt on a sleigh that manages five miles an hour when it does it's annual trips around the local town. For these trips, refer to promotional activity and not the actual delivery of presents as this requires lightening speeds, not five miles an hour. Without the seatbelt, a further 200 pounds will be added to the insurance of an enigma that manages to travel the world in a single night, delivering his goods, with a completely clean insurance record and no health and safety training.

Still, if he were to have an accident, he could always recover in hospital. That said, he wouldn't be allowed any get well cards as these have now been banned under the guise of health and safety regulations. All because hospitals cannot guarantee that the cars will not carry germs. Flowers have already been banned on many wards due to the continuous spread of infections such as MRSA. Surely, they would be better off spending money on health and safety training that incorporated the necessity of not wearing nursing uniforms between home and hospital, that involved the uniforms being cleaned and sterilised by an outside source and of the wards being cleaned more efficiently.

They surely seem to be overlooking the obvious. Flowers and cards have always been allowed in hospitals. They go a long way to cheering up the patient and we all know that mind over matter, as well as improved mood, is a huge issue when it comes to healing. Many years ago, get well cards were permitted into hospitals and people did not die of superbug infections. Only when hospital cleanliness when to outside contractors and was reduced due to lack of funding, did we start experiencing these ills. It doesn't take a brain surgeon to work out that it's not the cards that are the problem.

At least if the Government have their way, there will be less and less people in hospital. Just how do they hope to achieve this? Better education, better preventative medicine? Not quite. They have reduced the holes in salt shakers in chip shops from seventeen to five to try and discourage people from having so much salt on their food. Too much salt contributes towards many health issues and this is the move that the Government wish to take, due to our inability to either decide for ourselves how much is too much or even to add more from less holes!

Occupational Health And Safety Training

There are chestnut trees that the council cannot plant due to the fact that conkers may fall on somebody. And, god forbid, children should find any conkers, they are not allowed to play the good old fashioned conker game that we all remember so well because they might hurt themselves.

Of course, if they had health and safety training that would be fine. They could be wrapped in cotton wool, with their conkers softened in water to prevent them being too hard, then the conkers could be sent away to a safe environment where men with hard hats and protective goggles could operate the machinery that would put them on string that wasn't so rough that it may cause calluses.

On return of the conkers, they could pretend to hit each other's conker with them from a safety distance of 12 feet, provided they were wearing the appropriate protective clothing. Do you see what I mean? This country has gone mad.

Of course, if you really wanted to keep your children safe, without the proper health and safety training, you could always wrap them safely and take them to feed the ducks at the weekend. Or maybe not. One council says it is against the health and safety of the ducks to be fed bread. Apparently, it is bad for them. Then you have any bread on the ground that the ducks don't eat that could attract vermin.

And that would be because vermin don't live near water anyway? Or that vermin wouldn't normally feed on anything the ducks had left? Or are we purely thinking duck health here where too much bread could cause constipation. Surely, less duck poo on the ground would be good for the health and safety of the humans around.

No slipping hazard, no harmful bacteria etc.

Maybe if all parents and romantic weekend walking couples had health and safety training, then feeding the ducks wouldn't cause such a health hazard to the wildlife and to us. We could educate ourselves on what is nutritious for ducks, work out a rota with other parents to ensure the ducks don't get so full that they have to leave any and mark out a path with yellow tape forbidding the ducks to poo anywhere within our zone.

When it comes to health and safety training, you can be quite sure our emergency services are well versed. It wouldn't make sense for them to put themselves in un-called for danger when they are trying to help us. But ask any fire fighter how safe a house is to enter when it's on fire? Or how safe it is to climb stairs in a burning building to rescue someone?

Of course it's not safe! They know this when they take the job and where on earth would we all be without them? Burnt to a crisp somewhere because it was against health and safety regulations for us to be rescued?

How many kids have grown up watching Fireman Sam rescue cute little kitty's from trees? How many girls went gooey over watching Blue Watch on London's Burning rescue damsels in distress and come out looking all rugged, sweaty, dirty and strong? Ok, maybe that was just me.

The point is that our emergency services are constantly put in dangerous situations. Yes, they go through rigorous training. They even have ladder training so that they are always aware of how to use their equipment safely.

So why, oh why, do councils prevent them from taking down festive bunting because it is a hazard to health and safety?

These are one of the few groups of people who have had the health and safety training. I'm quite sure that they wouldn't go up a ladder to remove bunting, get to the top and forget what they were there for and start dragging people out of windows! Or get to the top and forget how to get down again causing panic and mayhem in the high street when another engine has to come out and rescue a fireman from a ladder!

This whole issue of having to have health and safety training before we so much as walk down the street is getting ridiculous. Many businesses like to cover themselves ensuring people are appropriately trained in the use of equipment. This prevents them from getting sued if some idiot chooses to stand on a chair to change a light bulb but is it not about time we all started taking responsibility for what we do?

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Catherine Harvey has sinced written about articles on various topics from Culture and Society, Home and Wedding Gowns. Safety expert Catherine Harvey looks at the that is required to do everyday jobs.. Catherine Harvey's top article generates over 1500000 views. to your Favourites.

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