Monday, November 30, 2009

Health & Safety Gone Mad!

Health and Safety Gone MadPhoto:
I read an article today which basically told me that my childhood days at ten pin bowling alleys weren't good fun but actually a 'very dangerous' environment for my family!

It's another health and safety investigation which seem to plague society at the moment by making pretty much everything a hazard! Apparently the bowling alleys are dangerous because it was too easy for children or teenagers to run down the lanes and get trapped in the machinery...after all the children's parties I used to attend (around when I was 8, you could only be 'cool' if you had your party at megabowl), not once did any of us injure ourselves. The quote in the Daily Mail from a member of the Ten Pin Bowling Proprietors Association is pretty good at denying any "danger"; "I have been in this industry for 40 years and I have never known any member of the public injured by a bowling pinsetter. I have never heard of anybody going near the pins." Pretty clear.

After discovering this ridiculous and expensive (£250,000 expensive) Health and Safety Executive (HSE) report, it got me looking into some others, here and some of my favourites in reverse order...

5) Children at a primary school were banned from making daisy chains incase they pick up germs from the flowers. Handstands, tag, conkers and yo-yo's were among other things banned! (Full Story: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-130322/Playtime-killjoys.html)

4) Students graduating from Anglia Ruskin Uni in Cambridge were banned from throwing their hats whilst posing for pictures incase somebody was injured by falling headgear. (http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/editors-choice/2008/11/20/the-crazy-world-of-health-and-safety-rules-86908-20909703/)

3) Carpenters were told to not use brooms to sweep up sawdust because it could provoke asthma and long term exposure could lead to nose cancer. Carpenters were told to buy state of the art vacuum cleaners instead! (Full Story: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2433513/Ridiculous-health-and-safety-rules-tell-carpenters-to-ban-the-broom.html)

2) A lifeguard instructor and her husband were prevented from taking their three children into a toddlers' pool because there wasn't one adult per child! (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-401723/Chief-nanny-admits-cotton-wool-culture-gone-far.html)


Health and Safety gone mad?

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