Health and Safety

[Marc]

Lets see what other opinions we have on this.

Health & Safety. Whether its in the workplace, a school, college, university, or even when you go to the supermarket there is health and safety all around you and it drives me mental. If its not a wet floor sign I have to walk around or an appliance I cant plug in because its not been "safety tested" its a room I cannot walk in because its dark (health and safety concern) and there is nobody "trained" to change a bloody lightbulb.

Evolution as we know is the process by which the weaker elements of a person/animal/plant etc become extinct and the stonger elements survive. This is through natural selection. If there are 2 lots of wolfs and one has sharper teeth than the other, then the ones with the weaker teeth do not get the food and therefore die out leaving only the ones with the sharper teeth etc.

SO how do the above theory relate to health and safety? Well thats simple. Health and Safety is stopping evolution by ensuring that stupid people survive day to day life and people without common sense do not have issues on a daily basis.

MY THOUGHTS. HEALTH AND SAFETY PROHIBITS EVOLUTION AND THEREFORE SHOULD BE STOPPED!!!!

Opinions?

[Elyse]

Food for thought: Hitler and his ilk believed in "Survival of the Fittest" (eugenics) too. And look what happened.

We live in a civilized society. We're not barbarians anymore (most of the time, except in times of war and the occasional monster who kills animals/people).

Everyone has the right to feel safe. If feeling safe means putting up a wet floor sign (which I totally agree with, I've slipped and broken a wrist because a sign wasn't up. And I'm not stupid.), then so be it.

And, honestly, is walking around a 'wet floor' sign really all that hard? It takes 3 seconds out of your time, at most.

THAT just shows the overwhelming ego-tistic society we have. Where everyone is all "me first!" and they don't give a crap about anyone else.

While I agree there are lots of stupid people out there, it has nothing to do with health and safety. Stupid people are just breeding with other stupid people, or said stupid people don't get an education, or they are raised by crappy parents that don't teach them how to be a civilized person.

Things like plastic and the high drug prescriptions have been another factor in society's lowering IQ. Chemical imbalances that your Mom has when you're in the womb can cause anything from learning disorders, to mental disabilities, to physical deformities, and gender changes (more women are being born than men now, because a primary component in plastic is the female hormone estrogen. So when the baby is exposed to that in the womb, even just a tiny bit, can change his gender.)

The lack of common sense is the result of poor parenting, so the kids grow up not knowing things that some of us seem very obvious.

If "Health and Safety" didn't exist, everything would be chaos. My brother works in construction during the summers, and if health and safety didn't exist, he would be dead. A heavy piece of concrete fell on his helmet and sent him to the hospital...if he didn't have that helmet on (like the law requires) than he would be dead.

He's also studying to become an electrical engineer, so he deals with electricity all the time. Things have to be safety tested because even a very small amount of current can stop your heart and kill you. If things weren't tested like that, then appliances in your kitchen could electrocute you and fry you.

And accidents happen all the time, even with safety regulations in place. Imagine if they were all taken away - not only would there be mass protests and job strikes, but even the 'smart' people would be killed by things that would have easily been prevented otherwise.

And, another thing, we evolved as the smartest animals on the planet. That means our bodies are pretty fragile compared to other animals. Our senses are incredibly poor in comparison to all animals. It doesn't take much to kill us, if you take away all of our technology we have invented over the centuries to defend and protect ourselves.

Edited November 22, 2012 by SolitaryHowl

[BlueWolf]

I think the only good way to restart our evolution is to take down all our hospitals. Evolution can only happen when people die, not when they get help when not being the fittest (either evolutionary or because of having done something stupid). That also means that your average lifespan will most likely be cut in half, as well as your parents and your children. Deceases like the plague will get back eventually and most likely kill nearly all of the people. Only the fittest/luckiest will survive. But hey, now we have the evolution back again!

So in short: Lets just accept our 'Warning, wet floor signs' and be happy we're alive

[Cherrie-Nanook-Indy]

Health and safety is a nightmare, working in a hotel the health and safety of our guests is paramount, when I do a duty manager shift there are several security checks that I must carry out and I had to have several training days to make sure that I could carry them out safely. In the flip side - if there was a fire in the building I must be the first person on site to attempt to control the fire while waiting for the fire fighters - is that not in direct conflict with my own health and safety? Equally I must be first aid trained and be willing to do CPR - again how do I know that the person I am giving CPR to doesn't have an awful infection or something. There are miles and miles of rules and paperwork that we have to fill out for everything. EG a very very busy bar resulting in me cutting my finger while chopping a lemon - stings like crap but my own fault because I was rushing but 2 accident forms and 2 faxes later I was awarded my alcohol wipe and a plaster - H&S has gone a bit mad IMO

Sent from my iPhone using Forum Runner

[Elyse]

I think the only good way to restart our evolution is to take down all our hospitals. Evolution can only happen when people die, not when they get help when not being the fittest (either evolutionary or because of having done something stupid). That also means that your average lifespan will most likely be cut in half, as well as your parents and your children. Deceases like the plague will get back eventually and most likely kill nearly all of the people. Only the fittest/luckiest will survive. But hey, now we have the evolution back again!

So in short: Lets just accept our 'Warning, wet floor signs' and be happy we're alive

That's a good point. I completely forgot about the hospitals. Yeah, if we had no more hospitals than say 'goodbye' to the majority of the human race. There would be no medications, so we would die from simple things like the flu. Diseases like the Black Plague would come back in force, more deadlier than ever because they have developed resistances. We would have all been dead from things like rabies and poison if we got bit by an animal.

And heaven forbid if you got a cut that became infected with no treatment. Can anybody say Ganges green?

And, that can be turned around with, for example, dogs. You could say that, "Dogs don't have to be vaccinated against things like rabies or Canine Parvo. Heck, if your dog gets rabies and dies (all animals who get rabies has a 99% chance of dying, including people), then that's good because it was 'too weak' to be able to deal with the virus! Score one for evolution!"

and

If its not a wet floor sign I have to walk around or an appliance I cant plug in because its not been "safety tested" its a room I cannot walk in because its dark (health and safety concern) and there is nobody "trained" to change a bloody lightbulb.

It sounds like somebody's feeling disgruntled because they had to walk around a 'wet floor' sign today.

[Marc]

Food for thought: Hitler and his ilk believed in "Survival of the Fittest" (eugenics) too. And look what happened.

Im sorry but hitler actively went out of his way to murder millions of people... Im on about removing signs ... Hardly even remotely a comparison Elyse LOL Was supposed to be a light hearted subject, however since you stated your valid points I disagree with most of them. Why? Seem like strange things to disagree with, however the unfortunatly the reason for health and safety if unfortunatly now not what it was intended for. Health and safety is a means to stopping people getting sued and nothing more. I actually agree people should wear hardhats, harnesses should be used when climbing, even wet floor signs being put down to warn people that the floor is wet. My real gripe against health and safety is that it actually removes common sense.

I can give you examples quite clearly. I used the lightbulb one above. Are you aware that most people in most workplaces would be sacked for changing a lightbulb unless they are a trained electrician. This is even though 'everyone' should know how to change a lightbulb. Plugs are another one. If you plug something in that has not been electrically tested (bare in mind, this is after it has been electrically tested at manufacturer point) then you would be in breach of health and safety and could get sacked, even though it is something you do every single day at home. Another example. You take a hot drink up a flight of stairs you could be sacked for it, and to make it worse if you fall over and scold yourself you could file a lawsuit with the company that you work for. Im sorry but thats common sense and no workplace should be held accountable.

Evolution? No of course it doesnt stop evolution, this was a joke. As Jos already stated there are far more things we do to halt evolution than health and safety. However one thing is does do is kills the worlds economies. Billions of dollars a year are spend on needless crap to safeguard nothing more than someone filing a suit against a company and personally I find it pathetic. I should be able to carry my coffee, change my lightbulb, and plug in my newly bought laptop. Why? Because Im not an idiot.

[Marc]

It sounds like somebody's feeling disgruntled because they had to walk around a 'wet floor' sign today.

At my place? LMAO ... Health and Safety at my place doesnt exist LMAO

[Sarah]

Because Im not an idiot.

i beg to differ

[Elyse]

Ah, I understand now. Guess I took things a bit personally, sorry about that!

[Removed #5]

Interesting topic, and some valid points made on all sides.

[Mazz]

If we remove the health and safety issues, then we can also remove the litigation that currently follows with the safety and health, thereby eliminate the ambulances needed for those that succumb, and therein, place all attorneys on layoff, since there would be no ambulances for them to chase. Seems like a good plan to me.

[Dave]

I was the one in charge of Health & Safety for the past 4 years at my place of work... and the most common theme from the above is true... Health & Safety is as mad and pathetic as it is because of two things... lack of common sense (By some) and the culture of insurance claims.

The lack of common sense is a major one.. I've seen and heard of some very stupid things happening lol and due to the claims companies will do all they can to promote safety to decrease the amount of cash they are paying out.

Don't get me wrong, if someone has a accident that is not their fault, they deserve compensation.

Anyways, I don't do it any more... I'm now a compliance officer... oh the fun I have now lol

[Elyse]

Yeah, I forgot a LOT of people are sue-happy nowadays. Which is annoying, especially when you hear on the news that this lady tries to sue her neighbour because their kid plays basketball too much and the noise bothers her.

Before, when I mentioned about me slipping on a floor and breaking my wrist (because there was no wet floor sign up), the thought didn't cross my mind to sue...

First of all, who would I sue? The guy who was supposed to put up the sign, but didn't? I Wouldn't; those people are barely paid above minimum wage as it is!

The store or the owner whose building I fell in? It wasn't their fault.

I just blamed it mostly on myself, because I honestly wasn't paying very much attention to where I was walking. I learned from my mistakes.

But I guess most people these days don't think like I do....

[Dunc]

Anyway if we got rid of all the stupid people it would be a lot quieter on here than it is now

[Dunc]

[quote=SolitaryHowl;740926

But I guess most people these days don't think like I do....

let's be thankful for small mercies

[Andy]

Have you noticed that works maintainence man come in two flavours.

1. Jobsworth. Even the simplest jobs require scaffolding and specialist equipment.

2. Suicidal. destined to join the Drwin awards society at the earliest opportunity.#

we had a guy in here just last week to change a flourescent tube in the light fitting.

He asked if we thought it was ok for him to mount his stepladder on the desk to get to the light fitting.

we politely told him to sod off.

numpty