HSC tells health and safety pedants to "get a life"
Bill Callaghan, the chair of the Health & Safety Commission, has recently spoken out on those who use 'health and safety' as an excuse to not undertake activity. Mr Callaghan says:
"My clear message is that if you are using health and safety to stop everyday activities get a life and let others get on with theirs."
He goes on to say:
"There are also some instances where health and safety is used as a convenient and lazy excuse to justify unpopular decisions or cover up management failure. But our research shows that behind many of the stories, there is at least a grain of truth - someone really has made a stupid decision"
Thankfully, the HSE have produced guidance on the principles of sensible risk management, about what risk management is and is not, and if you are involved in managing risks (read- are in charge of any activity) then you should read these. My particular favourite is:
"Enabling individuals to understand that as well as the right to protection, they also have to exercise responsibility "
On honeymoon in Iceland, I was fortunate enough to spend a day being instructed in the noble art of ice-climbing. Naturally, I was intrigued as to the qualifications of the instructor - who was equally intrigued as to the reasoning behind my enquiry. I told him about the UK's love of qualifications, of its paper-chasing to prove that you are suitable to act as an instructor. He in reply pointed out that in Iceland, to be an instructor you only have to be very good at the sport as the individual is responsible for his or her own actions. What a refreshing change - this certainly made me question his ability further and resulted in me making up my mind as to whether or not I wanted to learn to ice climb with this guy, which I did. I took responsibility for my own health and safety.
People forget that there are three types of risk associated with any activity - expected, unexpected and catastrophic events
Expected risks happen frequently, and we can do a lot to prevent or deal with them. Often, they're not significant and whilst they might spoil the day, they won't spoil your life. When snowboarding, I frequently wipe-out and carry the bruises and soft-tissue injuries to prove it. These aren't going to stop me boarding though.
Unexpected risks happen infrequently, however it's not hard to imagine them, and it's our responsibility to each other to ensure we know what to do if they did occur. In January, I landed a jump very badly when snowboarding and was taken off the slope with a suspected spinal injuryFortunatelyly, those around me remained calm, knew what to do and just got on with it - it was unexpected but as a group we knew the risk was there. Equally avalanches, cable car failures, plane crashes etc
Catastrophic risks are those things that can only just be imagined. The nature of a catastrophic risk is that once it'occurreded it becomes an unexpected risk - it should be within your consciousness. I bet every government now has a plan to deal with a 9/11 incident, though who could have imagined that?
Thankfully, even our Health & Safety Executive are getting fed up with the 'health & safety' preventing people getting on with enjoying their lives. I blame it on the risk managers...
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September 21, 2006 2:47 PM
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