Health and Safety, how's your H&S game?

Are you pretty good with H and S, or do you play fast and loose ?

I realised that the constant H and S stuff at work and maybe age means I am now pretty diligent.

For example, need to chops some wood up, got the old chainsaw working and fettled but decided I am not doing any chopping without full PPE, i,e steel toe caps, face guard, suitable gloves and the chaps, in the past it was trainers, t shirt, safety squint and mum on speed dial as per the T Shirt.

Cant face injuries now, obviously can always happen but determined not to do stupid stuff.

Dont want a bit of wire brush attachment in my eyeball, want to avoid flesh wounds and broken bones.

So, is it "Pah, I sail close to the wind, axle stands are for fannies etc" or "I do it properly to avoid injury and want to avoid explaining to the nice nurse in casualty what a dick I really am as I clutch a margarine tub full of assorted fingers".

So, has it gone mad, or is it for our own good ?

A decent safety man is a rare thing, most do not have enough experience to differentiate what is dangerous, and what looks dangerous.

That said, while some rules are a pain, they generally have the required effect. I have worked in some truly dangerous environments, and thankfully serious injuries and fatalities are rare.

Yes, gone absolutely bonkers...
I've friends who are archeologists. Imagine sitting in the middle of a field in middle England, miles from nowhere, no diggers or any earth-moving eqpt. within 3 miles, 30°+ heat, excavation depth no more than1 foot, and have to wear... steel capped boots, helmet, full orange reflective jumpsuit, flame retardant naturally, etc etc.... Needless to say heat exhaustion was present...
as well as a busybody H&S twerp who arrived to check on the H&S issues.......
Naturally not bothered at all that 3 people had heat exhaustion.... must abide by the rules as... "Rules Is Rules" F'ing idiocy!!!!

I had a heated argument with one office spod who was threatening to sack me unless I wore gloves while using a pillar drill.
Needless to say he didn't like being told he was wrong, and I'm almost sorry about the very loud Joey Deacon impression I was doing to him in front of everyone.

No gloves with rotating equipment please, I’ve seen some shockers from other safety people unfortunately, they give the profession a bad image.

When it comes to potentially hazardous activities, then these days I certainly take sensible precautions.

Using the chainsaw, even if for a short period, I'll wear the protective trousers, boots, eye protection, helmet with wire mesh faceguard and gloves, and under no circumstances would I even think about using it without both feet firmly on the ground in a clear area, so the risk of tripping is minimised.

On a ladder, always on flat firm ground and use a standoff, and if possible secure it to the building.

Eye protection whenever using fast spinny things, even drilling holes in stuff - I'd really rather not be blinded just for the sake of saving a few seconds not bothering to go get eye protection and put it on.

I think the older I've got, the more cautious/sensible.

However, the idea of wearing hi-viz, steel toecap boots and a hard hat when digging a hole in the garden is just laughable.

One of the best and most enjoyable courses I did at work was a H&S for managers one. We went along with some pre-concieved ideas that it would all be about not being able to do stuff without filling out forms in triplicate and wearing all manner of safety kit etc..

Turned out that the instructor, who had years of experience was both entertaining, and also very much pushing the approach that yes, you need to do risk assessments, but they should be practical and address real risks, but that blanket approaches such as having to wear a hard hat when there was no practical risk of anything falling on you was just stupid. They also thought that those people saying "you can't do so and so, because of H&S" who couldn't provide a sensible reason highlighting real risks were very much out of order, and actually give H&S a very bad rep.

When I first started in engineering H&S consisted of the obligatory couple of posters on the wall, a first aid box where medical treatment was very much DIY and someone would take a trip to A&E about every six months or so. One of the CNC lathes had a General Electric Century 1050 control which was prone to doing some un-commanded random and dangerous stuff.

At one point I ended up working for a sub-division of Dutch State Mines and they were utterly rabid about their H&S, probably due to their involvement in Nypro and the Flixborough disaster. One of their lathes also had a 1050 control so I was always very careful around it until one day when the spindle started up un-commanded with the door opened!! The emergency stop buttons had no effect until it decided it had had enough and stopped of its own accord.

We were under strict instructions to report anything dangerous so I duly informed the machine shop manager who just shrugged, picked up the phone to maintenance and told them to disconnect it now, not after lunch, not when they had five minutes but right now

The lathe was gone inside 48hrs

This is exactly why I'll always wear goggles even if I have a facemask. The first time I used the chainsaw, I didn't - just had the fine wire mesh faceguard attached to the hard hat thinking it was suitable protection, and several (very) small bits of wood made their way straight through the mesh and hit my face (fortunately not an eye). Since then, goggles all the time.

I would happily still ride my motor bike every now and again without a lid, if it wasnt compulsory.

Some of the places I've had to visit or work I'm shocked at what I see.

There is still some appalling efforts and lack of health and safety where serious accidents are inevitable.

There are still companies covering up serious accidents and incidents.