Effin Softy Act

When I hear H&S I reach for my hoody.......

:-)

Wrong, of course, like so many stories about H&S. What he is *advised* to do, is to *encourage* outdoor workers to keep covered up during the summer months and to apply SPF 15 sunscreen to any exposed skin. On the relevant leaflet, (HSE leaflet INDG337) it quite clearly states 'This leaflet contains notes on good practice which are not compulsory but which you may find helpful in considering what you need to do'. Supplying sun screen would count as encouragement and thus would be good practice, but he is not actually required to do so.

Seems reasonable to me, given that the health of vulnerable people is at risk. Most people do not even know how to wash their own hands for maximum hygiene without being instructed.

Colin Bignell

I used to be a contractor to a big chemical factory. I mentioned to the Chief Engineer that the place looked cleaner. He said that they were all doing NVQs on sweeping up; his look stopped me giggling. The place is heavy engineering and is a very dangerous place to work in.

And I'd argue that suplying is less safe on the basis you don't know what a given worker may be allergic (in the broadest sense) to. Much better to encourage them to use their own that they know they won't ahvea reaction to.

Agreed. How often to you see people obeying the "Now Wash Your Hands" sign by dibbling their finger tips under a tap for two seconds and then drying them?

My parents next door neighbour was a joiner. He spent the summers working on house roofs without suncream. When I was a child he was a fit bronzed man.

When he was 60 he developed skin cancer that was almost certainly caused by the sun exposure. His last year of life was of the worst possible quality.

Agreed. We have some of the most vulnerable people on the planet and allowing infection to spread is not an option.

I worked for an NHS trust and was trained on how to wash my hands effectively. The staff were very conscientious about it but sadly there were quite a few emails detailing temporary ward closures due to infections.

In some environments it is necessary to wash up in deep very hot water. I saw a nasty claim when someone had not been trained on which gloves to use.

It is funny how many people think health and safety is a waste of time until one of their loved ones is on the wrong end of something not done properly.

H&S is fine.. its the idiots that use it as an excuse to not do something that are the problem.

It's basically one of two things:

2) basically they don't want to do something, so they dress it up in HSE red tape and claim it's not possible, blaming it on HSE.

Or just tick the boxes on the risk assesment without paying any thought other than it being a "box ticking excercise" as to what they are actually doing, how the ticked boxes apply or are even relevant in the real world.

Even though SWMBO washes up much more than I do, I can't train her not to use dish-rags to wipe stuff "clean" in the washing up water. You know, those cloths full of food particles that are then left wet and scrunched up on the counter. To be fair, she does boil them in bleach from time to time, but the real answer is to use a dish brush, that you have some hope of keeping clean.

My other half is a H&S professional who used to audit kitchens. I recently suggested to her that the permanently damp sponge we use to wipe the kitchen surfaces etc really is not a very good idea! Time to buy some disposable wipers me thinks.

I stick damp floorcloths etc (washed in hot soapy water and wrung out) in the microwave and zap them until approaching crispy.

One now has a batik-like pattern of scorch-marks where I over-zapped it.

Owain

It used to really annoy me on location filming - people would go straight into the lunch queue and then handle food without washing their hands. After touching gawd knows what on the 'set'.

Hmm. Most H&S is more about protecting the employer than employee.

We don't have dish rags. But when mother-in-law comes to visit she always buys us one...

Or signs on the back of doors asking you to consider how many people haven't washed their hands, so what are you supposed to do, stand there avoiding pulling the assumed dirty handle, until some else opens the door from the outside?

Whenever I eat in a restaurant I wonder why I bother washing my hands, when the exit doors are almost always pull doors. So anyone who hasn't washed their hands leaves god knows what on the handle to go on my hands when I open the door.

Is there a good reason for the doors being this way round - I'd have thought it made more sense to pull the door open going in, then push on the way out, so you can avoid touching dirty surfaces.

Yup - tick the boxen and job done. I call it CMA: Cover My Arse. The actual meaning and intent aren't of any interest, just avoiding trouble.

Many of them open in to a corridor or there are people passing anyway, so SPLAT! I can open most of these doors without touching the handle.