Nowadays the world is getting too bogged down in health and safety. It all began in 1950 when the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) came up with a definition of occupational health. This definition was then adopted by the Joint ILO/WHO Committee on Occupational Health at its First Session (1950) and revised at its 12th Session (1995): "Occupational health should aim at: the promotion and maintenance of the highest degree of physical, mental and social well-being of workers in all occupations; the prevention amongst workers of departures from health caused by their working conditions; the protection of workers in their employment from risks resulting from factors adverse to health; the placing and maintenance of the worker in an occupational environment adapted to his physiological and psychological capabilities; and, to summarize, the adaptation of work to man and of each man to his job."
Now that's probably just all gone over your head, but what they mean is that people at work should have the highest possible standard of health and safety possible. And if you're going to have Health and Safety, that's the sort you want. But, 57 years later, they've just gone over the top with it. A quote from "How To Label A Goat", a book which states all the silly rules and regulations that are Strangling Britain, states that “A council spent £5,000 planting yew trees to screen a new children's play area. It then dug them up again after health and safety experts advised children could fall ill if they "gobbled several handfuls" of leaves.”
It's things like that which really annoy me. What the Health and Safety “experts” should have realized is that it isn't in the general will of young children to “Gobble several handfuls” of Yew tree leaves. And if it was, you'd think that after several mouthfuls they'd realize that they aren't exactly Turkish Delight. If young children do particularly enjoy harmful leaves, why didn't the “experts” warn the council before they planted the trees, as this would have been more convenient than after.
What I'm trying to say is that what started out as Occupational Health Regulations has now gone over the top and has become an excuse to slowly strangle Britain. We do need Health and Safety to an extent, but not as much as we're getting. The sort of people you do want to listen to are the HSE (Health and Safety Executive), who are involved in enforcing useful rules and regulations to keep us safe at home and at work. That's the sort of people you need!
