Graham's slide show was good fun. I had a good laugh, too. We must, of course, be careful to see it as just that, as humorous sub-titling of photographs* - and posed photographs at that.
While it would be churlish to point out the 'factual' aspects of the sub-titles(some are just wrong), I would like us all to remember that Safety had in fact been invented rather a long time before 1930. In the UK we had the first factories act in 1802 followed by the ground breaking 1844 Act, and the many pieces of H&S legislation in the 19th century such as the Explosives Act 1875.
In the USA, their first federal safety legislation was passed in 1893 but several states had Employer liability acts in 1855.
To go back even further, there are old testament references to safety.
Finally, in the absence of specific legislation, many practices had grown up among trades from simple craft-knowledge (e.g. holding a chisel in a particular way so that pieces of stone are deflected rather than going near the face) to organised approaches (e.g. trade union pressure from miners to remove the butty system [a form of subcontracted labour] in mining in the 1910s and early 1920s).
I don't wish to detract from the humour but sometimes while we are falling about laughing, all that we health and safety practitioners have striven for can be watered down. This is particularly important as Cameron and Clegg have Health and Safety in their cross-wires (as did Thatcher).
Sorry if I have sounded a sour note.
Kevin
*rather like a book I was given once called "who f*rted?"; it simply had that question below a number of photographs of groups of people. One could not resist re-interpreting people' faces in the light of the sub-title.
-----Original Message-----
From: [log in to unmask] on behalf of GIULIANA CHRISTMAS
Sent: Tue 15/06/2010 08:51
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [OCC-HEALTH] Health and Safety!
Thank you Graham
The slide show was amazing, but should carry a warning for anyone who hates heights...feel a bit queasy now!
Giuliana
--- On Fri, 11/6/10, Graham <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
From: Graham <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: [OCC-HEALTH] Health and Safety!
To: [log in to unmask]
Date: Friday, 11 June, 2010, 19:26
Enjoy!
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