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PSCI-COM  September 2007

PSCI-COM September 2007

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Subject:

Re: Unsafe at any bench (was RE: [PSCI-COM] Quick experiment/ demo)

From:

Matt Bagley <[log in to unmask]>

Reply-To:

psci-com: on public engagement with science

Date:

Mon, 17 Sep 2007 19:18:49 +0100

Content-Type:

text/plain

Parts/Attachments:

Parts/Attachments

text/plain (120 lines)

In principal Id agree with this, though 'Health and Safety' as a concept is 
not one which is always used nowadays in the spirit of stopping stupid 
people killing themselves. For example, in the case of the venue Im working 
in this week the phrase 'Health and Safety' is really short-hand for 
'the-less-we-let-you-do-the-less-risk-we-have-of-having-to-clear-something-up'. 
In this sense its little more than a device to articulate the answer 'no' 
without having to debate it in further or seem responsible. Not my fault 
Guv', its Health and Safety, Innit.

As a slight aside, on my first day of proper grown up engineering in oil and 
gas whilst I was on the official Health and Safety (please note: these words 
must always be capitalised, Heavens knows they've earned our respect) of the 
dock of which we were based, the fractionally over-zealous officer tripped 
over his own feet and fell head first into the mercifully flooded dock. As 
lessons go, it worked pretty well on me. When I left my job there he was 
still the only person to ever fall in the dock, something that I really feel 
those '363 days without an accident' signs should detail exhaustively.

Lets be careful out there people.

Matt B.

MATT BAGLEY BEng(Hons), MA
Tall Person That's Really Good at Inspiring People to Become Cool Things
(Even if They Don't Want To Become Cool Things).
CAMOUFLAGED LEARNING | EDUCATION THROUGH ACTION
WWW.CAMOUFLAGED-LEARNING.COM
phone - 01493 393980| mobile - 077601 78040

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jonathan Sanderson" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, September 17, 2007 7:01 PM
Subject: Re: [PSCI-COM] Unsafe at any bench (was RE: [PSCI-COM] Quick 
experiment/ demo)


> On 17 Sep 2007, at 18:06, Michael Kenward wrote:
>
>> Could PSCI make a major contribution to PESTilence by compiling a  list 
>> of
>> daft health and safety rulings? The next step would be to get  proper 
>> advice
>> on this so that anyone presented with similar lunacy in future can  turn
>> round and say "That's a load of cobblers. It is perfectly acceptable."
>
> To squeak up in defence of the H&S industry - I worked with a 'major 
> regional broadcaster' through the process of them writing and 
> implementing a bottom-to-top rework of their H&S practices. Since I  was 
> making a practical/demonstration-based children's science series  with 
> them, this meant I was in regular contact with the safety  office, and 
> they went through my risk assessments in astonishing  detail (as opposed 
> to not reading them at all, as before).
>
> On one occasion I had a delightful retired chemist coming into the  studio 
> to do the usual - fling around liquid nitrogen, do things with  liquid 
> oxygen one probably shouldn't, and breathe sulphur  hexafluoride gas. My 
> risk assessment had rattled on for some fairly  large number of pages. It 
> was all reasonable stuff, but perhaps  somewhat alarming to the 
> uninitiated. And I'd filed it late.
>
> My heart sank, then, when the H&S manager burst onto the studio floor  in 
> a state of some agitation, waving a copy of said risk assessment.  "Have 
> you started yet?" she cried, flustered.
>
> Resigned, I admitted that we were running a little late, so no, we  hadn't 
> yet blown anything up.
>
> "Great!" she said. "I was worried I'd miss it. Sounds like fun!"
>
>
> More generally, I can't think of any occasion in which an H&S  department 
> has genuinely prevented me from doing something (rather  than merely raise 
> question about it - sometimes even good questions).  However, they have in 
> a few cases sided with me in my attempts to  stop somebody more senior 
> doing something truly stupid.
>
> -- 
> Jonathan Sanderson
> 'If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter.' (Pascal)
>
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>
>
> -- 
> No virus found in this incoming message.
> Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.487 / Virus Database: 
> 269.13.21/1012 - Release Date: 16/09/2007 18:32
> 

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