Issues around health and safety clichés, the bad press it routinely receives, and its impact on health and safety culture were discussed by a panel of four experts.
Ray Hurst, immediate past president of IOSH, said the myths often propounded in the media about the health and safety profession lead to a false understanding of what the profession is about. He said: “When I see prominent banner headlines mentioning the ‘health and safety Taliban’ I become almost incandescent.”
He suggested that the right thing for health and safety professionals to do is to rebut the “dafter” stories. “There is a long road to travel to change the perceptions of what real risk management is all about. We should concentrate on the positive message that we are there to save and enhance lives,” he added.
Nick Starling, director of general insurance and health from the Association of British Insurers, agreed that the insurance industry often suffered from the same misconceptions. “Insurance is about pooling the risk, but you pay the price of the risk you bring to the pool when you enter it,” he said. “The problem is the negative perception of risk, but risk is a great enabler in life. You’d never go out of your front door if you didn’t take a risk. Insurers can help by supplying advice on risk management.”
Starling does not believe that a ‘compensation culture’ exists but warned that the current recession needs to be watched carefully. Fire claims, for example are up by 17 per cent in the last year, as people could be “thrashing” old equipment because of the recession.
The trivialisation of risk was illustrated by Melvyn Hodgetts, head of safety at Royal Mail, who said that slip and trip accidents and animal attacks on postmen, were often seen as “slapstick”, although they can endanger lives.
Joe Stewart, director of human resources at the Association of Chief Police Officers, brought the discussion to a more serious head by asking, in the case of the Menezes shooting: “If the Met had shot the right man would there have been an enquiry and prosecution, or would they have been regarded as heroes? The case has meant that many police officers do not know how to respond to such an incident.”
Chairman Krishnan Guru-Murthy asked the panel if the police should be exempt from health & safety legislation? Hurst replied: “No, and nor should the armed forces. The decision to prosecute is one for the enforcers.”
Krishnan then asked if the industry was its own worst enemy by prompting ‘elf-n-safety’ stories? Starling said, to great audience applause, announcements saying something has been cancelled for “health and safety reasons” should be banned. He added: “It’s a cop-out and you should always explain why, for example the floor is slippery.”
