The national media has been awash lately with stories of health and safety “cancelling Christmas”, prompting IOSH to hit out at Yuletide killjoys and “tinsel tyrants”.
President Nattasha Freeman said those using health and safety as an excuse to ban fun Christmas activities had other reasons for making such “ridiculous decisions” as banning tinsel on crossing-patrol lollipops, preventing schools from selling homemade mince pies, and forcing ‘Santa’ to wear a full body harness on his five-miles-an-hour sleigh.
She explained: “Organisations are concerned they might be sued, or simply can’t be bothered to find a sensible solution. They use health and safety as a believable excuse, which no one will argue against.”
Saying it is time for “a major outbreak of common sense”, Nattasha called on these organisations to “get with the Christmas spirit! Health and safety is about helping find solutions to these sorts of problems. It’s about helping make life worth living, not stopping it. There’s no way health and safety should be used as an excuse to ban Christmas lights, or trees from being put up in town centres. But it should be there to ensure these things are put up properly, not in a shoddy, slapdash way which might lead to them falling and hurting people.”
