# Example of U.K. health and safety.



## justinhcase (Mar 10, 2014)

I just thought some one might get a giggle out of an example of the kind of cuffufle any one who is in business in the U.K. has to put up with.
even I was surprised that any one would go into such detail on a subject.That is one of the reason why we all work for some one else over here.

Dear Justin

Our staff often comment on other tenants running up and down the stair and not holding the handrail. I am sure a number people do not understand the injuries that can happen on the stair. As ****** have a culture of caring we would like you to circulate the information below, hopefully preventing any incidents


Many thanks

Regards
************* 



It’s one of those groan moments when people talk about the holding the hand rail. I often get comments like “I’ve made my own risk assessment and don’t need to hold the rail”; “I’m not a child I am perfectly capable of walking down stairs without have to hold the rail”; “********* have gone H&S crazy if they have to tell me to hold the hand rail”; “I understand the principle but how many people really hurt themselves on the stairs”; etc., etc.

Some of the facts below may make people think twice. It’s so easy to fall on stairs (I have done it and the consequences could have been worse if I was not holding the rail) and the injuries can be significant.

Please take a little bit of time to read the email below and reflect on the facts and stats stated, especially during these inclement times when feet are wet and wind distracts. The figures are quite sobering if a little stunning. So take care and think before you step.
I tripped going up the stairs earlier this week. It was no big deal as I was holding the hand-rail and so was able to prevent myself from falling or injuring myself. However, it did raise my interest in an article I read a few days later and I list some of the key points below.
Stair-fall figures used to be recorded in the UK up to 2002 by DTI but these records were discontinued as an economy measure. 
The last set of figures indicated that 306,166 Britons were injured seriously enough to require medical attention in that year – a staggering figure which I’ve validated!!
Further, research indicates that fall figures are probably severely under-estimated.
· Stairs rank as the second most common cause of accidental death – well ahead of drowning, burns etc (makes you think in relation to our focus on training in these areas)
· Everyone trips on stairs (you are likely to miss a step once in every 2,222 occasions you use a stair (which I’ve calculated for me means at least three times a year)
· Suffer an accident once in every 63,000 uses, A painful accident once every 734,000 uses and one that requires hospital treatment once every 3,616,667 uses
· People in good shape fall more often than people in less good shape
· Design substantially influences the likelihood of a fall and the effect of a fall e.g. lighting, tread pattern, absence of handrails, risers that are unusually high or low, treads that are unusually wide or narrow, landings that interrupt the rhythm of ascent or descent (in a station in New York, the stair edges were given a non-stick covering with a pattern that made it difficult to discern the stair edge. In 6 weeks, more than 1400 people fell down before the problem was diagnosed)
· Descending a stair is a controlled fall – if you miss a step, the brain will take 190 milliseconds on average before reflexes kick in to clear the decks for a tricky landing during which the body will fall about 7 more inches. That’s why we need handrails! A study in 1958 found that 75% of all stair falls started where no handrail was available.
· Over 90% of injuries occur during a descent.
· One third of stair accidents occur on the first or last step.
· Two thirds of all accidents occur on the first or last three steps.

Food for thought!
Regards***********


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## kurtak (Mar 10, 2014)

Reminds me of an article I read a few years back where in someone had introduced a bill (at the federal level) to by law change the shape & size of hot dogs because the current shape & size of a hot dog presents a choking hazard for kids

My response to that is - teach your kid to chew their food before they swallow & if they are still to young to understand that then you should not be feeding them solid food yet anyway

Kurt


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## Anonymous (Mar 10, 2014)

Heath and Safety regulation was brought in for a very good reason. To stop some employers taking advantage of staff and cutting corners for profit to the detriment of their health.

However in the UK in recent years it has been gone from a common sense approach to preventing injury into something completely different. It has morphed into an industry of its own and has spawned a whole host of stupidity. Little nobodies are suddenly in positions of "power" and seem to revel in it to the extent of thinking that they are actually in control of how a business operates. 

The culture of litigation and compensation that pervades in the US has come over to the UK to the point where people daren't change anything or even implement anything without first consulting these people which then perpetuates the cycle. It's at he point here now where people can take absolutely no responsibility for their own actions and still make a claim.

We had a guy working for us for a period of three weeks last year who left and tried to sue us for a repetitive strain injury. No mater how ridiculous the claim was, thousands have been spent already defending it.


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## justinhcase (Mar 10, 2014)

We had all our step ladders taken off us last year.
Before when a light bulb or strip went we would go to the cupboard get a replacement and sign for it then put it in our selfs.
Now we have to put an official request to our head office five hundred miles away they contact our maintenance subsidiary
They then create a maintenance report and a member of there staff composes a risk assessment.
He then contacts an electrical engineer and instructs him on how to proceed which he will with in 24hrs with a chery picker.
Unfortunately with in the two weeks that all takes several people will have hurt them self's because of lack of light.
But the important thing is that every one involved with service provision all have covered there backs and turned a 50p fix into a multi million pound industry.

Big LOL


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## kurtak (Mar 10, 2014)

but it's ok to go cliff climbing or sky diving or white water rafting or etc. (high risk sport) on the week end :roll: 

Kurt


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## bmgold2 (Mar 10, 2014)

kurtak said:


> but it's ok to go cliff climbing or sky diving or white water rafting or etc. (high risk sport) on the week end :roll:
> 
> Kurt



Check your insurance policy. Many DON'T cover such activities.


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## justinhcase (Mar 10, 2014)

Just got to choose a sport that is extreme enough that if you come a cropper you will never know about it.
that's why I like sailing they never find the body's.


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## Anonymous (Mar 10, 2014)

I don't expect to be insured for my hobbies, or to be able to sue someone if it all goes wrong. Otherwise why would I be refining precious metals? :lol:


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## 4metals (Mar 11, 2014)

I have had some issues with a UK company called Waste Spectrum, they make very nice incinerators and their equipment would be a good fit for refiners here in the US looking for a cost effective front loading incinerator. I contacted them and even arranged for an equipment dealer I know to import them. He imports a lot of other equipment from Europe so this was a good fit. 

I had need for 3 of their incinerators for 3 different clients and the legal run-around we got because they were afraid to ship to the US because they are apparently taking the advice from their legal staff. It ended up that they will not sell here in the states unless there is a substantial guaranteed order. I told them that based on what I had to go through to get a quote, God only knows what I would have to do to place an order or get repair parts. Funny their sales department can't seem to get me off their email advertising list though! 

Perfect example of a company that makes good equipment that has a segue into a brand new market for their equipment but it trips over its own internal nonsense made by their legal staff. 

This is the equipment I was looking to import. http://www.wastespectrum.com/incinerators/volkanpro300


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## justinhcase (Mar 11, 2014)

That's looks to be a nice bit of kit.
Did you want some one to give them a kick in the pant's
I can normally bring people to there senses.shipping to US. not a problem as long as you don't mind paying for all the customs staff.


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## 4metals (Mar 11, 2014)

I was in contact with them with my equipment dealer who was interested in being a factory rep here in the states. They discussed insurance and liability and he has the insurance but they (the Brit's) got cold feet. 

I have moved on and had American made equipment installed in the 3 places I mentioned. Not as nice as the Volkan equipment but I couldn't see beating a dead horse.


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## rickbb (Mar 11, 2014)

Someone needs to remind the safety first hand rail holding crowd about how many people catch colds, flu, and other nasty infections from touching a hand rail that someone who has just swiped their runny nose with their hand has just touched.

That list of lost work, money on meds and doctors would make the trips and falls pail in comparison.

I never use a bare hand/skin to touch the hand rail, the door handle of a public building, the buttons on an elevator, and many other things that almost everyone on the planet has just put their dirty, germ covered hands on unless I have absolutely no other choice. And then wash my hands as soon as I can.

No, I'm not OCD about germs, I just know where infections come from, it's not the cold air or rain, it's from touching things many other people have touched.


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