Does it seem to you like the tide of public opinion about ‘Health and Safety gone mad’ is on the turn? Even in this month's Safety and Health Practitioner, they look at the recent media coverage of health and safety and it would seem that a number of outlets are actually beginning to tackle the issue of Health and Safety in a much more mature, grown up way. For example the 26th November viewing of QI, which actually set about to dispel a few of the ‘myths’ of health and safety.
This made me ponder as to what would bring this about and my thoughts are that it is all to do with anti-establishment vogue - perhaps the government actually did the industry a favour by bemoaning over-zealous health and safety culture (the Lord Young Review; http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKTRE65C30O20100613)!
It could be the case that there has simply been more publicity of late and that the HSE has done a Stirling job with its PR. Nice thought, but probably not realistic if we're going to be honest. It's actually far more likely that the media always want to take a pop at the establishment, even when that means questioning on one of its own pet subjects – i.e. ‘the health and safety fun police!’
So if this is the case, then could it be that the government has been so clever as to use reverse psychology on the media to drive the issue of health and safety to the fore to ensure that everyone begins to play ball – hmmm
It's also perhaps worth thinking about the public at large for a moment. I have always felt that we are permanently under attack in this business even though we're only here to stop people getting hurt, but maybe the public really do understand the difference between stupid health and safety and what we actually do for a living!
