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As health and safety training and regulations have improved and, possibly more importantly, increased over the last 30 years so have the number of news items complaining of increasing ludicrous legislation. Below we look at five of the myths of health and safety Myth: Regulations would require trapeze artists to wear hard hats Despite being widely reported and regularly repeated, this story was simply not true and no such regulations have ever existed. While hard hats do help to protect construction workers from falling debris, they have no place on a trapeze. Myth: You can't wear flip-flops to work During the summer, many of us think about wearing sandals or flip-flops to work to help us stay cool. Despite recent reports to the contrary, health and safety law doesn't ban them. That said, slips, trips and falls do account for about 30% of all workplace accidents, and what you wear on your feet can make a difference. So, if you work somewhere where the floor can't be kept dry or clean then wearing shoes that fit well and have a good grip would be a better choice than flip-flops. The same can also be said of work places like construction sites or other areas involving heavy machinery, where common sense would dictate that flip flops are not the most sensible choice. Myth: Safety is an achievable goal Unfortunately it is simply impossible to completely remove all risks in any given situation. Whilst it is possible to mitigate unnecessary risks and avoid easily preventable accidents with a mixture of health & safety training, awareness and common sense, there will always be a threshold where the possibility of very unlikely risks remains. It is an unfortunate fact of life that we are never 100% safe, however we can at least try to get as close to that figure as possible. Myth: Kids must wear goggles to play conkers One of the older myths, that originated when a well-meaning head teacher decided children should wear safety goggles to play conkers. Subsequently some schools appear to have banned conkers for 'health & safety' reasons or made children wear padded gloves or goggles. In reality the risk from playing conkers is quite small and not really worth worrying about. If children deliberately hit each other over the head with conkers, that's a discipline issue, not a health and safety one. Myth: Graduates are banned from throwing mortar boards Health and safety law doesn't stop graduates having fun and celebrating their success in the time-honoured fashion! The chance of being injured by a flying mortar board is incredibly small, and when the concern is actually about the hats being returned in good condition, it's time to stop blaming health and safety.
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