Safety expert rails against derision towards health & safety sector.
With all the potential careers available in our modern, fast-paced and constantly changing world, what possesses someone to eschew careers as astronauts, brain surgeons or underwear application engineer to Angelina Jolie to become a health and safety inspector? Is it, as they would have us believe, a desire to make the world a safer place or is it, at it often seems, merely a cover for preventing others having fun.
Now don’t get us wrong, we have enormous respect for health and safety inspectors and the part they have played in reducing the number of incidents and accidents in the demolition industry. But their insistence that tree-climbing, bicycle-riding, skateboarding and a multitude of other activities we all enjoyed without harm during our formative years should now be considered “hazardous” has escalated their like to the very top of most people’s “person I would least like to be stuck in an elevator with” lists.
Case in point? Meet Karen Baxter, managing director of Sypol, the leading global provider of workplace and eco risk management services. Baxter apparently “has more than 15 years’ experience of occupational hygiene, is a Chartered Member of the Institute of Occupational Safety and Health and has been advising customers with regard to management of occupational health and well-being for nearly 20 years.” Sounds like an absolute life-and-soul-of-the-party hoot, doesn’t she?
Well, Ms Baxter has hit out at those who pour scorn on her industry and like to refer to it as ‘Elf and Safety’, despite the fact that 180 people a year die in workplace accidents and more than 246,000 are injured.
In an article published this month, Baxter says people who make jokes about safety at work wouldn’t take the same attitude towards an air accident. “If a plane crashed and killed 180 people, we wouldn’t be having a good laugh and call it ‘Sky Pixie Syndrome’,” she says. “Health and Safety has become the acceptable butt of everyone’s humour, partly because the media loves silly stories and partly because we’ve allowed ourselves to drown in acronyms and paperwork instead of addressing the real issues. As a result, small businesses in particular have been discouraged from adopting sensible practices.”
There is no question that she makes a valid point and that everyone needs to be more safety conscious. But we can’t help wondering if it’s the weight of paperwork and the use of acronyms that prevent small businesses taking safety issues seriously, or the holier-than-thou, do-gooder attitude of Ms Baxter and her ilk.
