A History of Health and Safety
From IOSH.
Original article at The Telegraph; Craig Brown.
Re. 'A health and safety history of Britain.'
Wednesday - September 21, 2005
The Editor
The Daily Telegraph
Salters Hall
3rd Floor
4 Fore Street
London
EC2Y 5DT
Dear Sir,
Re: ‘Way of the World - A health and safety history of Britain’, The Daily Telegraph, 15.9.05
Craig Brown’s ‘amusing’ piece of fiction conveniently ignores the rather less amusing fact that many thousands of deaths occurred during these historic events.
However, in an attempt to keep this light-hearted…what a shame it is that IOSH wasn’t around in those days! The modern ‘health and safety officer’ doesn’t go around indiscriminately stopping activities, we advocate an approach of enabling activities to take place, but in safety.
So in an IOSH-coloured history all these events would have taken place, but with fewer casualties…apart from where Boudicca is concerned – she usually got her way!
The history of health and safety in Britain is fascinating, it is intimately linked with the social history of Britain and is full of discovery, triumph and unfortunately far too much tragedy.
So it’s rather sad that journalists increasingly choose to make the butt of their jokes a group of professionals dedicated to saving lives and helping businesses to function more efficiently. Surely such writing talent could be focussed on more positive aspects?
Yours sincerely,
Neil Budworth
IOSH President-Elect
Original article at The Telegraph; Craig Brown.
Re. 'A health and safety history of Britain.'
Wednesday - September 21, 2005
The Editor
The Daily Telegraph
Salters Hall
3rd Floor
4 Fore Street
London
EC2Y 5DT
Dear Sir,
Re: ‘Way of the World - A health and safety history of Britain’, The Daily Telegraph, 15.9.05
Craig Brown’s ‘amusing’ piece of fiction conveniently ignores the rather less amusing fact that many thousands of deaths occurred during these historic events.
However, in an attempt to keep this light-hearted…what a shame it is that IOSH wasn’t around in those days! The modern ‘health and safety officer’ doesn’t go around indiscriminately stopping activities, we advocate an approach of enabling activities to take place, but in safety.
So in an IOSH-coloured history all these events would have taken place, but with fewer casualties…apart from where Boudicca is concerned – she usually got her way!
The history of health and safety in Britain is fascinating, it is intimately linked with the social history of Britain and is full of discovery, triumph and unfortunately far too much tragedy.
So it’s rather sad that journalists increasingly choose to make the butt of their jokes a group of professionals dedicated to saving lives and helping businesses to function more efficiently. Surely such writing talent could be focussed on more positive aspects?
Yours sincerely,
Neil Budworth
IOSH President-Elect
posted by Jonathan | Monday, September 26, 2005
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