Call for change in attitudes towards health and safety

The Chief Executive of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) has called for a re-examination of what he calls “the national hypocrisy” surrounding health and safety. He argues that this hypocrisy is exemplified by the fact that issues like swine flu are taken seriously, while other topics are viewed with a derision that risks lives.

In his report to RoSPA’s annual meeting, taking place in Birmingham today, Tom Mullarkey says that work to reduce the number of people killed in accidents is being set back by an obsession with minor health and safety exasperations, which diverts attention from accident prevention. 

He said:

“I have yet to meet anyone whose health and safety, or that of their loved ones, is not their most important priority. But if you live in the UK today, you might be forgiven for thinking that health and safety is the Enemy of the State. Asking the man in the street, as we frequently do, reveals that many people describe health and safety as having ‘gone too far’ and believe that it represents unwelcome control from the ‘nanny state’. We seem to have developed a national hypocrisy on health and safety which needs to be re-examined."

The number of deaths registered as accidental in the UK has risen in recent years. In 2007, there were 13,700 accidental deaths. Accidents remain the principal cause of death up to the age of 35. The latest HSE statistics released last week showed that workplace fatal injuries fell from 233 in 2007/08 to a record low of 180 in 2008/09, and there was a reduction of more than 7,000 in the number of workplace injuries classified as serious or incurring more than three days absence from work.

Mullarkey continued:

“Despite the public perception that there is too much unnecessary intervention, the reality is that ‘accidental’ deaths have increased and the two may indeed be linked. Accidents blight our society and our communities, taking away the most vulnerable, and they cost us all in monetary terms, very dearly. Where then, are the headlines that the scale of such tragedy and impact merits?

“People need to understand the big picture if they are to balance the huge value of health and safety against the minor irritants. It is time for the media, at all levels, to stop tilting at the windmills and get down to the serious business of supporting accident prevention.”

New IOSH President, John Holden, this week also called for health and safety professionals to do more to to take responsibility for challenging the poor public image of the health and safety industry. Speaking at the IOSH annual dinner, he said:

“Improving the health and safety brand and the image of our profession, so we can focus on doing our jobs, is our fight.”

He referred to much of the media coverage of health and safety as being “nonsense” and “a smokescreen that has come to irritate and choke all of us who simply want to get in there and save lives, prevent illness and injury and improve people’s quality of life.”

He added that it was unfortunate that “’elf ‘n’ safety’ has become something of a comic cliché, a byword for nanny-statism, and an easy target for those looking for a good moan.”