Health & Safety, has it gone to far?

[RogerS]

stupid rules, like wearing goggles to use a electric combi drill (that is stupid... right?).

Why wouldn't you ? Most power tools are capable of throwing debris back into your face. In the past I had a couple of nasty scares when I've been hit in the eyes. I never again intend to have to explain to an A&E doctor that I wasn't wearing any safety kit.
Any eye injury is absolutely horrible, safety glasses are easy and comfortable to wear, stupid not to.

I routinely put on safety glasses as I go into the workshop, or do any DIY. It's become like putting a seat belt on when driving, absolutely routine.

This is one thing where I will whole heartly disagree. The abosolute worst kind of debris that flys off a combi drill is a hazardous and as likely to harm you as a large insect flying into your eye outside in the summer, so with this logic you should wear goggles outside as well; why wouldn't you? I imagine its entirely possible a hornet flying into your face could blind you I a most unplesant manner, but the likelyhood of that happening is low enough to make it clearly silly to walk around with goggles. This is much my view when using combi drills in the workshop and I personally find that slight loss of vision that goggles subject you to more likely to cause an injury than debris from a combi drill.

And when the drill snaps? Fair enough - they are your eyes - just feel a little bit miffed that you'll be draining the NHS of resources when it could have been prevented.

I was wearing specs but not ones that enclosed the eyes..ie there was a gap between the bottom of them and my cheeks. I was cutting some wood on the SCMS and a largish chunk of wood flew up vertically - between the glasses and my cheek - and stopped across my eyeball socket. I now wear ones that are totally enclosing. I can see perfectly well with them.

 

[Bm101]

Ryolith, I wear these because they go over my specs, they are dead comfy and don't mist up easily. Best ones I've ever used, I forget I'm wearing them. Even doing sanding or something innocuous they keep the dust away from your blinkers. Whats not too like. Great product for a tenner or £5 an eye...
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B000 ... sr_ph&sr=1

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I had a snotty letter from the local council H&S people when I was working in a cellar, telling me I was no longer to bounce kils of beer off a loading bay onto a dolly as it was dangerous. They'd obviously never seen any the tens of thousands of kils being thrown off drays onto dollies every day of the week. I believe they thought the drays were equipped with sky hooks.

 

[Jelly]

My other hobby is rock climbing, most H&S bods would love it

Me too. But we carry out our own risk assessment. And that is precisely what H&SE is about...risk assessment. So if you have belayed properly then job done. "Climbing".

Funny you should mention that, I was an avid mountaineer for some time but about 18 months ago made a dodgy assessment of the risks involved in doing a 1000m unroped scramble with short sections of Diff/VDiff climbing. Totally forgot to consider how secure the rock was and lo and behold it failed beneath my feet on the VDiff section and I took a 15' fall onto a terrace and tumbled another 30' bouncing off terraces until I landed on a steep scree where I could get on my back with feet out and heels dug in before finally being stopped when my pack got caught up on a dead tree, leaving me with my feet hanging over a 150' drop...

Looking back, the danger was obvious but because it was a lovely sunny day, no wind, and we'd done 4 similar ones that week, I failed to account for the true risks and very nearly paid with my legs, if not my life!

I still have flashbacks of that incident occasionally and haven't led or scrambled since... But I got a lot better at risk assessment!

 

[Bm101]

The buzzword is Dynamic Risk Assessment.

 

[DiscoStu]

As a mountain leader responsible for taking young people into the mountains I am very aware of risk assessments and dynamic risk assessments. None of it is rocket science or difficult to do. It's just simply taking a bit of time out to think about the risks you're likely to encounter and what you can do about them. Dynamic just means you're doing it whilst the event is taking place. Most people call a Dynamic risk assessment: common sense! The main thing is just to consciously do it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Mark A]

I fell through a ceiling yesterday.

I know what you will all say... "you should have put on a harness!"

Well, in hindsight it probably would have prevented me getting some bumps and bruises on the way down, but they're not the most practical of things to wear on site...
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.



:mrgreen:

 

[Wuffles]

It's a nightmare getting steelies through the holes in those things. I don't blame you.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Rhyolith]

This is one thing where I will whole heartly disagree. The abosolute worst kind of debris that flys off a combi drill is a hazardous and as likely to harm you as a large insect flying into your eye outside in the summer

Never had a drill break then ? or hit something really hard in a wall eg flint, masonry nail etc

I personally find that slight loss of vision that goggles subject you

You need to buy decent PPE then. A good pair of goggles cost less than a tenner.

I am talking about drill drivers (sorry not combi drills), in wood. I don't use a hammer drill, but I would certainly be wearing eye protection for anything with stone being cut or broken. Drilling wood I think its a nonesenese to wear goggles, as even with a 1 1/2" spade but doing 1300rpm there still it nothing flying more than a few inches anywhere but down...