Health & Safety gone MAD
2 May 2014 by Evoluted New Media
In the first LN Companion Series of 2014, we take a look at some of the Health & Safety issues facing laboratory professionals. “It’s health & safety GONE MAD” I’m sure you have heard that, you may even have said it. And at times it seems undeniably true. From claims of school children being banned from playing conkers to charity shops refusing to sell knitting needles, health & safety legislation has borne the brunt of many a vitriolic headline. Interestingly though, almost every one of them has been false. A few years ago The Health and Safety Executive dedicated a section of its website to de-bunking these myths. And all the old favourites are in there…office workers prevented from putting up Christmas decorations, trapeze artists being forced to wear hard hats – each and every one of them not required by H&S law. So it appears that when it comes to work place hazards in general life, the law is less of an ass than imagined. Certainly that is the case when it comes to the safe working environment of laboratory personnel – something that represents a very specific microcosm of occupational hazards. Chemical, biological even psychological – all very real, potentially damaging and expensive hazards. As such the guidance, approaches and law surrounding the mitigation of these hazards changes often, meaning H&S has become a major part of the operation of any laboratory. For many scientists escaping work-related risk altogether is impossible, but what is possible is the management of real risks in a sensible and proportionate way.
