Hello and welcome to Connect
David Cameron’s pledge last week to crack down on Britain’s
‘over-the-top’ health and safety culture is as flawed as
The Daily Mail headlines he used to back up his
speech.
And as we’ve seen before when politicians try and jump on a
bandwagon, substance is often lost in the clamber for votes.
Critically, in my opinion, Cameron had the wrong profession in his
sights. Instead of cosying up to the newspapers which perpetuate
the myths that somehow health and safety is to blame for much of
society’s ills, Cameron should be rounding on the media for its
part in falsely reporting on health and safety issues.
But, seeing through the predictable soundbites which came from
his speech last week, Cameron has actually highlighted an important
cultural issue that IOSH does welcome: people’s growing confusion
and damaged confidence when it comes to managing day-to-day risk.
With the fear of litigation at the heart of this debate, the speech
did give IOSH the opportunity to make its call for us all to move
away from a culture of blame to one that’s based on better ‘risk
intelligence’.
While it was frustrating to see Cameron retelling old myths,
IOSH most definitely welcomes any serious debate about risk and
responsibility.
In this issue of Connect, we look at corporate social responsibility and the
critical role health and safety professionals can play in
implementing a CSR strategy.
In our other feature article,
we report how, according to research, up to 50 per cent of all
respiratory protective equipment used doesn’t offer the wearer the
level of protection assumed, often because it isn’t fitted
correctly. We’ve a good practice guide on face-fit testing which
looks at what face-fit testing is, and who can carry it out.
For our On the record feature, we talk to Vernon
Coaker, Minister of State for Schools and Learners, about the value
of learning about risk at school.
Finally, we have all the latest news from the profession,
including how firms should be given a helping hand by the
government in tackling the root causes of ill-health.
If you’ve got any comments on Connect, or you’d like to
be included in one of our interviews, then please drop me a line.
Thanks for reading.
Shaun Gibbons
e-Editor, IOSH