Tuesday - June 16, 2009

School bananas ban ‘over the top.  Ain’t this god-awful silly. England is SillyLand. Think not? Read

Now this is really over the top in Moonbat thinking. I find however that it’s typical for how they approach things here.

Some many years ago for example, a few people had problems with Halcion, someone may have even overdosed. So what’s their solution?
Easy. Ban Halcion. Never mind that a kazillion other ppl had taken it with no ill effects. Let one get sick and the boom gets lowered.

There are some doctors in the USA that don’t like Halcion and give Ambien instead. Of course, that drug is (or was five yrs ago) VERY expensive. But it didn’t mean you could never get the other, which was cheap and worked.  Anyway, this is how they do things here and it really is stupid.
With regard to this article, apparently a teacher had an allergy to bananas. Does that mean just being in the same room was enough to cause a problem? Was one of the kids trying to poison the teacher? This just seemed so darn silly I thought it deserved some space here.

A council leader has said a banana ban enforced at a primary school for two years was “over the top”.
Children at Stoke Damerel Primary School, in Plymouth, have been unable to include the popular snack in their packed lunches since 2007, as one of its staff members has a life-threatening allergy to them.

But after only just learning of the banana boycott, Vivien Pengelly, leader of Plymouth City Council, said she would ask officers to investigate.
Councillor Pengelly said: “This is the first I have heard about this and it does sound a bit over the top to me.

“It’s my experience as a headteacher that when there are allergies in a school we encourage children to manage the risk around them. I shall be asking officers to look at this particular case again to see whether anything else might be done.”

A spokeswoman for Plymouth City Council said it could not reveal the identity of the staff member involved, due to medical confidentiality.
She said: “A member of the school community has a severe life-threatening allergy to bananas and on the advice of the council, the school has asked pupils not to bring them in.

“These are very unusual circumstances but the school community has been supportive and understanding over the last two years.”
But the spokeswoman added the individual involved would be leaving the school in September - when bananas will be welcomed back to the facility.

She went on: “We cannot comment on specific individuals because of medical confidentiality. Most people know that individuals can have allergic reactions to substances, with nut allergies being particularly well-known.”

SOURCE

medical confidentiality?  FOR BANANAS?

Posted by peiper     on 06/16/2009 at 07:12 AM   
Filed Under: • Daily Life • Health and Safety • UK •  
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   Friday - May 08, 2009

After 400 years, health and safety bans stepladders from historic Oxford library…

THERE JUST CAN NOT BE ENOUGH BATS FOR THIS ONE. 

ELF ‘n’ SAFETY WIN AGAIN.  LATEST SCORE FROM THE BATTLEFIELD.  THE PUBLIC ZERO .... H AND S 1000%.

After 400 years, health and safety bans stepladders from historic Oxford library… but nobody can reach the books

By Lizzie Smith
Last updated at 7:00 PM on 08th May 2009

Stepladders have been banned from part of Oxford University’s historic Bodleian library - because of health and safety fears.

The ruling by officials means that students cannot use items on the higher shelves of the Duke Humfrey reading room.

However, the university is standing its ground and refusing to move the books from their ‘original historic location’ on the room’s balcony.

As a result of the stalemate, students have to travel to libraries as far away as London to view other copies.

Art History student Kelsey Williams, 21, had to travel 80 miles to London to view a copy of Arthur Johnston’s 1637 work Delitiae Poetarum Scotorum after librarians refused to get it down for her. She said: ‘Access to these books is necessary for my research and I wasted a day travelling to London and looking at the one in the British Library.

‘It’s madness because I can practically see the Bodleian’s copy every time I walk into Duke Humfrey’s.’

Stepladders have been used by scholars to reach books since the library was built more than 400 years ago.

But the University’s Health and Safety officer put his foot down last year and they were removed two weeks ago.

A notice given to students requesting the books reads: ‘Unable to fetch, book kept on top shelf in gallery. Due to new health and safety measures, stepladders can no longer be used.’

Laurence Benson, the library’s director of administration and finance, said: ‘The balcony has a low rail and we have been instructed by the health and safety office that this increases the risk.

‘As part of the process the restriction on the use of ladders on the balcony have been introduced.

‘The library would prefer to keep the books in their original historic location - where they have been safely consulted for 400 years prior to the instructions from the Health and Safety office.’

Posted by peiper     on 05/08/2009 at 02:22 PM   
Filed Under: • Health and Safety • Stoopid-People • UK •  
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   Thursday - May 07, 2009

Police constable refuses to mount a bike due to possible health and safety. And it gets funnier.

I’m not 100% certain the guy was serious. On the other hand, even if he was, in today’s climate he just may have a point.  And apparently there really is a proficiency test lasting two whole days on ....  RIDING A FREEKIN BIKE.  So maybe he was really complying with moonbat regs.

Oh dear,oh dear.  Look what the empire has come to.

PC refused to sit on bike for photo without proficiency test
Police officer Tony Cobban refused to pose on a stationary bicycle for a publicity photograph because he had not passed his cycling proficiency test.

By Daily Telegraph Reporter

The officer said he feared he could get into trouble without first having a risk-assessment conducted.

The community officer was following guidelines from his superiors at Lancashire Constabulary, which state that staff who have not taken the exam, a course taken by thousands of schoolchildren every year, are banned from using a bike.

Pc Cobban refused to even sit on the saddle during the photo shoot at Halfords, where two new bikes were donated to the police.

“It was basically a health and safety thing. I was just being cautious as I haven’t passed the cycling proficiency test,” he said.

“My personal view would be concern if anything happens to me while on the bike and it hasn’t been risk assessed or insured – in this day and age you have to cover all bases. It’s the way of the world.

“I could get on the bike but I’m not massively proficient.”

Inspector Nick Emmet, from Lancashire Constabulary, said Pc Cobban was right to be cautious.

“Our officers are required to be appropriately trained and assessed prior to using bikes for patrolling in order to comply with insurance and for the safety of themselves and the public.

“An increasing number of our neighbourhood officers do patrol their wards on bikes and their communities have welcomed this due to their increased effectiveness and visibility,” he said.

Fortunately, Pc Cobban’s colleague, PCSO Emma Nixon, had passed the test and was on hand to pose for a picture sat on one of the bikes.

But his actions have been ridiculed, even by the Lancashire Police Authority, the body responsible for the organisation of Lancashire Constabulary.

“I think it’s one of these PC gone mad things over PCs on bikes – I think having coppers on bikes is great,” said Cllr David Whipp, a member of the authority.

“I think the balance on health and safety is probably right but there may be one or two occasions where you raise your eyebrows.”

Councillor Geoff Driver, Conservative group leader for Lancashire County Council, also criticised the

“The mind boggles when a grown man can’t go on a bike for a photograph,” he said.

“When I hear stories like this I just think what on earth is going on.”

Mountain bikes are often used by beat officers to chase suspects down footpaths or passages that would be too narrow for a car.

Several forces have banned officers from riding bikes until they have passed a two-day proficiency test.

The decision followed the death of PCSO Christopher Maclure, 21, who was hit by a lorry in Wigan while on a mountain bike patrol in 2007.

A spokesman for Lancashire Constabulary said the cycling proficiency exam they use is a modified version of tests taken by children learning to ride bikes but is “police specific”, using in-house instructors issuing extra guidance such as how to use police radios while cycling.

TELEGRAPH

Posted by peiper     on 05/07/2009 at 10:24 AM   
Filed Under: • Health and Safety • Insanity • Nanny State • Stoopid-People • UK •  
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   Thursday - April 23, 2009

Czech troops in Afghanistan seen as cowards.  Refuse to fight leaving Brits to do it.

FROM, THE HINDUSTAN TIMES.

Czech troops in Afghanistan seen as cowards:

Agence France-Presse
Prague, April 22, 2009
PLEASE MR. CUSTER. I DON’T WANNA GO

Czech soldiers in Afghanistan have let their British command down by refusing to fight terrorists several times, the Czech daily DNES wrote on Wednesday. When asked by the Britons to attack Afghan rebels, the commander of a special operations unit (SOG) said “we’re not going to, it’s dangerous,” then ordered his men to get in trucks and return to the base.

On another occasion, an SOG commander decided that the task the Britons had set ran counter to the unit’s mission. Yet another time, a commander said he could not help as his soldiers were on vacation. “I find it hard to recover from the news I get about this unit. It harms the reputation of the army,” Czech Defence Minister Vlasta Parkanova told the daily.

Her ministry is now investigating the commanders of the SOG unit of up to 35 soldiers, currently deployed as part of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Logar province in eastern Afghanistan. The daily said SOG should not be confused with an acclaimed special unit of 100 soldiers serving in the southern Kandahar province within the Enduring Freedom operation.

The Czech army, which has lost three soldiers in Afghanistan since 2007, has another 275 people working in the Logar provincial reconstruction team, serving under ISAF. The SOG commanders argued that Czech laws did not say clearly whether their unit, trained to free hostages, should also help fight terrorists or protect humanitarian convoys.

The daily added the army was looking into the relevant law, but it was too late to mend its reputation now that that the Britons had started to work with Danish troops instead, leaving the specially trained Czech soldiers to serve as ordinary guards or bodyguards for diplomats.

A Czech soldier who was left guarding the base recalled how the Britons and Danes “left to fight and only laughed at us with contempt.”

Posted by peiper     on 04/23/2009 at 09:18 AM   
Filed Under: • Health and Safety • War-Stories •  
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   Sunday - April 19, 2009

Just can not let the subject go. Sorry. Here’s more ELF n SAFETY from the nanny club.

Well it ain’t gonna get a whole lot more schtupider den dis.
Cue the music for Laural and Hardy ...

If it’s getting dumber it’s also getting downright funnier as well. 

Now BBC health and safety mandarins won’t let three of the world’s toughest men light a stove in case they have accident

By Paul Revoir
Last updated at 12:41 AM on 18th April 2009

They are among the toughest and most resilient of men, having survived in some of the most unforgiving places on the planet.

But that does not mean that BBC health and safety mandarins trusted them to be left alone to light a Primus stove - in case they had an accident.


Sailor Sir Robin Knox-Johnston revealed the ‘absurd’ rules he, Sir Ranulph Fiennes and war reporter John Simpson were subjected to on BBC2 adventure series Top Dogs.

The three men went on gruelling trips to Afghanistan, around Cape Horn by boat and across the Canadian Arctic.

But the trio, each well-known for their survival skills in tough conditions, were all understood to have been taken aback by the health and safety rules.

This included a ban on lighting a Primus stove without supervision, and being given a ‘huge’ document warning them about hazards - such as tripping over.

Despite the fact that explorer Sir Ranulph, 65, was in the Army for eight years, he and Sir Robin, 70, were also sent on a ‘hostile environment course’.

And the trio were given guidance from an expert in Arctic exploration - even though Sir Ranulph has two medals for his polar expeditions.

Sir Ranulph was the first person to cross Antarctica by foot and has been described as the world’s greatest living explorer.
A stove

He famously cut off his own frostbitten fingertips after a doomed attempt to walk unsupported to the North Pole in 2000.

Sir Robin, meanwhile, was the first man to sail singlehanded and non-stop around the globe, and in 1994 won the Jules Verne Trophy for the fastest circumnavigation of the world by yacht.

The comments from Sir Robin come days after similar remarks from Simpson, 64, who has been shelled in Afghanistan, bombed with poison gas in the Iran-Iraq war and dodged bullets in Tiananmen Square.

Simpson complained about the health and safety ‘nonsense’ surrounding the series, which ended last night, saying he was given a risk assessment form ‘the size of a telephone directory’ for one episode.

Sir Robin said: ‘Ran and I were told we could not light a Primus stove unless we were supervised. So that’s the kind of nonsense you get.

‘This young man came in and said he was going to supervise and we told him to clear off. Or words to that effect.’

The sailor added: ‘It was just absurd. What do you think we cook on in boats?’

He attacked the BBC’s insistence on giving the men an expert in Arctic exploration to make sure they kept safe. Sir Robin claimed: ‘He had about 10 per cent of Ran’s knowledge.’

He added: ‘When you read the health and safety document, it is ridiculous. You just read it and thought you have got to be joking. This is just to create paperwork.’

He added: ‘Ran’s view was very similar to mine.’

But Sir Robin did praise the training for their Afghan trip, which taught them how to deal with being kidnapped.

A BBC ‘general risk assessment form’ shown on the National Union of Journalists’ website provides a list of hazards including trip hazard, slippery surface, attacked by animal, ionizing and non-ionizing radiation, lightning strike, laser light, noise, vibration, litter and stress.

On Thursday, the Daily Mail reported how health and safety rules meant BBC staff had to have a paramedic and a first aider watching over them when they changed a car wheel.

Producers had to fill out a risk assessment before the two BBC Radio Essex presenters each took off a wheel for a feature on programme about learning new skills.

A BBC spokesman said of Top Dogs: ‘The BBC takes its responsibilities for health and safety very seriously.

‘We knew that for each programme, one of the trio would be completely comfortable, operating in their own environment, but for the two novices learning the ropes, it was important that we minimised the risks as much as possible.’

MAIL

Posted by peiper     on 04/19/2009 at 07:47 AM   
Filed Under: • Health and Safety • UK •  
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