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 •  
• Comments (2) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

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