Debunking Health and Safety Myths

When you ask the question ‘is it important to keep people safe and healthy in the workplace?’ the answer will always be ‘yes!’.

And yet ‘Elf and Safety’ has a very bad reputation in the national press. Why is this?

From time to time people in the workplace make mistakes regarding what needs to be done in the name of Health and Safety. Measures are taken which are clearly ‘over the top’ and when the press find out, they have a lot of fun.

But the press ignore the routine, sensible measures which millions of managers take to safeguard their staff and people who could be affected by work activities. These managers don’t make it into the papers, but it is their compliance with health and safety law which means that the UK has the LOWEST accident rates in Europe, and the best working conditions in the world. There has been a 73% FALL in the number of work related deaths since 1974 when the Health and Safety at Work Act was introduced.

If only the press were as interested in this good news…

The Health and Safety Executive work hard to debunk health and safety myths, and promote common sense measures in the workplace to keep people safe.

The Myth: Health and Safety is preventing children learning by banning science experiments in school.

The Facts:

Hands-on lessons are an essential part of learning. They bring science to life and also teach kids how to handle dangerous substances safely.

Classroom demos can be spectacular - just ask HSE Chair Judith Hackitt. Earlier this year she 'set her hands alight' - safely - to show science and sensible risk management in action!

There's no reason why health and safety should stop schools carrying out science experiments. They can help children learn how to manage risk - and all that's required in most cases are a few sensible precautions.

The HSE support sensible risk management.