It’s time for some leadership here and it should start with managers showing common sense and determining real incidents for concern and responding appropriately, and its time for health and safety advisers to be frank and tell their bosses when an “over the top” reaction is likely to do more harm than good.

http://www.hse.gov.uk/news/judith-risk-assessment/a-sting-in-the-tale220814.htm

matt – you’ll like this I think.

Just downloaded it, going to read it at the weekend

https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=3GP5AgAAQBAJ

A copy of that arrived at work for me today. 8)

The IOSH course is going to be hard work in a few weeks time…. 😕

Then the real effort comes, in delivering risk benefit courses to council staff in charge of schools, insurance and h&s… 😯

We’ve turned the corner and are about to go full circle …

A copy of that arrived at work for me today.

*shocked face*

council staff in charge of schools, insurance and h&s

well if you will hang out with the public sector… 😉

Someone somewhere had been stung while in the workplace and the work manager was demanding to see the risk assessment and wanted a full investigation into the incident.

We all know this happened in the public sector, dont we 😉

It’s those two bastions of public sector employment, Construction and Agriculture that manage to knock off the most employees.

EDIT: 😉

Matt you wouldn’t believe the amount of time taken up with insect bite guff in our firms weekly AG Services incident calls.
Best one was a bloke who shattered his hand when a wasp(well was it a wasp or 100 other things that looked like a wasp) landed on his hand & instead of brushing it off he smashed his hand over violently onto a boat wheel house bulkhead!

Oh and I kid you not we now have a safety acronyms used in the company including SCAT & STD 😮

We are trying to get an extraction system installed at work and have been asked for an MSDS for air…

Good to see the HSE’s recent work on highlighting what is reasonable and what is just nonsense, Matt if you join your local IOSH group you’ll find it an excellent source of sensible advice.

deadlydarcy – Member
It’s those two bastions of public sector employment, Construction and Agriculture that manage to knock off the most employees

Surely that’s stoner’s point; the private sector doesn’t give a shit as they’re too busy coked-up and rolling naked in fifty quid notes ?

rolling naked in fifty quid notes ?

And Ive never had to write up an accident report for the paper cuts I got on my little todger as a result.

used notes, lad, that way the edges are softer

MrOvershoot – Member

Oh and I kid you not we now have a safety acronyms used in the company including SCAT & STD

You may laugh but it’s fresher’s week here, STD is a serious health and safety concern. I’m not touching anything I’ve not disinfected myself.

used notes, lad, that way the edges are softer

We tried that, but it was deemed an infection risk, so we had to go back to new ones.

back to the op’s post.. wasp sting in work place and subsequent full investigation.. why not?

if like all reasonable workplaces the company has an annual or application form that includes a health questionaire for employees there is a reasonable chance that someone may suffer from Anaphylaxis. would it be unreasonable of them to expect that the employer had warned them of the prescence/potential of stinging insects in the work place and would it be unreasonable for them to expect given that they have declared a condition that the first aiders have been notified, that a course of action has been planned and that the first aid kit is suitably equipped..

i say this having employed a lad who declared on his application that he had a weak arm following cancer who subsequently years down the line virtually had his arm removed whilst holding a rope that suddenly snatched… even though i had offered him the help of a colleague to hold the rope which he refused i was found liable as i should have insisted as i was previously aware of his potential for injury.

would it be unreasonable of them to expect that the employer had warned them of the prescence/potential of stinging insects in the work place

Seriously?

Which workplace in the UK would not have this potential? Unless you work in a specialist sealed environment everywhere would potentially have wasps.

health questionaire for employees there is a reasonable chance that someone may suffer from Anaphylaxis.

That would be reasonable and to make the first aiders on site aware. I assume that if you suffer from the condition you would carry your own “epi pen” or whatever.

subsequent full investigation

As HSE ask, what are you actually investigating?

If someone was stung and it turned out they suffered from Anaphylaxis then that would need an investigation but not the actual sting. You would need to be thinking about your induction procedures and certain individuals working in certain areas may require a risk assessment. e.g. Someone suffering from Anaphylaxis working next to bee hives.

A mate of mine is a local authority health & safety advisor. He regularly despairs of tbe nonsense that he gets asked about and some of the stuff that gets done that he really should have been asked about.

Most health and safety people are pretty level headed. It’s useless insurance underwriters and paranoid middle managers with no common sense that are the issue

would it be unreasonable of them to expect that the employer had warned them of the prescence/potential of stinging insects in the work place

That bit yes – wasps can be anywhere. Take it for granted that there’s always a wasp risk.

The first aid warning/training though, that’s fair enough.

Most health and safety people are pretty level headed. It’s useless insurance underwriters and paranoid middle managers with no common sense that are the issue

You haven’t worked with local authority h&s then? 😉

Currently I am arguing with one who won’t allow kids to touch anything on a class field trip to the beach, another that has risk assessed all mud and dust outdoors as a hazard that children should not be exposed to (ever), another that wants to put fences all round a small raised platform and grass bank so that the kids won’t slip off ( but the fences the kids could climb, so being higher and falling off head first when they do fall…), another that has deemed car tyres and raised wooden beds such a fire hazard that they are banned from all schools (but tyres ON cars are not a fire risk…), another nursery that won’t allow kids to walk down two steps in case they fall down them etc etc….

And totalshell – the first quoted comment in first post., is aimed at you.

Matt – shurely the key element in those RA’s you mention above is to eliminate the commom factor. Ban children! It would work you know…

I like your thinking.
Maybe we should keep them all like in the Matrix…productive you see, but contained. 😆

matt – read my post, my mate is a council H&S guy and he has just laughed himself silly at your post. You soft northern jessies!

[/quote] i say this having employed a lad who declared on his application that he had a weak arm following cancer who subsequently years down the line virtually had his arm removed whilst holding a rope that suddenly snatched… even though i had offered him the help of a colleague to hold the rope which he refused i was found liable as i should have insisted as i was previously aware of his potential for injury.

Despite this total shell, you don’t seem to have really grasped it yet.