Health and Safety is Just Common Sense?

1. Health and Safety is Just Common Sense? John Johnston of Health and Safety for Beginners www.healthandsafetytips.co.uk www.healthandsafetytips.co.uk

2. Are you fed up hearing the phrase… Health and safety is just common sense. The following responses have been collected from the HSfB discussion forums and the IOSH discussion forums to help people understand that it’s clearly not! www.healthandsafetytips.co.uk

3. HSE is just common sense… • HSE is not common sense, it is based on the law and needs to be approached with intelligence and an inquiring mind. • The sad thing about common sense is that it isn't that common – Mark Twain. • A control measure that would have prevented a mishap is often glaringly obvious after the event. In other words, hindsight tends to be a wonderful thing. We have a tendency to call this common sense. www.healthandsafetytips.co.uk

4. HSE is just common sense… • Everybody gets so much information all day long that they lose their common sense. • Common sense is an excuse for not thinking, and at its worse merely reifies the ignorance of the man in the pub. Common sense will tell you that the Sun moves round the Earth, that humans were created by God, and that lightning comes down from the sky. • It forbids enquiry, and would, for example, permit the egregious falsehoods in the 'amusing' piece quoted by D Whiteleg above to stand unchallenged. www.healthandsafetytips.co.uk

5. HSE is just common sense… • No amount of common sense can tell you if an electrical cable has a hidden fault or if ceiling tiles contain asbestos. • Most accidents happen on roads with a dark coloured surface - Common sense is that changing the colour to a light one will reduce accidents! • The increased use of police speed cameras is a common sense response to prevent the public from speeding. www.healthandsafetytips.co.uk

6. HSE is just common sense… • An example of a young child putting their hand into a cup of steaming water. Common sense will tell adults that if there is steam rising then it is hot, but as a child has not experienced this he has no "common sense", which is not correct. Common sense is based on experience and training. Don’t wait for someone to have an accident to get common sense. • Once there has been and accident you realise common sense is not quite as common as you thought. www.healthandsafetytips.co.uk

7. HSE is just common sense… • Common sense is learned behaviour. Therefore, 'common sense' is only 'common' when you have an awareness and understanding of the topic and/ or environment in which it is to be applied. • The majority of health and safety practice is just GOOD sense. www.healthandsafetytips.co.uk

8. Health and Safety is Just Common Sense? John Johnston of Health and Safety for Beginners www.healthandsafetytips.co.uk www.healthandsafetytips.co.uk