A spin cycle too fast

There's a headline in Metro today: Why your boss may be a "cold blooded killer". The quote is from Dr David White of the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies at the University of London's King's College.

Dr White is publicising a new report he co-wrote which argues that HSE budget cuts and a culture of lighter enforcement mean that occupational fatalities are often underinvestigated. The report contrasts the total of 1400 work-related deaths in 2006-07 (excluding occupational diseases but including at-work road deaths) with the numbers killed through violent crime (about half as many), saying there is a moral panic about street murder while the bigger total is ignored or misreported in a culture of silence.

So far, so reasonable. The report makes some decent points, but White, who is on the board of the pressure group the Centre for Corporate Accountability risks undermining his own point by telling the press workplace deaths are "cold-blooded and planned more than street murders". Negligence is may be as terrible as viciousness in its effects sometimes, and there are moves to better recognise that in the recent corporate manslughter legislation and the current sentencing bill but the two are not the same thing.

The length of HSE's outreach

The HSE is running a safety awareness day on 2 July in Lerwick for Shetland farmers and crofters, covering animal handling, dust, work at height, child safety and the use of quad bikes.

Attendees are promised "refreshments: soup and a filled roll". Which is only fair as many will have come quite a way.

Encouraging public whistleblowing

Here's a sign typical of ones I saw on several construction sites on a recent trip to the US. It's the equivalent of the "How is my driving?" notices some hauliers put on the back of their large goods vehicles. Except that the 311 on this sign doesn't get you through to the builder's head office but to the New York city authorities.

Encouraging passers-by to act as whistleblowers for construction risks may not be a bad idea (in our coverage of the HSE's recent blitz of refurbishment sites, one of the inspectors said he had been alerted to unsafe roof work by a member of the public).

The only obvious drawbacks are that most casual observers won't know they are looking at a lack of edge protection or absent banksmen, or might call in things that aren't actually hazardous. Plus the fact that the contractors who most warrant this kind of attention are the least likely ever to put up a sign inviting it.