The $22,800 fake one, though purportedly superior on health and safety grounds, was unpopular and got vandalized. [UPI, earlier; h/t reader VMS in comments]
Posts Tagged ‘safety’
“Narcoleptic Hillside dispatcher settles wrongful termination suit”
Illinois: “A Hillside police dispatcher who was fired after telling a supervisor she suffered from narcolepsy– which can cause its victims to fall asleep unexpectedly — has tentatively settled her lawsuit against the west suburban town.” [WGN Chicago; & welcome Above the Law readers]
U.K.: Xmas tree “designed according to principles of health and safety”
The new holiday decoration in the town of Poole, Dorset,
has no trunk so it won’t blow over, no branches to break off and land on someone’s head, no pine needles to poke a passer-by in the eye, no decorations for drunken teenagers to steal and no angel, presumably because it would need a dangerously long ladder to place it at the top.
One onlooker describes it as “horrible”. [Times Online via Free-Range Kids; & welcome Damon Root/Reason “Hit and Run” (calling us “the indispensable Overlawyered.com”, Coyote, Ed Driscoll, Musing Minds readers]
U.K.: “Health and safety snoops to enter family homes”
Reads like a parody: “Health and safety inspectors are to be given unprecedented access to family homes to ensure that parents are protecting their children from household accidents.” [Times Online]
What it means for a product to be “safe”
Don Boudreaux has some thoughts on that. [Cafe Hayek]
For fear of choking
Schools across the United Kingdom are enacting rules against traditionally tied boys’ neckties in favor of clip-ons, citing safety concerns. [BBC via Free Range Kids]
Things that sound like parodies but aren’t
Update: “UPS to allow hard-of-hearing drivers”
Sued-if-you-do, sued-if-you-don’t dept.: “United Parcel Service tentatively settled a 10-year-old lawsuit Tuesday by agreeing to allow some deaf and hard-of-hearing employees to compete for jobs driving small delivery vans after special testing and training. …UPS argued that deaf drivers were more likely to get into accidents because they couldn’t hear sirens, screeching tires or other danger signals.” [Egelko/SF Chronicle] We covered the litigation in 2006.
Wales: “School bans ‘dangerous’ swimming goggles”
“A school has banned children from wearing goggles during swimming lessons for fear they could hurt themselves.” [Telegraph (U.K.) via Cathy Gellis, who writes, “As a swimming teacher — in fact, one who doesn’t actually like her students to use goggles — I feel competent, and confident, in saying this school is insane.”]
U.K.: “Old school tie is shunned amid safety concerns”
The Guardian: “In its annual review, the Schoolwear Association reports a surge in schools switching to clip-on ties because of the potential strangulation risks of the older version. More than half of schools choosing new ties are switching to clip-ons.”