It takes something like the story in this week's news of the worker crushed to death by three tonnes of stone slabs to remind us that workplace health & safety regulation is actually there for a reason.

It's sad that the overzealousness of some has served to make the rest of us take our eyes off the ball and treat workplace safety with disdain rather than respect - a statement I feel is borne out by the figures released yesterday, which show that the number of workplace deaths for the last year recorded, are virtually the same as the previous year's figure. With the knowledge and technology we have at our disposal, the number of deaths should fall considerably year on year. Because these aren't just figures we're talking about, are they? They're people - and most of them have families, which means that the figures aren't really representative of the true picture.

I think it's high time that health & safety got back to where it should be, so that we could all start to take it seriously once more...

Yours,

Jan Hobbs