Crying over spilt milk coffee deciphering H & S jargon

摘要

The other week I spilt my coffee. At home mind you, but a safety incident none the less. I did not need to fill in an incident form, report it or investigate it, but it did get me thinking about safety and health, about near miss reporting, hazard identification and control mechanisms. It got me thinking about whether I was a hazard that morning and what I could have done differently to stop the burn from happening in the first place. Perhaps more importantly, it made me realise how jargon-filled health and safety can be. All of this from a spilt coffee you say? Well yes. And not surprisingly, because the incident happened at home it had more of a personal impact. There was no legal requirement to report, investigate or do anything about it. Yet in hindsight, it provided a powerful lesson in why managing health and safety (H&S) is so important irrespective of whether you are at work or not.