We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the
drugs began to take hold. I remember saying something
like:

A big part of the problem is the absence of a power balance. What the
safety man says goes, and its that simple. If there were the practical
ability to say no you got that wrong and have someone else decide, the
numerous flights of imagination they suffer would be curtailed
somewhat. OTOH the slew of ignorant objections would take up a whole
lot of time - there lies the problem.

A couple of years ago I did an H&S short intro course and we were asked
to make a list of all the items in and outside the hall that *might*
pose a danger to someone. In fact, there were a couple of dodgy items
(broken socket, rusted bracket on water tank), but it was a hoot
populating the list with all sorts of utterly trivial stuff that nobody
in their right mind would bother with.

Amazingly, the H&S bod took it all seriously and promised they would all
be attended to.