"michael adams" wrote:
"Nightjar .me.uk" "cpb"@ insert my surname here wrote in message

There is a hierarchy of ways to protect people from risk. At the top end is isolating
them from it entirely, although fully automated coal delivery is probably a long way in
the future. Training alone comes at the bottom, as an absolute last resort, when
nothing else is possible. Providing them with the proper equipment to do the job with a
minimum of risk comes somewhere around the middle.

...

That would all depend on how much risk experienced coal delivery men were
actually subjected to. Either in the past and at present. Which could
best be assessed by the number of coalmen employed in any particular
period past or present, as against the number of coalmen reporting
themselves injured again during that same period.

Without any actual statistics any subjective assessment of risk
remains just that. Purely subjective. And might be open to all
kinds of bias, both from people trying to create careers for
themselves, or so as to sell various types of equipment.



I think there's also a big danger of adding new dangers when trying to
eliminate obvious ones. Adding "equipment" sounds fine and dandy but I'm
sure I can't be alone in slipping and falling backwards when trying to
pull a loaded sack barrow up a step or two. That's just one example. Add a
winch for lifting sacks and you've added a whole new potential series of
"accidents waiting to happen".

Tim