Government Warning - Trees Can Damage Your Health
by ianrthorpe
first posted at Boggart Blog, 2006-11-19
URGENT HEALTH WARNING FROM H.M. GOVERNMENT - Standing under or near tress can seriously damage your health and lead may kill.
Our old friends at the Health and Safety Executive featured in our last blog (BTW apologies to readers who were expecting this post yesterday, there's a nasty bug going round the nether world and your favourite Boggart needed to take a sickie) when we highlighted Bozza Johnson's rantings at the ludicrous nannying of this bunch of hard - hatted, toetector - wearing fascists who seem intent on eliminating any kind of risk from our lives by making us prisoners of rules and regulations.
Now Boggart Blog pick up the standard itself and leads the resistance against the mindless bureaucracy of the clipboard wielding killjoys.
Two years ago in Dunham Massey Park, Cheshire, a family were enjoying a winter outing in woodland of the 250 year old plantation when a freak gust of wind caused a Beech to fall. In falling the tree brought down its neighbour which, tragically, killed an eight year old boy.
It was an accident and nobody tried to pretend otherwise. Al least until The Health and Safety Executive got wind of it. As far as the Hard - Hatted, toetector wearing clipboard wielding box tickers are concerned there is no such thing as an act of God, there are only failures of management. If enough boxes had been ticked that freak gust of wind could have been managed.
The HSE Inspectorate demanded that the police arrest the park manager for criminal negligence.
A year later the police dropped the case due to lack of evidence. Presumably all the witnesses, being trees, declined to be interviewed. But the clipboard wielders could not accept a healthy tree simply falling down as healthy trees do from time to time.
The hard - hatted toetector wearers (who, we imagine, all have those anally retentive moustaches that are never allowed to grow more than a quarter of an inch long) were determined that in order to prevent any future tree - related incidents they would ensure procedures were put in place to identify any trees posing a danger to public safety because of their likelihood of falling over in high winds. Also the HSE are determined that the owners of potentially unstable trees are aware of their duty to manage woodland properly.
Whether this results in the National Trust having to cut down all the millions of trees under their management or in those tracts of ancient woodland the weirdie beardies have fought so long and hard to protect from building firms being destroyed because of public safety issues remains to be seen.
If this all seems a bit over the top to you, remember the motto of the HSE is "You Can't Be Too Paranoid.
Here is a facsimilie of a leaflet you will shortly be receiving through the post which details the HSE's advice for tree safety.
Never go near trees when it is windy or it may become windy while you are there.
Do not let your dog worry trees, remember a frightened tree is a dangerous tree.
Do not try to feed trees, they may bite.
Do not catch trees or encourage them to follow you home, they make very bad domestic pets.
Always view trees from a safe distance, they can fall surprisingly quickly.
Do not consume fruit or nuts near trees. Seeing their offspring being eaten alive can upset them.
and finally
Always be wary of leaving the safety of your home to look for fun. Fun is dangerous and should be left to properly trained experts with adequate safety equipment.
Safety first second and third, fun nowhere,
The Health and Safety Executive
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