BabyBear
For thirty years I have been in the aviation business without an accident or any injury more drastic that stabing myself with a bit of lockin wire.
The one distracting thing that has inflated its self over the years is "elf & safety" it has produced large amounts of paperwork that distract from doing the job and stop people thinking about the dangers that they might be putting them selfs into ( I can assure you that a large aircraft can find more ways to hurt you than the "elf & safety could dream of untill after the event ) The result is we are producing people that cant see danger because the they think that someone will have removed all the risk from the workplace.
I have yet to meet an "elf & safety " officer that I would trust to run a tap (luke walm of course) and just like all petty officials they cant resist using the full range of the powers that they have to make themselfs seem important.
As I said in my last post saftey equipment should be used if the situation requires it and not by blanket dictate, during the recent snow on the airfield that I was working on we ditched the hi vis for dark clothing, that is called common sense but I doubt if the "elf & safety" types could see it that way from the windows of walm office.