The Wardman Wire

Further adventures of a Danger Expert. 

I don’t know about you but when I get given that little packet of peanuts on an aeroplane I expect it to contain nuts.  In fact if I open it and find it doesn’t have any nuts in, I shall be a tiny bit disappointed.  So just exactly why do the manufacturers find it necessary to put a warning on the side of the bag “May contain nuts”?

Don’t get me wrong, I understand about the need to label food properly so that those who suffer from food allergies can make informed decisions, which can quite literally be a matter of life or death for some people.  But is it really necessary to warn us that a packet of nuts may actually contain nuts?

This is just one aspect of the “cotton wool wrapped” “bonkers conkers” society, which increasingly threatens to take over our lives and is rapidly swamping “sensible safety”.  I’ve been collecting some other examples this week and I’d like to share a few with you.

I drive through a small village every day on my way to work which has an attractive assortment of hedges and trees along the road that vary in the colour of their fruit and flowers from season to season and brighten up the morning drive.  However a few weeks ago my eye was caught by something altogether different.  On every single telegraph pole along the road in this village is a bright yellow A4 sign with a lurid graphic of a bolt of lighting shooting from the heavens to strike the hapless individual on the sign – who clearly didn’t know what a telegraph pole was – and the words “danger of death”.  Is this really necessary?  Are there really that many people who don’t realise that it’s a bit silly to climb up telegraph poles and touch the wires?  Bear in mind that we aren’t likely to be talking about children here as climbing these poles is no easy matter.  Or is this just another “better safe than sorry”, over the top response to something that is really not a significant risk?

I’ve also had my attention drawn to a magnificently redundant road sign (from the USA inevitably) which proclaims “Danger of water in road during rain”, while highlighted on Radio 2 this morning was a supermarket car park sign “Beware, pedestrians walking”!

As a professional Danger Expert this kind of laughable use of warnings by people who probably meant well depresses me.  It’s another nail in the coffin of common sense and more fuel to the fire for those who chastise elf’n’safety for every bit of silliness.

I’ve started asking people I work with to tell me about these bonkers conkers they find.  It’s my small way of showing that not every safety person takes this extreme attitude and it’s also opened up the debate in my office over what sensible safety really means.  I’d be pleased to have any further examples brought to my attention here.  Following the link above will show you that is is not an original idea!

In the next article I’ll be taking a look at why we need to protect people from themselves and asking you to consider if some of the conkers stories are quite so nuts as they seem.