Posted By Simon Morriss I am a firm beliver that if you can make safety interesting and relevent and dare I say "funny" more people will take an interest. My hope my starting this thread is to get lots of little stories that people will be able to use to get and keep the attention of staff during training or any meeting. To start the ball rolling. It is commonly accpeted that 2.5 minutes is a time in which a buiulding should be evacuated, but why 2.5 minutes? Well that is how long the National Antham lasts. During a show in a theatre, sorry can remember where, is was necessary to evacuate the building. In his wiasom the manager noticed people start to panic so told the orchestra to play the National Antham, everyone calmed down and left the building before the end. The National Antham lasts about 2.5 minutes.

Posted By Sean Fraser Simon, I agree with you that using anecdotes, especially amusing ones, can make a serious point more meaningful to others not as fascinated by the Health & Safety field as we are. One thing I would counsel on though - there are a number of internet myths that circulate, many in the form of warnings regarding stupid behaviour (see the Darwin Awards) and it is important to make sure that sources are verified where possible. The danger is that if you pass something off as a true story without the necessary checks or disclaimers, and it is later proven to be a falsehood, it can actually do more to discredit your laudable intentions in the long run. One that I have still never gotten to the bottom of is the mobile phone in petrol forecourt "myth" - although this one verges on truth the basis of it seems shrouded in falsehoods which could not be verified. An excellent resource for checking such stories out on is: http://www.snopes.com/ or alternatively: http://www.urbanlegends.com/ Enjoy! Oh, and I should point out that the Darwin Awards do make every effort to weed out the myth from reality by checking sources, and make sure unverified stories are identified as such.