Posted By Simon Carrier Good morning one and all During a recent shopping trip this weekend, one of many such trips, I noticed in one shop that the fire exit was blocked by some rubbish, which I mentioned to the shop assisant and to his credit he removed it. I was just wondering how many others have noticed such infringements and what they did about them.

Posted By Richard Mathews I am always getting disapproving glares from my wife when we are out on our infrequent shopping trips. Her objections are that I abandon her to go off and remonstrate with some shop manager or other over breaches in H&S. The last one was at a large furniture showroom, where not only had the fire exits been obstructed but hey had removed the fire extinguishers because they said that they spoiled the look of the displays. Richard

Posted By fats van den raad Stuck in a traffic jam on a recent journey going through some major roadworks, I found myself next to a low trailer with a gas burner on and a pot of hot tar cooking over it. The workmen walked onto the trailer with their tar buckets and then ladelled hot tar from the tub into the buckets, wich they then poured on the new road they built to seal the edges of the tarmac. A full face visor was hanging on the handrail of the trailer but it was clear from the amount of tar splattered on it that it had not been used in a long time. None of the employees was wearing any gloves or eye protection. One guy was looking after the pot of hot tar, so I wound the window down and enquired if they ever thought about eye protection. His reply was, unsurprising "No mate, nobody uses that visor.. anyway, I've been doing this for 12 years and I've never been burned yet." Just then one of his colleagues got onto the trailer and plunged the ladle into the tar, wich of course splashed up and on to his face, just below the eye. After wiping the tar of, the guy, in obvious discomfort, looked at me and shouted "fair point mate, I see what you mean" and got a number of brand new visors out of a metal box on the trailer. Just sad that it took an accident for them to see the danger!!

Posted By Brett Day My local supermarket has terrible problems with the petrol station, it's a poor layout and the queues back up and block the roads out of the store, there is no filter lane into the petrol station. Occasionally staff go out in a hi viz jacket wander around in the traffic putting themselves at risk and generally confusing the hell out of everyone, people get frustrated, drive on the wrong side of the road and so far they have been lucky, no accidents. During the last round of fuel troubles I did go in and speak to the manager and suggested closing the petrol station for five minutes to allow the traffic to calm down, they did actually do it that one time and it worked !! I've worked for three of the large supermarket companies as a safety advisor and a planning supervisor and the thing that comes across clearly is that safety comes second fiddle to the commercial considerations.

Posted By Red Ones Sadly it's not unusual for shops to block exits (especially this time of year - which is why the EHOs and Fire Officers are so busy) I represent the landlord for a number of shops and always point out the blockage first time and let them work it out. Second time it is "You have one hour to clear it" After the hour it is "OK I'm shutting you down" to which the reply is ALWAYS "You and whose army?" the reply to that is "OK if thats how you play it, I'll call the EHO as well as the lawyers, either way your head office have just got very p***ed off with you"