Morning, Spotted an interesting article in the Telegraph yesterday; http://www.telegraph.co....workers-at-Olympics.html Without rewriting the article it looks like a really clever piece of work by the ODA to identify trends in accidents and then putting in place a solution that not only addresses the accidents (Safety) but also encourages a healthier lifestyle (Health) so an all round Health and Safety good news story on the press... Jim

As ExDeeps/Jim wrote, offering porridge and encouraging the workforce to eat it (and no doubt other good menu choices) was beneficial for both safety and health, a relatively rare combination. The reported advantage of porridge and similar foods is that they provide a slow but sustained release of energy after being eaten and thus avoid a dip in energy and concentration levels associated with other foods. Well, that's what I remember from seeing a presentation about the ODA project by Lawrence Waterman about 2 years ago. (When I later mentioned it to my missus, who is Scottish and has breakfasted on porridge for years, she commended it and added that real porridge oats should be used, not the instant add boiling water stuff which looks like and probably tastes like wallpaper paste!) Also, Lawrence explained during his presentation that pushing porridge was just one of various other strategies regarding the ODA workforce. Providing accessible medical care was also very important especially for workers (e.g. tunnellers) whose hours on site and commuting patterns, etc., meant that they rarely had the opportunity to see a doctor or nurse and were not inclined to seek medical help when necessary. Perhaps I'm being picky in observing that the Telegraph article headline refers to "Free porridge..." while the article itelf states that porridge cost £1 a time: Either the journalist doesn't know that 'free' means without charge, cost, etc or, more likely, was indulging in a bit of journalistic licence to draw attention to the article.