Yes, I know it is Friday, but... This evening my wife and daughter with our grandchildren called at our local drive-through MacDonalds. Seeing balloons being inflated whilst at the window my daughter asked for two for the children, to be told that they could not hand them out at the drive-through on health and safety grounds. When asked what these were my daughter was told that they were dangerous with children in cars. Apparently they are not dangerous when handed out at the inside counter to be taken out to the car by the children. I wonder if this was a local decision, or one sanctioned by head office. Chris

My first reaction is this is ***********. They want you to come into the shop - to get you to buy more stuff (food), having a small child around makes it difficult to escape.

Being a saddo with grown up children I will provide an observation relative to this post When I have been in store and the kids picked up balloons these were placed in the boot until we got home. On the rare occasions a balloon was offered whilst we were all car bound several issues were observed: 1) the balloon obstructing the rear view mirror 2) the shock and distraction if the balloon burst whilst driving 3) (all parents will empathise) the fight when only one of several siblings has the remaining Infated item. Won't be too long before a US crash victim sues for lack of instruction at which time it will become a corporate policy. Not so long ago cups started carrying - "Warning contents may be hot" Coffee anyone?

plausible denial? At the drive through it is obvious the balloon is going straight in a car At the store counter, devoid of any checks, the server can legitemately claim they did not know how the recipient was travelling

Another reason health and safety is a joke!

That's me told! But I do think that it is becoming a joke! I used to think it was perceived as one but now I am not that sure that there is a distinction. Taking on board some of the stuff on here and yes some of them might not be from H&S professionals but a vast number are.

Sorry but I, too, am going to become a killjoy. I have grown up kids and have been there with the kids when they have had balloons. We used to put them in the boot until they got home which everyone was happy with. However, you give a couple of kids balloons in the back seat and before you know where you are they are beating each other over the head with them, arguing about whose is better and everything Invictus said. So, the folks at McDonald's have completed a risk assessment and decided that giving balloons directly to children in the back of cars is a really bad idea and, frankly, having been there, done that and bought the T shirt, I applaud the good old fashioned common sense of that decision. I also recall from the days when we used to go to McDonalds, that balloons were held in a stand rather than given to children by staff, which made it the parent's decision whether the kids could have them or not.

This has nothing to do with H&S as we understand it and everything to do with the way that the yanks apply the concept of” product liability” which means that if someone is injured using something like a balloon then the supplier can be held liable. It would not happen here but the company being a bunch of control freaks have decided to apply the same rules for the whole wide world no matter how absurd they may seem locally.

In response to A Kurdziel's comment that "It would not happen here" I'm afraid to say I've worked in insurance for 25+ years and am still not surprised at the fatuous claims people submit for personal injury. Granted, the system is finally waking up to the problem and fighting back on spurious claims, but there are still vast numbers of people out there willing to "try it on" in the hope of some easy compensation. Whilst most claims will not succeed, there is still a cost and inconvenience in defending them, so it makes sense to try to avoid them in the first place. And before anybody puts the blame on the insurance industry for being killjoys or imposing silly rules and procedures, just remember that insurers don't generally encourage or make claims - they just pick up the tab. Our friendly neighbourhood ambulance chasing lawyers and members of the public in it for a quick buck are the problem

Don't these balloons have a stick attached to them? If so it would seem difficult to pass them from a drive-through window into a car.

And Fiat-Chrysler are now subject of a class action because the automatic gear box in the Jeep doesn't click to let the driver know they have engaged forward gear (normally you would expect sound prompts to be used by the visually impaired). Is it time for a separate forum for the mire of non H&S matters that get posted perhaps bannered " I don't believe it" (thoughts Victor?)

Nice one Roundtuit - I came into this industry on the back of a fatality within our business on the basis that the accident was entirely preventable - no surprise there..... therefore looking to make a difference. Retired now and to be honest glad to be so - last few years were 'conkers bonkers' and although these issues are diminishing I believe the industry has become a joke. Posts like this do not portray 'us' in a good light - micro managing peoples' entire lives is not what I understand H&S practitioners should be doing.