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Bizarre Health and Safety

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ssweetpea
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« on: November 21, 2015, 11:43:50 am »

We have all heard of situations where Political Correctness seems to have over ridden common sense. I have heard of a blind child (with two glass eyes) in NZ being turned down for ORS funding at school, such examples of special needs funding not being allocated are not uncommon. But this health and safety example is just bizarre.

School bans 7-year-old blind girl's cane

10:00 AM Friday Nov 20, 2015

A blind 7-year-old British girl has been told she cannot use her white cane at school because it poses a health and safety risk to teachers and pupils.

After undergoing a risk assessment, Lily-Grace Hooper was told that her vital mobility aid could trip up passers-by.

Instead staff have advised her to get around with the help of an adult and "walk carefully" using handrails.

Lily-Grace's mother Kristy said: "I am absolutely livid. What about the health and safety of my girl?" Meanwhile, charities have lambasted the decision as "absolute nonsense".

Lily-Grace went blind in her right eye and lost her 3D vision when she suffered a stroke at four days old. It means she can only detect light and colour in her left eye.

Earlier this year a charity for blind children gave her a fibreglass walking cane after she resorted to using cardboard tubes to guide herself at home to become more independent.


Lily-Grace, who is a keen ballet dancer, started using the cane at school in April and it soon became "an extension of her arm".

Now Hambrook Primary School near Bristol and the Sensory Support Service, which does risk assessments for schools, have told her she should use a shorter aid.

But her parents said it would not be suitable because the long and light stick has been designed to suit her specific needs.

Mrs Hooper, 38, said: "When the school told me she can no longer bring her cane into school, I just thought this must be health and safety gone mad.

"She hasn't had any problems with any of the other students, and none of the parents have complained about it - in fact, they have all been very supportive.

"Lily-Grace has taken to the cane very quickly, and she needs it as she travels to school, walks to the playground, or just being in school.

"I like the school, they are a good school, but this really is very poor advice. It's just ridiculous."


Sarah Murray, founder of Common Sense, which gave Lily-Grace her cane, said: "I just cannot fathom what the school is thinking."

And charity Blind Children UK said it was imperative that visually impaired children learned independence from a young age.

A spokesman added: "If they are taught how to use it by a trained specialist, then, in general, there shouldn't be an issue with using one safely around school."

School head Jo Dent said: "We have to consider all our pupils ... The pupil has not been banned from bringing in their cane, we have simply asked them to not use it around school as a temporary measure until we have the chance to meet with the parent and discuss the situation."

- Daily Mail
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/education/news/article.cfm?c_id=35&objectid=11547883

What next, wheelchairs banned because someone's toes might get run over?

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Alicat
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« Reply #1 on: November 26, 2015, 03:00:56 pm »

I haven't responded before because I am simply too gobsmacked to think of something polite to say.

PCism has gone way too far.
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guest49
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« Reply #2 on: November 27, 2015, 07:47:33 am »

How the hell do these droids get into positions where they can impose their dross on us?
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Alicat
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« Reply #3 on: November 27, 2015, 02:56:35 pm »

You have to wonder. I heard today that Dr Robyn Toomath has all but given up over the obesity issue. She is an Endocrinologist who was instrumental in banning all but what she perceived to be healthy food from Wellington Hospital vending machines. That would be all well and good except aging has not been particularly kind to her and if she's leading by example and wanting to show the rest of us plebs what healthy looks like - she needs to try harder before she'll win me over.
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« Reply #4 on: November 27, 2015, 03:00:47 pm »

How the hell do these droids get into positions where they can impose their dross on us?

UK source?   Never in NZ? 
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« Reply #5 on: November 27, 2015, 03:10:58 pm »

You have to wonder. I heard today that Dr Robyn Toomath has all but given up over the obesity issue. She is an Endocrinologist who was instrumental in banning all but what she perceived to be healthy food from Wellington Hospital vending machines. That would be all well and good except aging has not been particularly kind to her and if she's leading by example and wanting to show the rest of us plebs what healthy looks like - she needs to try harder before she'll win me over.


Ummm
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LOA4BgbejR0&sns=em
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Alicat
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« Reply #6 on: November 27, 2015, 03:55:54 pm »

Thanks Nitz - she has left Wellington Hospital and moved north. That's a 2009 interview with her. The more recent photos I have seen of her are not that flattering.

She's a strange lady.
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« Reply #7 on: November 27, 2015, 04:06:08 pm »

Despairing obesity battler quits fight


Robyn Toomath started Fight the Obesity Epidemic in 2001 when, as a diabetes specialist, she started seeing teenagers with type-two diabetes; it had previously affected only people aged over 40.
She has consistently called for tougher rules on the advertising and marketing of junk food to children, and also advocates a tax on sugary drinks and a junk food ban in schools.
Dr Toomath said she was sick of fighting for change and getting nowhere, with the obesity rate growing to at least one in three adults and one in three children.

"Clearly I've made no progress. There's not a single thing that comes to mind other than the district health boards are going to provide a healthy food environment for their staff," she said.
"I mean really, it's pathetic that that's all we can think of."


She said she saw the effects of obesity every day in her job as Auckland Hospital's clinical director of general medicine.
"Every single ward round, I am seeing patients that are morbidly obese, and have medical problems as a result. We are ordering more and more large sized beds, we're ordering more hoists. It's expensive, and there is going to be more of it."

She said healthy living programmes were aspirational but they were also stigmatising and would not make a difference to the obesity crisis.

"Most people will lose weight for six months, maybe 12 months .But if you look five years out, about 85 percent people are right back where they were and many of them are much fatter. So all the evidence shows that trying to lose weight by all the methods that are available, short of bariatric surgery is unsuccessful."

Dr Toomath said she was still optimistic that a future New Zealand government will take a harder line with the food industry.

The latest move in the government's plan to tackle childhood obesity is an ad campaign using sports stars to encourage people to think about what they eat.
Health Minister Jonathan Coleman said programmes involving personal responsibility, education around healthy eating and exercise were the answer, not regulating the food industry.

"If you go out there and talk to a range of people in the street, I think you'll find they will say this sounds about right - personal responsibility is actually a part of it. We're strengthening up PE and exercise in schools, we're putting a big focus on education and changing family cultures. But no, we're not going to regulate."

Dr Coleman said the government will continue to work with the food industry, which has already made gains in reducing fat, salt and sugar.

The Labour Party said today Dr Toomath was underestimating the impact she had made with her fight.

Labour's health spokeswoman Annette King said people's attitudes towards obesity and food had changed thanks to Dr Toomath.

"She has often been the lone voice that was standing up and talking about obesity in New Zealand, the impact it was having, the need to address it, the need to have policy. And she has had to face a lot of critics, but I think she has underestimated the impact she has made."

Meanwhile, the Green Party said Dr Toomath's decision showed governments had favoured the junk-food industry over people's health.

Greens co-leader Metiria Turei said successive governments have ignored the advice of doctors and specialists on the crisis.

"Dr Toomath is a world-recognised specialist in this area, and for her to feel quitting was the only option shows how the government really has no interest in promoting and supporting the health of New Zealanders."

Dr Toomath said her book on obesity, to be released next year, would be her swansong.


http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/290689/despairing-obesity-battler-quits-fight
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Alicat
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« Reply #8 on: November 27, 2015, 04:09:00 pm »

ROBYN TOOMATH THROWS IN THE TOWEL AND THE TOYS OUT OF THE COT

Today we find out long time obesity activist Robyn Toomath from the Fight Obesity Epidemic has thrown in the towel, but not before first chucking her toys out of the cot.

Her comments are priceless.

“Clearly I’ve made no progress. There’s not a single thing that comes to mind other than the district health boards are going to provide a healthy food environment for their staff,” she said.


If there was only a “we” in that statement other obesity troughers could well be asked to seriously look at their positions as well and their achievements. 

Like other troughers focusing on obesity, Robyn Toomath ‘consistently called for tougher rules on the advertising and marketing of junk food to children, and also advocates a tax on sugary drinks and a junk food ban in schools’.

Yeah that’s worked well for them.

Bit like her attempt at rigging a news poll on Duncan Garner and Guyon Espiner’s The Vote programme.

But there’s still one final round in the chamber as she starts to pimp out her book on obesity.

It’s bound to be a best seller, considering by her own reckoning she’s made no progress.

http://www.whaleoil.co.nz/2015/11/220295/



 
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