Health & Safety - What’s the cost?

It doesn’t surprise me one bit that every other article I read around health and safety in Construction or the work place is based around either a firm having to pay out for a death or being reviewed due to not following health and safety regulations. 

Just a couple of examples currently in the press at the moment:

Firm fined for explosion that put a worker in a coma” - The worker had only been in his second day of the job, insulating the ceiling of a retail outlet, when the incident occurred. The petrol-powered spraying equipment had been refuelled. The employee was covered in petrol and set ablaze when he opened a jerry can attached by straps to the compressor and generator, which were both petrol-operated. The explosion left him in a coma for three months, and he spent a year in hospital recovering from his injuries. The employee was inexperienced. 

Firm fined ￡2m after worker crushed to death - A civil engineering and a heating firm have been fined following the death of a worker. They were found guilty of safety breaches.

Health and safety is there for a reason. Its not just costing companies money but also the lost of lives where in both cases they could of been prevented.