The government does a lot of telling private businesses what they "have to do", a lot of which is in the interest of health and safety. Mine owners have a statutory duty to protect their employees from dangerous fumes which may present a health hazard, after all.
Without legislative activity in this area we'd still have four-year-old kids crawling around under running mill looms and workplace accident statistics which would make anyone used to things as they've been since government started involving itself in these areas turn green.
Most things like this have come about after industries have been warned and given a chance to clean up their act, and haven't because ultimately it might cut into the bottom line. Publicans have had many years to fit efficient smoke extractors (you can really tell when a pub has'em) to avoid exposure to second hand smoke, but most haven't even bothered to install an extractor fan.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2006-02-15 01:33 pm (UTC)Without legislative activity in this area we'd still have four-year-old kids crawling around under running mill looms and workplace accident statistics which would make anyone used to things as they've been since government started involving itself in these areas turn green.
Most things like this have come about after industries have been warned and given a chance to clean up their act, and haven't because ultimately it might cut into the bottom line. Publicans have had many years to fit efficient smoke extractors (you can really tell when a pub has'em) to avoid exposure to second hand smoke, but most haven't even bothered to install an extractor fan.