19th July 2005, 07:30 PM
Quote:quote:I too have excavated sites containing ordnance and know for a fact that NO army bomb disposal bloke would hit a bomb with a shovel, I find the statement lacking any credibility!
It seems that Troll is being blamed for my rant on this one, and while he's not even here to defend himself. I will therefore defend us both.
Sadly Gerwyn, this anecdote is absolutely true and I will be happy to provide details. The reason I included it was to show that a variety of crazy things happen that a risk assessment may not have covered. I suspect that the MOD bomb guy made a visual assessment of the object and decided that it posed no threat. Why he then hit it with a shovel is anyones guess, perhaps to scare the archaeologists.
On that particular site a full risk assessment was done and as far as I could tell all H&S rules were followed. We had to because it was a nationally inportant research project done by an organization that has to be seen to be following the rules. The problem however was that the project was so unusual, that short of refusing to work on the site at the beginning, we had to deal with some H&S issues as and when they arose. As one of the people running the site I hope that we did it sensibly, although I did (rightly)come in for some criticism from the excavators for this incident.
I will reiterate my comment in my previous post, as Gerwyn clearly missed it. We as archaeologist have to be pragmatic and judge H&S issues as we see them, often without all the necessary information. We cannot down tools and await a solution every time a potential danger is identified. As for the assumption that we say nothing on site and then bitch on a website after the fact. RE-READ the posts! Both Troll's and my posts include examples of our actions to address the issues at the time. These are not black and white issues, that are easy to pin down. Lies and evasions or general crapness by developers or employers usually muddy the water enough to leave the humble archaeologist completely powerless. I know all too well that unless you have conclusive proof, you are pissing in the wind approaching the HSE, and nothing is conclusive regarding contamination risks. How unsafe the conditions actually were is never determined or only becomes apparent after the fact.
I simply listed some of the worst stories from my career to date, with the intention of demonstrating the kinds of risks we face. They are from a variety of places and employers, and not limited to the cowboy units either. I have no particular axes to grind about any of these incidents or employers. What actions could be taken by me were done so at the time. All I want is that proper risk assesments are done [u]before</u> a project, including proper contamination surveys, that are then shown to all site staff. I have yet to see this [u]ever</u> done, in 10 years and with 10 employers! So in answer to DrPete, it is very widespread.
I'm sick to death of the postings demanding that we prove that these incidents have happened. The burden of proof should be with employers that a site is as safe as it can be made!
