...What I do want to call OSHA’s attention to, however, is the fact that it might not be necessary for people who work at the very tops of houses and office buildings to wear a piece of protective equipment designed to protect the human head from falling objects. Since it relatively rare for objects to fall out of the clear blue sky, rendering us poor roofers unconscious, it might be wise for OSHA to allow us to do our work unencumbered with these bulky, horribly uncomfortable and often dangerous pieces of equipment.(As an aside, I might mention that I was recently asked by one of my colleagues why the U.S. government was foolish enough to insist that roofers wear hard hats. Such an absurd and paternalistic law, he explained, would be openly mocked and flaunted in his native country. Before I had a chance to answer, one of his fellow countrymen sardonically responded that we needed to be protected from getting whacked in the head by los pájaros. In retrospect, I imagine that this is probably the best answer that can be given to the question, although it would probably take a bird the size of an eagle or a crane to do any significant damage to the human head).
I am sure that OSHA has the best of intentions in insisting that we wear protective headwear with nothing but the heavens above us. I’m sure the thinking runs something like this: "It’s better to be safe than sorry... - Lewrockwell.com
That's just a snippet. Read the whole thing here.
