Intense & Gory Workplace Safety Posters From Russia

On June 12, 2016 by Tim Newman

In modern Western society, many people believe that “health and safety” has gone “mad.” It certainly does seem that way sometimes. It’s easy to forget just how important H&S truly is.

Nowadays, we rarely have to worry that our fingers will be literally worked to the bone. But, not that long ago, people would be killed at work with some degree of frequency.

In general, today’s selection of professions are safer than they used to be.

For instance, you’re less likely to pick up a hernia while telemarketing than you are from iron mongering; and picking up a case of black lung is a lot less likely in insurance sales than it is down the mine.

During the Industrial Revolution, as machinery came to be more commonplace, the opportunity for death and mutilation at work sky rocketed.

Thousands fell foul to the whirring mechanisms that they were paid to operate. One hospital alone reported treating 1,000 children a year for work-related injuries.

Overall, there are less risky jobs to choose from in the Western world today, and those that are still dangerous are a lot less dangerous thanks to H&S laws.

For instance, modern coal mining (in the US) kills around 9 workers per 100,000, annually. In 1900, that figure was more like 300 per 100,000 each year.

In 1819, Manchester doctor – Michael Ward – told a parliamentary committee:

“When I was a surgeon in the infirmary, accidents were very often admitted to the infirmary, through the children’s hands and arms having being caught in the machinery; in many instances the muscles, and the skin is stripped down to the bone, and in some instances a finger or two might be lost.

Last summer I visited Lever Street School. The number of children at that time in the school, who were employed in factories, was 106. The number of children who had received injuries from the machinery amounted to very nearly one half. There were forty-seven injured in this way.”

Before the early 1900s there isn’t much data about workplace accidents because… well… no one cared.

That’s why H&S law is important: the fat cats at the top are only ever really interested in making more cash for themselves and their chubby friends. The occasional poor man’s corpse is of little consequence when there are so many live poor men to continue working.

Workplace Injuries Declining

According to the HSE, in 2014/15, workplace deaths in the UK were half what they were just 20 years ago; and between 1974 and 2015, workplace deaths declined by an impressive 86%.

That’s good news for sure, but the HSE also reported that, last year, 76,054 non-fatal workplace accidents were registered, costing the country 4.1 million working days. So we’re not out of the woods yet.

The following posters come from Soviet Russia. They’re pretty disturbing, and I guess that was the point: