In two months the programme director, Lis Howell, who had suggested presenters wear short skirts to emphasise the “F-Factor”, was out and ratings down 14 per cent on what had been inherited. Greg Dyke was brought back to rescue yet another breakfast show.. BDH 10292, as the chemical catalogue calls it, sounds like a fairly dangerous substance if the standard “hazard data sheet” that accompanies it is anything to go by. After eye contact with this colourless liquid, you should “irrigate thoroughly with water”; after skin contact, “wash off thoroughly with soap and water”; if swallowed, “wash out mouth thoroughly with water” and “in severe cases obtain medical attention”.
Furthermore, take precautions when handling it – gloves (rubber or plastic), eye goggles or a face shield, and a plastic aproon and boots “if handling large quantities”.And the common name of BDH 10292? Water.While it might seem obvious to everyone else, chemicals suppliers are forced to comply with the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH) Act, part of the Health and Safety at Work Act, which requires employers to identify any substances which can be classed as dangerous.Undoubtedly, water can be hazardous if it gets in the wrong place, such as the lungs.

(The hazard data sheet’s advice is: “Lungs – remove from exposure.”)However, BDH Ltd, a subsidiary of the chemicals giant Merck, seems to have gone overboard in its hazard data sheet for BDH 10292, which it supplies in various quantities.”If local regulations permit, mop up with plenty of water and run to waste, diluting greatly with running water,” it advises “Otherwise transfer to container and arrange removal by … If material has entered surface drains it may be necessary to inform local authorities.”Whether one really needs all these precautions is a moot point But there is some good news. The data sheet confirms that there is “no evidence of carcinogenic properties”, nor is there any exposure limit.Reactions? “None with water” – in which, you will be relieved to know, BDH 10292 is completely soluble.But let’s save the best until last. “Firefighting measures,” notes the data sheet, “not applicable.”. A national do-it-yourself chain is hoping to cash in this Easter by using a loophole in the Sunday trading laws to attract gardeners making the most of the fine Bank Holiday weather.

B&Q, the country’s largest DIY chain, will open 11 of its garden centres across England and Wales tomorrow by setting up cash tills outside the stores.
The 1994 Sunday Trading Act banned stores with a floor area of more than 3,000sq ft from opening on Easter Sunday in England and Wales, but the Home Office says items can be sold tomorrow as long as goods and tills are covered only “by a canopy or gazebo” and are not in a building.Easter is a boom-time for the DIY and gardening industries and B&Q expects to attract 3 million customers to its stores over the weekend.That is of course if they can fight their way through the Bank Holiday traffic Several accidents yesterday caused delays on major routes. Ten young men were injured, two of them seriously, in a minibus crash on the A3 in Surrey. They were thrown from their vehicle as it crashed into the central reservation.No other vehicle was involved in the accident but the southbound carriageway was closed, causing long tailbacks and diversions.A young woman died in a 25 vehicle pile-up on the eastbound M4 on Thursday night which injured eight other people and closed the motorway for almost 12 hours.The M6 northbound near Birmingham was slow moving yesterday and lorry loads shed on the M1 and M25 caused delays. In South Yorkshire, a four- mile tailback built up on the A1 trunk road after an accident on the northbound carriageway near Doncaster.Traffic was also heavy on the M5 Avonmouth Bridge near Bristol, the M62 near Huddersfield in West Yorkshire and the M1 northbound out of London.The Automobile Association and the Royal Automobile Club predicted more congestion over the remainder of the weekend as clear, sunny spells and temperatures in the mid-teens Celsius draw out more crowds.On the railways, a fire on a freight train on the InterCity east-coast line caused a backlog of trains and stranded some passengers.Those escaping Britain for the Continent also faced travel problems. Cars queuing for the Channel tunnel caused tailbacks on the M20 in Kent and pilots’ strikes in France planned for the Easter weekend were set to disturb domestic flights..

Many people who retire on the grounds of “ill-health” are not really ill, a study of 800,000 retirements in six major organisations, including the fire brigade and police, has revealed. Some generous bosses (or lax employers, depending on your point of view) will accept back- ache, stress and anxiety as reasons for retirement and do not even require that the condition is permanent, while others are much tougher, the author says.
Rates of ill-health retirement varied dramatically between organisations, and in two cases, geographically within the same organisation. “Wide variations in the proportion retiring on the grounds of ill-health, within the same organisation, suggest that the process is out of control,” says Dr Jon Poole, a consultant occupational physician from Dudley, who carried out the survey.He studied the details of everyone who retired between 1990 and 1995 in six organisations: Rover, the fire, police, and ambulance services, the Post Office and the Teachers’ Pensions Agency and found huge discrepancies between employers. To preserve confidentiality, the results were kept anonymous.The contrast between different employers can be seen by looking at two of the groups. Organisation A rarely allowed retirement on the grounds of ill- health. Anyone wanting to opt for it had to be examined by three doctors, namely his or her GP, a company occupational doctor and an independent occupational doctor.