It is easy to focus primarily on industrial locations as the main sites of work where health and safety courses are needed the most, but occupational health affects almost every part of society in one form or another.
This is part of the reason why a disaster that took place during a football match in 1989 fundamentally changed health and safety not only in the world of football and leisure events more broadly, but also a fundamental change in mindset when it comes to the importance of health and safety.
Ibrox, Valley Parade, Hillsborough
The health and safety of sporting grounds such as stadiums and playing fields with spectator stands is guided by the non-statutory Green Guide.
This was introduced in 1971 as a response to the Ibrox disaster in Glasgow, where 66 people lost their lives and 200 people were injured in an Old Firm match between Rangers and Celtic as the result of a dangerous staircase, a chain reaction and compressive asphyxia.
One complication when it comes to football disasters specifically is that until 1990 there was an adversarial relationship between stadium owners and people in attendance, which would directly lead to infrastructure that would either cause or exacerbate two of the biggest stadium disasters in British history.
The first was at Valley Parade in 1985, the home ground for Bradford City Football Club since 1911 and had not been meaningfully updated since then.
It was old, decrepit, made of wood and there was a build-up of various pieces of litter in a gap between the stands. This meant that when a lit cigarette stub slipped through the crack, the entire stand was ablaze within two minutes.
There were no fire extinguishers, the turnstiles were padlocked and the pitch had perimeter fencing, all of which contributed to the deaths of 56 people and 265 injuries in an incident that not only could have been avoided but should never have happened.
That the club were aware of the risks is not in doubt and an inquest ruled that the club were at fault for breaching the duty of care to their spectators. However, whether they were callously disregarding safety or merely did not appreciate the true danger to life was something that was never determined.
The final disaster that fundamentally changed everything is the most famous of the three, to the point that the word Hillsborough is more likely to conjure up images of the events of 15th April 1989 than of the stadium itself and the achievements of Sheffield Wednesday.
In total, 97 people died as a result of the fatal crowd crush, three of which died days or years after the event but as a result of injuries sustained during it, and 766 people were injured in the worst stadium disaster in British history.
The disaster, its immediate aftermath and the Taylor Report led to major changes not only to stadium design, with changes to the law that required Premier League and EFL Championship teams to have all-seater stadiums as well as various other infrastructure improvements but also changed the culture surrounding leisure safety.
The Taylor Report found that the main cause for the disaster was inadequate police control and ageing infrastructure, dismissing the notion that alcohol, forged tickets, hooliganism or fan behaviour contributed, and this led to fundamental changes that put health and safety first.
