Health and safety

SIR, — My husband received a 2009 calendar recently from our local home safety and security council. It makes cheerful (if sensible) reading. We are exhorted not to smoke in bed, to leave the house in case of fire (would we stay inside?), not to leave can

SIR, - My husband received a 2009 calendar recently from our local home safety and security council. It makes cheerful (if sensible) reading.

We are exhorted not to smoke in bed, to leave the house in case of fire (would we stay inside?), not to leave candles unattended, to take care when cooking if on medication and never to use a chip pan. OK, fair enough.

The calendar, however, has 'olde worlde' photos, for example people walking in the road - yes, there are cars about - and children in a park paddling pool with not enough eagle-eyed parents to go round.

We have received among our multitude of Christmas cards one with the warning 'glitter - do not rub eyes' and another stating it should not be given to children under 36 months as it contains small parts. These turn out to be the message 'Noel' glued on separately and obviously waiting to be pulled off by a robust infant.

A church tea urn I encountered warned me in large red letters that 'boiling water may scald' and the bag of frozen fish from the supermarket gave me the allergy advice that it contained fish. Not a lot of people know that, apparently.

Happy Christmas to one and all.

JUDY HAMBLIN,

Overstone Road, Harpenden.