Sorry guys I messed up the Title line of this one so am repeating it

Tony said,
In the days when we first started to use wire ropes for lifting loads we used to pass the rope through an eye or cleat and fix it back to itself with a wire rope grip (a u-bolt with a flange) The trailing free end of the rope would be tied onto the rope to keep it out of the way. This worked well but after a couple of mishaps where the u-bolts were not inspected and they either were damaged or worked loose through overloading it was decided to use two wire rope grips should be used in case one failed between inspections. No problems ever occurred but someone eventually decided that three would be better than two and this was common safe practice for many years. That was until some safety manager in an office saw a picture and thought that we should halve the risk by using SIX; this became law!

How much of this kind of thinking is wasteful of resources without adding benefit?
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Rimu Homes replied,
Loads and loads and loads,

I just got off the phone with our engineer to tell him we can't source C24 219 x 44 at short notice, in the lengths he specified for a project. I asked if we can use 219 x 38 instead and he said that would be fine. I can't remember how many times I have had similar conversations over the years. Usually with engineers.

The term 'over-engineered' is a pet hate of mine as engineering is about accuracy. In my opinion if an engineer feels he has to over specify he should consider a different career.
The culture of over ordering of materials is another pet hate.
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biff came in with:

3

Mathematician: the integer greater than 2 and less than 4

Physicist: a value greater than 2.5 and less than or equal to 3.5

Engineer: three's three but we'll call it ten to be on the safe side.
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Chris Wardle quoted
I'm afraid it is a sign if times. Everyone is so worried about getting sued that they err on the side of caution every time.

What I think engineers, building inspectors etc overlook is the fact that the manufacturers and the people who write the standards that we all work to have already allowed for a margin of safety so there is no need to add your own on top.

As for the Health and Safety fascists, with that lot it is all about having a piece of paper to say you have considered the risks etc. They never check whether policies are being implemented until someone comes a cropper, then the finger pointing starts and new legislation follows.

I'd like to live in a country where you are allowed to take a few risks and you live with the consequences of your actions. Make all these regulations into guidance that you can choose to follow or not. Most people do the right thing anyway, unless the "right thing" is an affront to common sense, and those that don't ignore regulations in any case. They serve no purpose other than to reduce the productivity of the economy.