All health & safety issues, inc. diet & lifestyle; also helmets
Members of the European Parliament have voted today in the plenary to support the manufacture of safer lorry cabs under amendments made to Directive 96/53 on the maximum Weights and Dimensions of lorries.
The legislation will allow extra length to be used in the manufacture of lorry cabs as long as they conform to aerodynamic and safer specifications, with a view to this becoming mandatory for all new cabs. Continue reading European Parliament votes for safer HGV/lorry cabs
Helmets do not provide sufficient protection to warrant the claim that they are highly effective – and the right to cycle bare-headed is by no means trivial
Professor Julia Verne, Director of the South West Public Health Observatory, said:
“While we realise there are some people who cannot engage fully in physical activity, the tool is useful in highlighting the scale of the impact of physical activity on health. Small increases in activity, even for those who can’t be fully active would still deliver big health benefits. Continue reading Inactive lifestyles kill an estimated 36,815 people each year
Plastic shells keep our heads from coming open, but they also deter us from riding bicycles. And riding bicycles is good for people and Earth. 
Admonishing a teenager for smoking is commonplace. Reprimanding people for taking antibiotics when they don’t really need them is the next big thing. And giving people a hard time about biking without a helmet is still entirely in vogue. It’s because we care. But as we learned from the original food pyramid, sometimes good intentions pave the road to adult-onset diabetes. Read more
If you need more evidence that infrastructure saves lives, then look no further. New research from the American Journal of Public Health shows that dedicated bike lanes can cut injuries by half. ECF had a few questions to ask the brains behind the study, Professor Kay Teschke. Read article from the ECF
National and local government should encourage improved public health by making walking and cycling more attractive to everyone, as has been done on the Continent, according a new report by the National Institute for Health Clinical Excellence (NICE). Read article (inc. video clip)
Follow-up: Which really is more deadly: cycling or sitting down watching TV?
And another: Ditch the car to walk or cycle short journeys ‘for healthier Britain’
The obesity epidemic is costing the State over €1.1 billion in direct health costs and indirect costs such as absenteeism, according to a major new study to be published today. Read article
Letter from Cyclist.ie to Advertising Standards Authority for Ireland re: ASAI finding ref no. 19340 for unknown complainant regarding ‘Unilever’ presses advertorial for ‘Flora’ spread and active lifestyle
‘Cyclist.ie’ is the umbrella body for the various cycling advocacy groups throughout Ireland. We are the member for Ireland of the European Cyclists’ Federation. Our goal is to see a vast increase in the numbers of Irish people using their bike for work, shopping or socialising. The benefits of increased cycling are many: population health; personal and public cost savings; better traffic flow; environmental improvement, and better ‘liveability’ of our towns and cities. Our mission is to inform the Irish public and officialdom of these benefits, and the simple changes – engineering, education enforcement and others, required to reap them.
We write to object strongly to the recent finding of the Authority, Ref No. 19340 on the ASAI website, that an advertising feature (Unilever ‘Flora’ spread) in The Irish Daily Mail showing a family cycling in a park-like setting (not on a road) was in contravention of the Authority’s Code section 2.29. The complaint was that the group were not shown wearing helmets. The behaviour illustrated is in fact much healthier than the average Irish lifestyle, and is to be encouraged. Letter from Cyclist.ie to Advertising Standards Authority for Ireland re: ASAI finding ref no. 19340 for unknown complainant regarding ‘Unilever’ presses advertorial for ‘Flora’ spread and active lifestyle It does NOT constitute dangerous behaviour or unsafe practice, in our view. We note that motor vehicles being driven at speed are a constant inescapable feature of advertising and would challenge the Authority to show that all complaints to it regarding all examples of unsafe motoring have been justly upheld. Continue reading Decision of The Advertising Standards Authority of Ireland to require Unilever to pull its Flora advertorial in The Irish Daily Mail is regrettable
Just in case you thought that the Nanny State had gone away, think again.
In fact, make that the Mammy State, because nobody but a brooding, finger-wagging, cross Mammy could take exception to the vision of a Sound of Music-style family meandering through the woods on bicycles. The Mammy in question is the Advertising Standards Authority for Ireland and the outrageous behaviour they espied consisted of a national press advertisement featuring a two adults and three children cycling on a lane-way through fields. Read article
