Taming speed freaks can be good for everyone’s health

From: Allan Ramsay, Radcliffe Moor Road, Radcliffe, Manchester.

experts reckon that if a major gap in understanding how breast cancer develops isn’t tackled more than 180,000 women in the UK could die of it by 2030. The advice is to take more exercise, and eat and drink healthily. Prevention is better than cure.

The simplest and most affordable exercises however – walking and cycling to school or work – can also lead to a premature end. Pedestrian and cyclist casualties are on the increase. The way some people drive is positively lethal. At the current rate, while 180,000 women could die of breast cancer, 50,000 men, women and children could be killed on our roads. Unlike cancer though, no cure has yet been found for killer drivers.

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They can also cause life-destroying injuries such as loss of limbs, spinal injuries and head injuries. Seven children are killed or seriously injured on Britain’s roads (sometimes footpaths) every day.

The annual cost of these deaths and injuries is £547m. Might that be enough to plug the gap in understanding breast cancer?

We are what we eat, drink, and breathe. Ultimately, that depends on how we cultivate/treat our environment; our planet. Not only does our burning of fossil fuels produce CO2 – now considered to be 95 per cent responsible for global warming – it produces carcinogens. Once “planted” in our tissues, they can take years to become aggressive.

The child who walks or cycles to school – along busy and congested roads – is more susceptible than those who are driven to school. The 20mph speed limits and parking restrictions – if they are enforced/respected – could make a huge difference: taming the aggression and helping walking and cycling to become stress-free and pleasant. Given time, traffic calming will undoubtedly help health problems, not least obesity.

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GPs can’t cope, A&E departments can’t cope. Despite this, George Osborne is determined to “stick to his guns” with tough measures to reduce our debt: even to the point where cancer drugs will be denied.

There is help though. He’s promised to freeze fuel duty. Surely, those who so blatantly disregard speed limits – money to burn – don’t deserve such help. Shouldn’t it be the people who are too poor for a car and have to walk and cycle, or stand under a brolly waiting for a late bus that get the most help through better protection from petrol heads and speed freaks?

From: Peter Hyde, Driffield, East Yorkshire.

Now that the dark mornings and evenings are upon us, can I suggest to motorists that you now do a check on the lights on your vehicles?

Pilots naturally do a check before each flight, no matter 
how short the duration of 
that intended flight, but 
motorists leap into their cars 
in the dark and shoot off into 
the blackness.

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The number of cars with defective lights has grown 
and grown, no doubt due 
to the fact that there are fewer and fewer police officers on patrol.

Meeting the dreaded Cyclops, who drives with only the 
nearside light lit, leading you 
into thinking that you are meeting a motorcyclist, is 
enough to give anyone the shivers.

Please people, do a check 
before you either have 
or cause an accident.

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