Before the early 1990's. bike riding was a carefree wind in the hair kind of fun thing to do. The only people who wore helmets were serious Tour de France types. Kids grabbed a bike and headed off bare headed. Around the world, and particularly in Australia, the regulating types put an end to this by making everyone wear helmets, because people could be killed while riding bikes, and the helmets would save them.
While admirable from a saving people from themselves point of view, the fact that bike riding went from being a generally safe method of getting over to a mate's place to a dangerous activity where protective equipment was so necessary the government fined you if you didn't obey.
This is where the precautionary principle cuts in. The prudent thing to do was not to let kids ride bikes as it was now dangerous, and the safer thing to do was to run them everywhere in the family car. Bike seats turned into back seats; aerobic exercise morphed into air conditioning, dérailleurs were derailed. Everyone was much safer inside mum's taxi. The helmet precaution not only saved kids in bike accidents; it saved kids from bike accidents because they left the bikes behind.
Everyone was safe and happy. And getting fat. The lack of exercise led to obesity, the danger of the bike smash was swapped for the slurpee. And isn't everyone saying obesity is the killer.
So roughly we can see how the well intentioned application of the precautionary principle to protect the heads of bike riders has led to a possibly greater danger to their hearts in the form of obesity.
Sometimes it's nice the feel the wind in your hair.
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