Leave us alone!

Just been scanning the various news sites I haunt looking for stuff that interests me enough to put fingers too the keyboard, it's not all I do by a long shot, I sometimes play Baldurs Gate as well.
One of the things you tend to notice after a while is the number of health and safety scare stories out there, either designed to outrage us by over sensationalising the story, or ones that show the "health experts" don't appear to live in the same world as the rest of us.
Outrage in the Telegraph.

For 15 years, a set of disused milk crates had been providing children at an Oxfordshire school with old-fashioned fun. But that was before the health and safety zealots caught sight of them.

Now the 25 crates, which have been used as props for countless games involving ships, cars, dens and castles, have been taken away over fears that pupils could be injured on them.

"In all the time we have had the crates, we have not had a single child hurt themselves," said Anne Bardsley, a teacher at Wychwood Primary school, who described the decision to remove them as "outrageous".

The crates, once donated by a friendly milkman, were seized by Dairy Crest during a routine delivery.

Lyndsey Anderson, from the company, apologised for any distress. "Whilst we understand their disappointment at losing something they had come to view as playground equipment, it remains a fact that milk crates are not toys and current health and safety guidelines require that they should not be used as such," she said.

Mrs Bardsley explained that the pupils were always supervised while playing with the crates and that they helped creative learning. "The children absolutely loved them," she added.

No-one had ever been injured, no harm was being done, they were simply useful props. Now I'm sure the company (Dairy Crest) were simply covering themselves from some sort of claim, but after 15 years? It does seem a tad ridiculous, it's probably also cost the school some money in getting a replacement. Whatever happened to the disclaimer "you do this at your own risk"?
Idiocy in the BBC.

Experts say the health hazards of obesity may have been grossly underestimated because we are not measuring the condition adequately.

Risk calculations have focused on severity of weight gain alone and not how long it persists.

Latest research suggests every additional decade of being obese more than doubles death risk.

The researchers told the International Journal of Epidemiology a new measure is needed - the "obese-year".

Similar to the "pack-year" used for smoking, it gives a further quantification that can be used to help estimate the associated health risks.

Tam Fry, of the National Obesity Forum, agreed: "Obesity is starting to become a problem at supremely young ages. We could see people dying before their parents because of obesity."

He said the findings could be a much needed wake up call for some.

"If the GP can say 'You have got to do something about your weight otherwise you will die at 65 rather than 75' that could be a useful scare tactic."

Yep, apparently we can't be trusted to live our lives the way we want too, someone always knows best and so they'll come up with ways to try and live longer (and more miserable) lives giving up all that can be fun in life, our own personal little pleasures simply to add a few extra years on our lives.
We pay our taxes, we fund our health service, they should simply advise us and leave it at that, not attempt to make us live healthy lives. If we want to smoke, drink or eat our way into an early grave then that is our problem, they should simply tell us the risks not try and implement policies to prevent us doing it anyway.
Most people just want to be left alone to enjoy their lives, is this so hard for the "experts" to understand?