Just how dangerous to our health is the barrage of warnings of events from around the world?

YOU know the scenario; your clock radio gently wakes you to the dulcet tones of the newsreader with the most recent world events. Or maybe you get your first news fix over a bowl of cereal as you scan the morning’s papers. Just as you’re stirring can be a difficult time in which to get to grips with high-level politics or the horrors that comprise the bulletins. But, despite the difficult world news that’s been assuaging our ears and eyes these last few weeks, we’ve also just spent a couple of months in the silly season, where it seems that almost half the news comprises studies into one thing or another; some obviously wearing the silly hat but others that might actually change your life.

So imagine the following: in a recent study, government scientists have concluded that a commonly-used piece of technology is killing approaching 2,000 people in the UK every year. In a further study, government scientists have also discovered that a commonly-used piece of technology is saving the lives of thousands of UK residents every year. But because of a lack of common sense or, dare we suggest, because of deliberate manipulation, nobody bothers to put these two pieces of information about the motor car together.

On the same principle, I heard – as my head refused to leave the pillow and, after a particularly fun evening, my eyes screwed ever tighter against the ruthless morning light – that a “comprehensive survey” had shown that people who drink a glass or so of wine a day are more at risk of bowel cancer. My first reaction was to say I’d never drink again but that may have been the hangover. But then my thoughts turned to the fact that alcohol dehydrates you and therefore I guess it might have a detrimental effect on your insides and give strength to the old adage that you should take more water with it.

But what did the study mean in isolation? Did it take account of the eating habits of the studied? Their family history? Their propensity to eating a few meat kebabs after the odd glass or two? Did they eat their five a day or were they dedicated carnivores?

Returning to motor vehicles. Yes, nearly 2,000 people die each year in road accidents but our emergency services save considerably more lives than that using the same technology. And anyway, what’s the alternative? Horses? They’re slower than an ambulance and can’t carry a swivelling ladder and a half a dozen hulking firemen as they get dressed on their way to put out the flames. And where are the studies into how many people have been hurt slipping on horse droppings or from catching tetanus after being bitten by a horse or sneezing to death from hay fever?

We know that cars are dangerous but, at the same time, recognise they help people live longer and so nobody’s suggesting banning them. Well not on those grounds anyway.

If we listened to every health warning that poured into our homes every day we’d become nervous wrecks and even more unbalanced than we currently are as a society. So what to do? Obviously we should only listen to the ones that suit our chosen lifestyle and regard the rest as absolute bunk. Cheers.