It’s Walk To School month and this year the campaign is focused on looking at ways to make the walk to school safer and easier.
It’s disturbing to read that new figures released by DfT on 27th September revealed that 14 per cent of children killed on Great Britain’s roads last year were between 7-9am and 23 per cent were between 3-5pm – school run hours.
Air quality and pollution is another area of concern as far as the health and safety of children is concerned. Motor vehicles are the biggest source of air pollution and one in four cars on the road at peak times are on the school run.
The Living Streets organisation is working on ways to reduce the number of cars on the school run. One of the measures they are calling for more local authorities to pilot is road closures around schools to stop cars from dropping off and picking up at school gates. They are also calling for a series of other measures to encourage more families to walk to school.
As chiropractors we are concerned with the increase in the rates of back pain experienced in children and teenagers. One of the contributory factors to this increase is the sedentary lifestyles that we lead. Keep active and taking regular exercise can help maintain a healthy spine. Walking is one such activity.
However, we often hear patients tell us that they don’t have time to take any exercise.
Leaving the car at home and walking to school with your children is a great way to get in some regular exercise. If you can’t then it’s a great way for your children to get some exercise.
If you haven’t yet made October your walk to school month – it’s not too late to start.
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