Health and safety has been hijacked by curmudgeons, trying to make mischief out of best practice. (Introducing racial arguments into a subject where they are completely irrelevant is even more telling.) If you care to read the thread properly, it appears the drop is going ahead.
I for one am glad we're a bit more aversed to taking unecessary risks with people's lives and health than we once were . Perhaps those who scoff at H&S would rather we returned to 'the good old days' of widespread industrial diseases and accidents.