Eight German states, including Berlin, have ushered in 2008 declaring their pubs and restaurants smoke-free.
Almost a third of Germans smoke and the authorities in Berlin have decided not to enforce the restrictions actively for the first six months.
In France, a law forbidding smoking in public places has now been extended to bars, cafes and hotels.
Paris reporter Hugh Schofield says attitudes to smoking have changed dramatically in France in the past year and any fears that people will generally ignore the new law can be discarded.
The French health ministry allowed smokers a 24-hour "grace" period for the New Year festivities in a gesture of "tolerance".
Any smoker caught flouting the ban thereafter can be fined up to 450 euros (£332; $662), while those who turn a blind eye to smokers on their premises can be fined up to 750 euros.
(節錄自bbc)
France has about 13.5 million smokers among its population of 60.7 million.
The new ban is seen as a big cultural shift for France, where smoky cafes have long been the haunts of famous artists and philosophers.
The ban does not include pavement tables or open-air terraces.
Similar bans are already in place in Britain, Ireland, Italy and Spain.
In 2004, Ireland became the first European country to introduce a comprehensive smoking ban in all workplaces, including pubs and restaurants.
Smoking was made illegal in bars and cafes in Lithuania(立陶宛) in 2007.
The law has now been extended to include other public places.
相關於國外禁煙的規定,似乎十分的嚴格, 包括抽菸人口密集的pub在德國也被禁止, 雖然這個禁文也進而引起那些pub業者的反對, 畢竟這樣也會影響到他們的生意.
不過目前呢在歐洲方面,英國, 愛爾蘭, 義大利,西班牙以及立陶宛也都已經提倡再不論工作廠所或是其他餐廳酒吧的場合都要禁菸了.甚至不管是抽菸者或是假裝對抽菸的人視而不見的人都要罰款耶!(真的很嚴格的執行)
相對台灣好像也都已經逐漸在推行這一方面的政策, 雖然好像會損壞到那些抽菸者抽菸的權利, 不過少抽一點不是比較好嗎?
以前, 國中時期那些男生同學都會覺得抽菸是很酷的事情, 大概是看見大人抽菸, 想只要抽根菸也會有大人的感覺吧!
所以有煙癮的各位大人, 少抽而且也盡量不要在孩子面前抽煙才好喔!
教育要從家裡做起!
(抽空進去網站看一看吧! 歐洲是實施環保非常徹底的區域喔!)
It is best to avoid things like meat, cooked food and pet litter.
What are the benefits?
You can use the compost on a garden, in window boxes or on house plants. It gives you a free soil improver and saves you a trip to the garden centre. Compost also helps to retain moisture, reducing the amount of watering you need to do.
Next time you go shopping:
If possible, buy a refill rather than a new product. Refills are available for things like liquid softeners, washing powders and some beauty products.
Many products are made from recycled material, even if they are not labelled - most glass bottles for instance.
If possible, buy products like fruit and vegetables loose instead of pre-packaged.
If you buy nappies, try modern reusable ones (with Velcro fasteners) rather than disposables.
Re-use carrier bags - extra strong ones with reinforced handles are available at many supermarket checkouts.
廚餘回收的部份最好還是避免掉肉類或是烹煮過的食物唷!寵物的便便也要避免唷!
PILLS OR HEALTH?
(from bbc)以下文章從bbc選錄，中文翻譯僅屬於簡化的解釋文章中大略意涵。
Patients taking anti-obesity drugs lose only "modest" amounts of weight, and many remain significantly obese or overweight, research reveals.
服用減肥藥物只能減去最保守的平均重量，很多服用的患者到現在依舊是過度肥胖。
Experts said the Canadian work in the British Medical Journal shows pills are no substitute for healthy living. Eating less and exercising more is essential, they said.
服用減肥藥物並不能夠就是代表擁有了健康的人生。
Over a billion people worldwide are overweight or obese, making the anti-obesity drug market big business. An estimated $1.2 billion was spent on anti-obesity drugs worldwide in 2005.
２００５年估計全球就有１２億人口服用減肥藥丸，他們都是這些減肥藥品大廠的大財主。
They reviewed the evidence from thirty placebo-controlled trials, involving nearly 20,000 people, where adults took one of three anti-obesity drugs - orlistat, sibutramine or rimonabant - for a year or longer. The National Institute for health and Clinical Excellence recommends stopping the use of anti-obesity drugs if 5% of total body weight is not lost after three months.
All of the volunteers in the trials were deemed obese, and weighed an average of
他們進行了一項實驗，選用三種減肥藥品讓２萬個成人自願者分配服用，每天１／３的劑量實驗長達一年，有的更久一些。 結果顯示，他們的確都各下降的５％的體重，而且停用的三個月也都沒有再復胖。這些實體驗者都是真正的肥胖者，平均體重都超過了１００公斤。
Patients taking the weight loss pills were significantly more likely to achieve 5%-10% weight loss, compared to those who took a dummy drug. But is was unclear whether the weight loss achieved was enough to have big health and survival benefits. Orlistat reduced the incidence of diabetes in one trial and all three drugs lowered patients' levels of certain types of cholesterol.
這些服用減肥藥丸的確都比那些未服用者減去了體重，但是這當中對於是否真的對身體健康有幫助並有好處，仍舊是一個迷思。 Orlistat(羅氏鮮)可以防止糖尿病的發生,而且這三種藥品成分也都可以有一定程度的降低膽固醇。
But adverse effects were recorded with all three drugs and there were high drop-out rates, with 30%-40% of patients failing to complete the trials. A separate study in The Lancet found patients given one of these weight loss drugs, rimonabant, were at increased risk of severe psychiatric events.
但是這個報告並不是這樣而已，既然如此有效，卻有３０％到４０％的人不願意繼續進行這項實驗，因為當中服用rimonabant(利莫那班)的一些患者卻產生了精神上的一些不良狀態。
Dr Colin Waine, chair of the National Obesity Forum, said: "The first choice has to be a healthier lifestyle, but medication use can be justified because obesity is a serious medical condition. "The purpose is not just to achieve weight loss but to reduce health risk factors. All three drugs can have beneficial effects on those."
減肥研究中心的Colin Waine博士說：肥胖不只是減重的原因，就醫學來說他也是一項嚴重的不良症狀；不只是減肥也要健康，這三種藥品都達到了效果。
Professor Gareth Williams, professor of medicine at the
Bristol大學的醫學教授Gareth Williams卻不這麼認為。他憂心的說：美國開放了減肥藥品不需要經處方簽而可以取得，這其實會慢慢影響到國人對於減重與健康上的觀念錯誤。減肥不是造就健康的全部。
小圓仔有查過這三種藥品在台灣都有，衛生署也都有合格通過。
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