DISPENSARY CORNER 25 Nov 15
November 25, 2015
OPPOSITION leader Bill Shorten
gave guests at last night’s
Pharmacy Guild of Australia
Annual Pharmacy Dinner an
amusing pharmacy history lesson.
Shorten reminded those
present that “pharmacy is a
venerable profession - indeed
an ancient one,” with many of
the clay tablets excavated by
archaeologists in Mesopotamia
over the years being prescriptions.
Pharmacies in 9th century
Baghdad were state-regulated,
he said, while in ancient Japan
“the Emperor’s Pharmacist held
a higher rank than the Emperor’s
two physicians - don’t tell the AMA”.
The Labor leader also reminded
guests that a pharmacist plays
a pivotal role in Shakespeare’s
Romeo and Juliet, which he
described as “a bit of 17th century
product placement”.
TELLING your patients to get a
breath of fresh seaside air may
not be the best advice, according
to a new study which warns that
“refreshing sea breezes” may
actually contain a toxic cocktail of
pollution.
The science journal Oceanologia
reported on the research which
found “high levels of hazardous
nanoparticles” in coastal air
sampled from southern Britain.
The researchers said the
pollution was likely due to south
westerly winds blowing up from
mainland Europe, with the
not-so-cleansing air including
large quantities of fuel and other
emissions from ships.
“Other pollutants from landbased
factories and cars, as well
as naturally forming chemicals
in the atmosphere merge with
the sea-based particles to form
a deadly cocktail for those living
in coastal areas,” according to a
report on the study published in
the UK Telegraph newspaper.
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