There seems to be a virus out there, something like the “ignore your bike virus“, that affected most Livestrong Challenge bloggers this week. Well, I planned to get out and ride at least twice… didn‘t happen, though. The weather was gorgeous, so I really have no good excuse- other than meeting with friends, studying or sending out lots and lots of e-mails and letters to keep my fundraising going. At least I was doing some indoor training, and I promise to be better next week!!
The German Government presented their annual report about drugs and drug addiction this week. As usual, there are some good aspects and a lot of bad ones. Let’s start with the bright side:
- The percentage of young adults (ages 12-17 ) that smoke decreased from 28% (2001) to 20 % (2005)
- Laws that protect non-smokers have been passed on both federal and local levels. Smoking will be banned from all train-stations within Germany, all busses, trains and airplanes by September 1st, 2007. In addition, there are plans to ban smoking from all official buildings, including schools and hospitals as well as most restaurants.
Of course, there are some negative aspects of this report, too:
- 1 out of 3 German adults smokes
- Every year 140.000 Germans die from direct causes of smoking
- Every year 3.300 Germans die from second-hand smoking
- Germany sadly is among the leaders of European Countries when it comes to people suffering from skin cancer. 1 out of 5 Germans are being diagnosed with skin cancer- which ranks us 3rd in Europe, right behind Sweden and Denmark.
So, no reason to stop the fight against cancer, but all the little steps are quite motivating to keep on going strong!
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