Month: May 2013

World No Tobacco Day

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You learn something everyday.

Bluete_in_Aschenbecher

As I was leaving Son Espases Hospital this afternoon I met Dr Biel Jaume, an ENT specialist from HUSE working in Smoking Cessation. I saw him sitting behind a desk in the main hospital foyer and asked him what he was doing and He mentioned that today was World No Tobacco Day (WNTD), and asked me to take part in the Breathing Test to see how much Carbon Monoxide was in my lungs.

World No Tobacco Day (WNTD) is observed around the world every year on May 31. It is intended to encourage a 24-hour period of abstinence from all forms of tobacco consumption across the globe. The day is further intended to draw global attention to the widespread prevalence of tobacco use and to negative health effects, which currently lead to 5.4 million deaths worldwide annually. The member states of the World Health Organization (WHO) created World No Tobacco Day in 1987. The day has been met with both enthusiasm and resistance across the globe from governments, public health organizations, smokers, growers, and the tobacco industry.

Here in Mallorca this is the last day of a  Week Without Smoke, an initiative of the SBMFIC ( The Balearic Society for Family and Community Medicine) This is the 14th year; below you can see a presentation about a questionnaire carried out this year:

The motto for this year is “Inténtalo, consíguelo, compártelo” ( roughly translated as “Try,Achieve,Share”)
no smoking 1Dr Jaume explained all this to me
and I took the test
 No smoking 2
The result – 0% carbon monoxide. It must be the healthy living in Soller!
But if only this had been the result of all those taking the test. Unfortunately this is not the case and the number of deaths from tobacco every year is around five million worldwide. Any initiative to stop this enormous drain; of lives, and resources is obviously a good thing, however it is by no means clear cut. The battle is a difficult one with many interests at stake but I wish all those involved the very best of luck.

Soon – 1st year Celebrations!!!!!!!!!!!

/ jonmcf / 2 Comments

1st-birthday

Very soon we will be celebrating the 1st year as a blog!!!

When I mentioned this some of the comments were:

“Can’t believe it !!”

“Seems like yesterday”

” Looking good for your age!!”

Well, ladies and gentlemen it IS true, so soon we will be celebrating with a tremendous NEW uplift. Watch out. Any comments, as always are welcome!!!

Medical English by Jonathan McFarland Google+Page

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Medical English by Jonathan McFarlandgoogle-plus-icon

I have just opened a Google + page called Medical English by Jonathan McFarland. It is complementary to my other social network pages but I think that Google + has many possibilities. You can add photos, texts, articles, videos etc so my normal videos published on Youtube and this blog will also appear on my Google+ page. However ¡t does have different tools or gadgets which could be very beneficial. For example, Hangouts – Google says –

Bring your conversations to life with photos, emoji, and even group video calls for free

I think that the possibilities are very interesting – you can dowload the programme onto your smart phone or your tablet – and I want to start monthly hangouts on the topic of Medical English. This is a pilot idea and thus I wish to know all those that are interested in this idea.

OK –

Have a great Sunday – the sun is shining folks ( here in Soller, at least) so get out there and enjoy yourself.