New Zealand on Tuesday passed into law a unique plan to phase out tobacco smoking by imposing a lifetime ban on young people buying cigarettes. The law states that tobacco can’t ever be sold to anybody born on or after January 1, 2009. It means the minimum age for buying cigarettes will keep going up and up. In theory, somebody trying to buy a pack of cigarettes 50 years from now would need ID to show they were at least 63 years old. But health authorities hope smoking will fade away well before then. They have a stated goal of
A South African researcher has developed a way to remove contaminants from water used in mining that could help clean up the dirty industry. The award-winning ion exchange method not only cleans the water but captures polluting metals that can then be re-purposed. At a Johannesburg laboratory, researchers from the University of the Witwatersrand have developed a way to clean acid mine drainage (AMD). AMD is the runoff of pollutants like sulfuric acid and heavy metals that secrete into waterways, affecting wildlife and rural mining communities. AMD is often found at gold and coal mines, which are plentiful in South
EU Foreign Affairs Ministers met with their counterparts from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine as part of the Eastern Partnership. The aim of this meeting was to reaffirm the European Union’s commitment to the Eastern Partnership. Ministers discussed ways to strengthen engagement with the region and to make the partnership tailored to the needs of these countries. Foreign Affairs Minister Borg stressed the importance of further investment to strengthen the security and resilience of the region, together with countering disinformation. Minister Borg also highlighted that stepping up investments in connectivity and increased efforts to enable the transfer of