Betel nuts

#里茲螞蟻批判性思考寫作專欄 #Alex專欄 #外師每週精選閱讀 
 
Are you curious about the taste or effects of chewing betel nuts? Would you chew betel nuts in order to make friends? How about for work? To stay warm? According to a survey of betel nut chewers, these are all significant reasons why people who chew these nuts started their habits in the first place. Perhaps they had fallen for the urban myth about how betel nuts are safe to chew, and so wrongly believe it is the added ingredients that make them carcinogenic. Whatever the case, the fact is that chewing betel nuts with or without additives cause cancer. Where are the public health campaigns educating the wider public about the severe damage to health caused by chewing betel nuts? Some success has been achieved in reducing the number of smokers by putting graphic images on the sides of cigarette packaging depicting the horrendous harm to health that results from smoking, so it makes sense that something similar could be achieved with betel nuts. 

Besides the cancers that they cause to the individuals who chew them, there are many other detrimental impacts on society that are directly associated with betel nuts. There are the unhygienic consequences of chewers spitting out the residue on roads and footpaths; the pollution of cups and plastic bags full of saliva and betel nut fibres thrown out of vehicle windows or dumped in public places; and of course, the destruction of forests by betel nut palm growers, along with the increased risk of landslides that also causes. Why hasn’t the government outlawed them, or at least regulated the industry like other cancer-causing products such as tobacco and alcohol?

https://taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2021/03/24/2003754397

===我是分隔線===
 
💡這個專欄目的是訓練同學聰明閱讀。
 
上面的貼文內容是我們的實力派外師Alex，針對每週一篇英文文章閱讀後，親自寫出的批判性思考文（不是copy & paste的東西啊）。旨在讓同學知道如何用不同的角度來讀文章。你可以選擇先讀Alex寫的批判文，也可以選擇先讀本次的英文文章連結，但最好兩處都要閱讀才能達到最好的效果。
 
這是個訓練批判性思考的好機會，希望同學不要被文字牽著鼻子走，在閱讀時可以多思考。大家可以善用這個寶貴的資源～
 
舊文連結：
https://www.leedsmayi.com/alex-column
 
Alex是我們的御用老師，每週都會幫梅姨、托托、慕華上英文課。目前星期一晚上有開一班 #里茲螞蟻外師應用英文課程 ，程度高級，充滿知識性與深度。有開放單次付費上課。若你想學習用英文來深度探討各項主題，check it out！
 
Alex老師的應用英文課：
https://www.leedsmayi.com/applied-english.html