Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 16-10-12

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From: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr/>

CONTENTS

[01] Government to freeze first home foreclosures

[02] Nicotine affects the neural network, PhD Charalambos Sigalas tells ANA

[01] Government to freeze first home foreclosures

More specifically, it will table an amendment in Parliament that will harmonise the legislation on home foreclosures for debts to the State with what is provided for debt to banks, which protect first homes based on certain income and other criteria.

The government plan will be based on the regulations for debt to banks.

These regulations provide for the protection of first homes whose objective value is up to 180,000 euros for singles and married, and the amount is increased by 20,000 euros for each child up to the third one. It also provides for the protection of single ones with income up to 13,900 euros and married ones with income up to 23,600 euros with the amount increased by 5,700 euros for families up to three children.

Meanwhile, the Hellenic Notary Association announced that it would not proceed with any foreclosures on Wednesday, October 12.

[02] Nicotine affects the neural network, PhD Charalambos Sigalas tells ANA

Apart from other already known health problems such as lung cancer or cardiovascular disease, it is less well known that nicotine is a toxic substance that damages the brain at different levels: molecular, cellular and organic. According to Sigalas, parts of the brain of smokers have been found to be smaller than non-smokers, and also nicotine negatively affects memory, learning and attention, with any consequences this may have on the performance of students in school.

Especially in teenagers, he said, studies have shown reduced learning performance of students who smoke, compared with non-smokers. "Nicotine enters the bloodstream through the lungs and reaches the brain, it is incorporated into a group of proteins, the nicotinic receptors, thus deregulating the functions of the neural network (brain cells)," he explained.

One can avoid other harmful substances of the cigarette, such as tar, with the electronic cigarette, but cannot avoid the nicotine. As he said, "it is wrong to believe that the exposure to nicotine by the electronic cigarette is much lower than tobacco cigarettes."

Sigalas noted that it is highly difficult to estimate the accurate exposure to nicotine, but since it is addictive "it is a legal drug" and, given that there are so many smokers, it "is a very big problem for public health."

This concerns passive smokers as well. "Since there is exposure to nicotine, even passive, it has exactly the same effect," he said.

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