Should the UK Govermnet Allow the Market to Operate Freely in the Essay

Should the UK Govermnet Allow the Market to Operate Freely in the Allocation of Cigarettes - Essay Example For instance, government of diverse countries have imposed various types of taxes or statutory declarations against consumption of these products with the desire to reduce the utilisation of the demerit products. Demerit goods are described as those products and/or services, the intake of which may result in unhealthy or socially adverse impacts over the individuals of a country. There are varied types of demerit goods such as tobacco or cigarettes, alcoholic drinks, junk food items and recreational drugs among others. It is in this context that demerit goods, such as cigarettes are considered to be worse as it offers varied types of physical disorders to an individual as well as the society. With this due consideration, cigarette smoking is regarded as one of the key factors leading to negative externalities, which might hamper the social well-being within an economy by a large extent (Cancer Research UK, â€Å"Tobacco and Cancer Risk – Statistics†). ... tive externality takes place when demerit goods offer considerable amount of pessimistic impact over the society, thereby hindering the public health and its well-being. It mainly occurs when the societal cost increases than the private expenditures as a consequence of increasing purchases of demerit goods by the nationals. It leads to the failure of the market, due to surplus production of the product in comparison to the total requirement of the society. This results in the enhancement of the negative influence of these externalities within the society which ultimately amplifies the cost bore by the society of United Kingdom (Cancer Research UK, â€Å"Tobacco and Cancer Risk – Statistics†). Demerit goods such as cigarettes are considered as those products, with the regular consumption of which results in the hindrance for health development of an individual and that of the society as well. Even though the regular consumption of demerit goods such as cigarettes may als o lead to negative externalities, the demand of these products are identified to be increasing at a rapid rate in the markets of UK, which can be apparently observed with reference to the diagram represented below (Cancer Research UK, â€Å"Intensity Of Smoking Within The Citizens Of UK†). Intensity of Smoking within the Citizens of UK Source: (Cancer Research UK, â€Å"Intensity of Smoking within the Citizens of UK†) The underlining reason, which results in the overall enhancement of the demand for such demerit goods or negative externalities, is mainly due to lack of perfect information within the customers of the UK society. Thus, due to lack of appropriate knowledge, tobacco consumption or cigarette smoking has currently emerged as one of the significant social factors to be considered by the UK

The use of isotopes in medicine Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

The use of isotopes in medicine - Essay Example This physical difference explains why a process like fractional distillation can be used to separate isotopes. According to Van der Merwe (2002), due to the difference, a single element has the capability of existing in many forms for instance oxygen can exist as oxygen- 15, oxygen- 16 or oxygen- 17. This paper aims having a comprehensive discussion of isotopes, outlying their uses in archeology as well as looking at the future of isotopes in this area of interest. Isotopes are categorized into two main groups; stable and unstable. White (1998) asserts that stable isotopes are those that do not decay over time, while the unstable ones undergo through an ionizing radiation referred to as radioactivity. Isotopes that give off this ionizing radiation are called radioisotopes, for example, carbon- 14 is a carbon radioisotope. In fact, the radioactive process differs from one isotope to the other hence some isotopes have a higher radioactive rate than others. The difference in the radioac tivity rate depends on the ratio between neutrons number and proton number. The higher the ratio the faster the rate and vise versa. Ambrose (2003) explains that the decay rate of isotopes can easily be predicted and determined, thus has widely been used in determining age mostly in archeology. Uses in Archeology Carbon Dating Carbon dating is the most common use of isotopes in archeology where age of organisms is determined in the process (McKinney, et al, 1995). The isotope used in this case is carbon- 14. Normally carbon exists in the C- 12 form, but in few occasions it also exists as C- 14. C- 14 are radioisotopes hence can undergo a radioactive process at a specified rate of the half-life. According to the half-life rate, the proportion of decay is in such a way that the C- 14 to C-12 proportion is always constant. However, this is an unproven assumption that archeology attach to this theory of dating in order to assign ages to their discoveries (Van der Merwe, 2002). The theor y is based on the changes that occur to a living organism when it dies and the process of decay starts. According to the theory, during the living period of an organism, the carbon (C-12 and C-14) proportion in the organisms’ body and that in the environment is equal (White, 1998). This is so because the organism exists in an equilibrium environment as different metabolic processes take place within the organism, causing exchanges between the organism and its environment. In the process organisms are constantly replacing body molecules, a process that is faster in some tissues (skin), and slow in others (bone). However, upon death, the unstable form of carbon (C- 14) will start decaying without being replaced from the environment through radioactivity. Consequently, if some parts of the organism such as bones are found by an archeologist, the ratio of C-12: C- 14 at the time can be used to ascertain when the organism died (Van der Merwe, 2002). An organism that died recently will have a lower ration than the one that died ages ago. Material Classification The isotopes used in this process are mainly those of oxygen through a closer analysis of the ratio of O- 18: O- 16. Ambrose (2003) contends that archeologists use this method in the classification of the different types of glasses as well as in the analysis of mollusk shells as they try to determine their origins and sources. In