h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I don't know what other countries this may apply to, but in Germany you would NEVER get tablets of any kind loose in a bottle. The are all sold in blister packs. Not quite sure if this is because the packaging industry has a lot to say about how they are sold, or whether this is to reduce the likelihood of people overdosing.

This is one of the things we expats dive for when we get back home. Cheap, loose-packed painkillers. Boots here I come!

Also, in Germany, the home of Aspirin is considered to be Leverkusen (Bayer have enough money to keep their own football team, which isn't doing too well at the moment.)

When you pass Leverkusen on the train, you get a good view of the Bayer building, which was dressed up in the traditional aspirin colours of green and white, like the box the blister packs of their Aspirin come in, to celebrate the 100 years anniversary.

I shall post a link to a picture of this in the next posting, becuase it will no doubt be removed fairly quickly, as, of course, it is in German.

(Scroll about halfway down for some nice pictures of the building at night!)

http://www.lev2000.de/guide/Archiv1.txt/Lev00054.html

Nice pictures!

In Spain, as in Germany, pills aren't sold in bottles but in blister packs and there are only ten aspirin per pack. So if anyone is contemplating suicide they would have to go to many different chemists in order to buy enough pills to commit the act.

dl

Hey wow - the link is still there!

I also found out by taking the link right at the beginning of the entry, more about Aspirin and its inventor. The guy's name was Hofmann, which is presumably why the pharmaceuticals people Hofmann La Roche are so named.