Culture
In Indian culture, especially in northern parts of India, Bengali (Bangladesh and Bengal of India) culture and also in Iran, it has been a common superstition that a sneeze taking place before the start of any work was a sign of impending bad interruption. It was thus customary to pause in order to drink water or break any work rhythm before resuming the job at hand in order to prevent any misfortune from occurring. Contrarily, in Polish culture, especially in the Kresy Wschodnie borderlands, a popular belief persists that sneezes may be an inauspicious sign that, depending on the local version, either someone unspecified or ones mother-in-law speaks ill of the person sneezing at that moment. In other regions, however, this superstition concerns hiccups rather than sneezing. As with other Catholic countries, such as Mexico, Italy, or Ireland, the remnants of pagan culture are fostered in Polish peasant idiosyncratic superstitions. The practice among Islamic culture, in turn, has largely been based on various prophetic traditions and the teachings of the prophet Muhammad. An example of this is Al-Bukhaaris narrations from Abu Hurayrah that Muhammad once said:
When one of you sneezes, let him say, "Al-hamdu-Lillah" (Praise be to God), and let his brother or companion say to him, "Yarhamuk Allah" (May God have mercy on you). If he says, "Yarhamuk-Allah", then let [the sneezer] say, "Yahdeekum Allah wa yuslihu baalakum" (May God guide you and rectify your condition). Verbal responses
In English-speaking countries, one common verbal response to another persons sneeze is "[May God] bless you".
In the United Kingdom, it is a Class C, Schedule 4 Controlled Drug under the Misuse of Drugs Regulations 2001. Pricing
In 2000, the U.S. drug company Mylan agreed to pay $147 million to settle accusations by the FTC that they had raised the price of generic lorazepam by 2600% and generic clorazepate by 3200% in 1998 after having obtained exclusive licensing agreements for certain ingredients. References
External links
inchem.org – Lorazepam data sheet
benzo.org.uk – Ashton H. Benzodiazepines: How They Work And How to Withdraw. August 2002 (The "Ashton Manual"). "Lorazepam". Drug Information Portal. U.S. National Library of Medicine.