Should the Sale of Junk Food in School Canteens be banned?

Junk food is the term that used to describe the food that is to be unhealthy and have low nutritional value. It is being blamed for the increase in childhood obesity (Smith 2005). Based on the statistics from the Health Foundation, (2005) it shows that most of the snack foods such as chips, soft drinks, hamburgers, instant noodles, confectionery and cookies are categorized under foods that have low nutritional values. So, I strongly believed that the sale of junk food in school canteens should be banned as it brings more disadvantages rather than the advantages itself. Some of the reasons to support the banned in selling the junk foods are as it is unhealthy food to be eat, causes major contributor to litter problems and also to help in improving the students behavior.

Firstly, the junk foods are the contributor to the healthy and behaviour problems in children in the most country. The ingredients in the junk foods mainly consist of chemical additives which may lead to various problems such as hyperactivity and poor concentration in their study (Smith 2005). In addition, junk foods also cause the weight gain disorder. According to Lin Tran (2005), the consumption of chocolate bars and instant noodles raised the kilo joule intake and hence lead to the weight gain. So, the sale of junk food should be banned as it brings more healthy problems.

Secondly, the selling of junk food is the major cause of litter problems in the country. The litter’s problems are bad for our communities’ image and its need a high cost to cleaning it up. The school’s canteens that have reduced the sale of junk foods have also reduced their litter problems (Smith 2005). Reducing the selling of junk foods will decreases the litter problems hence the schools can spend the money for other maintenance projects that benefit the school (The Food Show 2005). From this, again, I strongly believe that the sale of junk food should be banned.

Lastly, one way to improve the students behaviour is by prevent them from having junk food. To do this, the sale of junk food needs to be stopped. From the article of The Food Channel (2005), the Child Psychologist, Caputo said that reducing unhealthy foods in children’s diet can improve their behaviour. The chemical addictives in the junk foods are the factors which generate the behavioural problems. The teacher of Hill Primary School, Green, said that the students became calmer after lunch after the selling of junk food and soft drinks is removed from the school’s canteens. In order to take care of student’s behaviour, the sale of junk food in the school’ canteens should be banned.

The sale of junk food in the school canteens should be banned as it is unhealthy food for health and a major contributor to the litter problems. Not only that, the banning of the selling of the junk food also believable to improve the student’s behaviour. Therefore, the sale of junk food in school canteens should be banned for the sake of all parties especially students.

Woman fired for Facebook threat...

AN ADELAIDE supermarket supervisor has been sacked after she posted on social networking site Facebook a "heat-of-the-moment" comment about an unnamed co-worker.

Even though her employer was not mentioned in the comment, Caz Marshall, 22, of Hackham, was dismissed last month by Coles from her checkout job at its Edwardstown supermarket.

"Had I wrote it on the staff room wall or on the (Facebook) walls of everybody who works in that store to single this person out, yes, that would be different," said Ms Marshall, who worked for Coles and Bi-Lo since 2005.

"But the fact it was a private conversation between me and another girl from work . . . it wasn't even intended for the person I was writing about to read it."

Ms Marshall said she removed the comment - which was posted on another person's "wall" and was visible to other visitors to that page - the following day but it had already been shown to store management. They said she had breached company policy.

Ms Marshall said she was called to a meeting and shown "six months' worth" of older Facebook posts she had written and was sacked - a move she thought was extreme.

"I just feel like I could have been given another chance, I don't feel like I necessarily had to be fired," she told the Sunday Mail.

A Coles spokesman confirmed Mss Marshall was "dismissed for a serious breach of our code of conduct", which stated "team members must not make any disparaging or untruthful remarks about other team members".

He said an internal reminder sent to all staff in August had warned "publishing inappropriate or disparaging material on online forums about fellow team members or customers also constitutes a breach of our code of conduct".

Responding to a comment written by a friend and colleague, Ms Marshall said she became angry and posted a degrading comment on Facebook about the co-worker and suggested she "will get what's coming to her".

However she said after being called to a meeting with her Coles management, she now realised her reference to "karma" could also be interpreted as threatening.

Ms Marshall said she regretted posting the comments when her emotions were raised. "It was anger, it was frustration, this girl - she was my friend and she was hurting," she said.

"You're sticking up for someone, you want to make them feel better, to let her know that she wasn't alone.

"It wasn't something that I would normally do. It was done in the heat of the moment and the threat was not something I would carry out - it's not in my character."

Industrial relations experts and social media commentators agree the law is murky on such workplace issues and legislation, as well as society in general, saying it needed to "catch up" with the responsibilities of the online social networking phenomenon.

Adelaide University workplace relations specialist and law professor Andrew Stewart said the impact of online behaviour on workplaces was a growing area and provoked more and more disputes as conversations once kept in pubs, cafes or barbecues were moving online, thrusting the usually private into the public domain.

"In broad terms, the view that the courts and industrial tribunals generally take is that an employer is entitled to take an interest in what happens outside the workplace where there is a clear impact either on the employer's business or on relations in the workplace itself," Prof Stewart said.

He said there had been cases in which employees were dismissed fairly after events that occurred "well away from work, where the incident has the potential to create friction or difficulties within the workplace between people who need to work together".

Prof Stewart also warned people could leave themselves open to civil and criminal defamation claims with potentially severe consequences because of comments published online.

Last year, in an Australian first, an Adelaide man was convicted of criminal defamation after posting false and malicious material about a police officer on Facebook.

Christopher James Cross, of Salisbury, then 19, pleaded guilty in the Kadina Magistrates Court and was placed on a two-year, $500 good behaviour bond.

Social network strategist Laurel Papworth said she considered Facebook to be a private arena or "gated community" where privacy settings allowed users to confirm who could become their online "friends" and have access to their information.

But she said this also raised issues about trust and users should be aware of the differences between their personal and professional voices when they made comments online.

"Australians are now learning that they're a `band of one' and I think what's happening is that they are not realising that they're liable for things they do on weekends and holidays. It has to do with the fact we are broadcasting and publishing, people don't realise they're publishing," she said.

Civil liberties expert Professor George Williams, a strong supporter of free speech, believed people should be entitled to express an opinion without facing dismissal - unless there was a clear-cut case of breaching conditions, such as posting company secrets online. But he also said social networkers needed to be aware of the ramifications of their comments.

"They are in the public domain but people do often express private thoughts and I don't think the law or society has caught up with that," he said. "I think this is an area where there is a need for urgent action by law-makers to make sure that the law is in a satisfactory state."

Ms Marshall said she had learned a lesson and now planned to use Facebook only for positive comments and to stay in touch with friends.

She warned others to stay offline when angry: "Don't go near the computer, don't go near facebook."

Fiona McWhirter, Maria Cabrera
From: Sunday Mail (SA)

Global Warming...

Nowadays, global warming becomes a hot issue to be discussed on. From day to day, it becomes worse and this caused our mother of nature, Earth has suffered a lot especially in term of climate change. Global warming can be explained in term of increasing of the Earth’s temperature that could change our planet by making the climate much more unpredictable, extinction of many species and making people’s life more difficult. Global warming is caused by a phenomenon known as the greenhouse effect. The natural greenhouse effect is a good thing as it helps to warm out earth. However, as the industrial revolution become more important, more carbon dioxide gas is emitted to the atmosphere as a by product of the combustion of petrol in this industrial. The carbon dioxide gas makes Earth’s greenhouse gas become thicker from day to day. Hence, more of the Sun’s heat gets trapped inside the atmosphere and our planet become warmer. This causes the global warming to occur. The global warming gives various impacts to the climate change and also to the human being. Thus, the best solution should be discovered in a way to arrest these problems from become worst.


Global warming has various impacts to our environment. The most obvious one is the changes in the temperature which lead to coastal erosion; lengthen the growing season, and melting of ice sheets and glaciers. Global warming result in more hot days and fewer cool days for certain places. The drought will happen frequently in a long time and the probability for hurricanes to occur also higher as oceans getting warmer (Holli Riebeek,2007). Furthermore, the sea level also rises and hence leads to erode coasts and cause coastal flooding. The rising of the sea level happened due to the warming of the earth which warm up the oceans too. Hence, the sea water molecules expand and take up more volume causing the level of sea rises. The increase in temperature also make the melting of glaciers and ice sheets happen faster which can speed up the rises of sea level. The rising of the sea level will cause the low-lying country to disappear underwater. For instance, Bangladesh has a higher probability to disappear as it is one of the low-lying countries (NASA,2009).


Beside that, the effect of global warming not only can be seen in term of increasing in temperature but also to the ecosystem including plants, animals and human itself. In many parts of the earth, the naturally occurring of four seasons has already changed. Spring occur earlier than usual. Hence, the migrating animals have to move in order to survive. The species those are unable to move will facing extinction because they cannot survive as there is no foods and also shelter. The risk of for plague to destroy an ecosystem also increases as the shorter and milder winters fail to kill in insects. For the citizens of the residents of poor countries, they will suffer a lot as they don’t have enough resources to survive (Holli Riebeek,2007). According to some prediction, the climate change could make about more than 200 million of people become homeless in 2100 because of flooding and other phenomenon likes hurricanes (NASA,2009). So, we should start to think the best way to prevent the global warming from destroy our own life.



In order to overcome this problem from getting worse, the proper and right steps should be taken. As a consumer, we can try to use energy as efficiently as we can. To do so, we can use the efficient electrical appliances and also use renewable technology and energy. These steps are highly believable to reduce the producing of carbon dioxide below 1970 emission (Al-Gore,2007). On the other hands, the leaders of each government also need to play their role as a leader to encourage the civilians in their country to protect the environment from the bad impacts of global warming. This actions should be take seriously to ensure our earth's safety from the global warming.


Global warming has various potential effects such as increasing in temperature and rising in the sea level. It also gives an effect to the variety of living things. In order to prevent this effects from become more worsen, the right steps should be taken. The main solution is by reducing the emission of carbon dioxide gas by using energy efficiently. The role’s of leaders also important to encourage people in the country to give fully support so that the effects of global warming can be redressed. Our planet will continue to warm and things getting worse if the right steps to reduce the global warming are not be taken. As a conclusion, all party should lend a hand and give a full commitment in order to save our mother of nature.