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April 26 – May 30, 2024
Businesswoman of the Year awards
N etwork Ireland West nesswoman of the Year awards at a special lunch event taking place in Inchydoney Hotel on Friday, May 24. Network Ireland Business- woman of the Year awards are designed to recognise the achievements of women Cork (NIWC) will host its prestigious Busi-
across the professional and entrepreneurial spectrum. The awards are divided into eight categories: Emerging New Business; Solo Businesswoman; Established Businesswoman; Creative Professional; STEM Professional; Employee – Ris- ing Star; Employee – Shining Star; Networker of the Year. Speaking about the upcom-
ing awards and lunch event at Inchydoney Hotel, Sandra Maybury, President of Network Ireland West Cork said: “The Network Ireland West Cork Businesswoman of Year awards are one of the highlights of our business year. Business Women all over West Cork, both self-employed and employees, have shared their stories by
entering - the awards luncheon represents a unique opportunity for women to take stock of their progress and celebrate their successes.” The afternoon includes a drinks reception followed by a three-course lunch. Branch winners will represent West Cork at the National Network Ireland Businesswoman of the
year Awards, which will be held in Kilkenny in September 2024. Tickets are €39 for Network Ireland members and €49 for non-members. Booking in advance is essential. Tickets can be purchased form networkire- land.ie The 2023 branch winner was Aisling Vaughan
From sausage poison to Botox
our best to keep him at bay. That’s where Botox comes into play with over seven million injections of the product ad- ministered annually. Its job is to paralyse the muscle so that lines cannot be formed from movement. By now we’ve all at least heard of Botox, some of us have had it, some of us know people who have had it and now we know where it’s made. But did you kanow that sausages were instrumental in its creation! Yes, sausages. The poison known as Clostridium Bot- ulinum forms in improperly canned tin foods, where small amounts of oxygen can enter and initiate the production of the botulinum toxin. It flour - ishes in anaerobic conditions and during wartime in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, when canning meat in order to preserve it became popular, the toxin exploded in volume and began killing people at un- precedented rates. Scarily, no one knew what was happening, it was a bizarre epidemic that spread, whereby people who had ingested the toxin became ‘frozen’, their faces were no longer able to move, their legs became rigid and within days they died. Botulinum toxin is one of the most lethal poisons in the world and it wasn’t until the late 19th century that we figured out what it was. In the late 1790s and early 1800s, the Kingdom of Württemberg in southern Germany was plagued with the effects of gone off sausages, which had expired and become sour in the tins they were packaged in. Amidst the ongoing Napole- onic Wars from 1803 to 1815, adequate food production was stymied by poverty and lapses in food hygiene. Cases of fatal poisoning spiked in the region, prompting the capital of Stuttgart to issue a notice
in 1802 on the dangers of the “harmful consumption of smoked blood-sausage.” These sporadic outbreaks were char- acterised by blurry vision and paralysis. Still, no one knew exactly what was wrong. Between 1817 and 1822, the German physician Justinus Kerner published the first com - plete description of the symp- toms of botulism, based on extensive clinical observations and animal experiments. He concluded that the toxin that develops in bad sausages under anaerobic conditions, is a bio- logical substance, acts on the nervous system, and is lethal even in small amounts. Kerner hypothesised that this ‘sausage toxin’ could be used to treat a variety of diseases caused by an overactive nervous system, making him the first to suggest that it could be used therapeu- tically. In 1870, the German physician John Müller coined the term botulism to describe the disease caused by sausage poisoning, from the Latin word botulus, meaning ‘sausage’ However, it took until 1978 for it to be used in the fashion we are familiar with today, when Alan Scott, an ophthal- mologist, in an unprecedented move decided he would inject ....it was a bizarre epidemic that spread, whereby people who had ingested the toxin became ‘frozen’, their faces were no longer able to move, their legs became rigid and within days they died.
“Americans spend more money on Botox, face lifts and tummy tucks than on the age-old scourges of polio, small pox and malaria.” - Victor Davis Hanson D id you know that every single injection of Botox in the entire world is made in one single factory right here in Ireland, in Co Mayo? The plant in Westport exports the product to 70 countries and, since its foundation, has shipped hundreds of millions of vials of botox worldwide. The com- pany is called ‘Allergan’ and the facility is 18,000 square metres of mainly automated lines, as well as state-of-the art microbiology and cell- based laboratory facilities with research and development capabilities. The new accounts show that the company’s over- all revenues increased by 25 per cent or €1 billion, rising from €4 billion to €5 billion – evidence of the huge demand for the product worldwide. The company’s largest market is the US, which accounts for 68 per cent in sales followed by Europe, Africa and the Middle East, accounting for 14 per cent of revenue. Aging is something that none of us can hide from. Father Time waits for no man as the old saying goes, however, many of us do Shane Daly is a History Graduate from University College Cork, with a BAM in History and an MA in Irish History. THE HISTORY CORNER Shane Daly
087-9012697 noel@noelodonovan.ie noel_o_donovan Noel O’Donovan West Cork West Cork Local Election Candidate Noel O’DONOVAN Experienced and Committed to Helping You
the world’s deadliest toxin into a human for the first time. This was momentous and required extreme caution including doing the injection in an operating room, monitoring by emergency personnel, and a stay in the intensive care untit post injection. It went without a hitch, but the minuscule dose allowed by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) over- seers had no effect. The good news was it caused no harm. In December 1989, Scott received approval for use in humans aged 12 and over for treating strabismus, and blepharospasm. The following year he sold his company to Allergan for 9 million dollars. Allergan opened the facility in Mayo and is worth $63.65 billion dollars today. Ironi- cally, the anerobic conditions that Allergan uses to grow the botulinum toxin in Westport are the exact same conditions that allowed the preservation of a neolithic village under the Céide Fields in Mayo, as well as bog bodies throughout the country. Despite them being thousands of years old, they have been preserved so well that we can see their fingerprints. Arguably, the best advertisement for Botox of all.
EVIE NEVIN LOCAL AREA REP FOR SKIBBEREEN LEA Clonakilty
Dunmanway Rosscarbery Skibbereen
Y our voice Your advocate Your West Cork
083 4290752 evienevin.westcork@gmail.com
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