Elsewhere in The World
The longevity of most modern currency has also given rise to various fallacies regarding the transmission of bacteriological agents with paper banknotes. SARS cannot be spread via banknote, any more than AIDS can - though it bears noting that China’s concern in early 2003 that the deadly SARS virus could be spread by banknotes caused that country to automatically sequester surrendered notes for 24 hours (the presumed lifespan of the virus) before releasing them back into circulation.
The levels of contamination and the overall "dirtyness" of bills led Australia to introduce a plastic currency in 1988. These notes are less prone to contamination due to lack of the fabric that can hold crystalline structures that illicit drugs often take. Australia now prints polymer currency for almost two dozen other countries, including Israel, Malaysia, Mexico and Romania, as well as at home.
Read more about this topic: Contaminated Currency
Famous quotes containing the words the world and/or world:
“Cash-payment never was, or could except for a few years be, the union-bond of man to man. Cash never yet paid one man fully his deserts to another; nor could it, nor can it, now or henceforth to the end of the world.”
—Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881)
“Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I’ve tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)