Health Effects

Order of the National Green Tribunal regarding illegal mining in village Leta, district Mahoba, Uttar Pradesh, 23/05/2025

Order of the National Green Tribunal in the matter of Akhilesh Kumar Vs State of Uttar Pradesh & Others dated 23/05/2025. The matter related to illegal mining activites carried out by Jai Maa Chandrika Enterprises, Rajendra Nagar, village Kabari, district Mahoba, Uttar Pradesh. The applicant also alleged about illegal sale …

A Nationalised Nightmare

The landscape looks straight out of a surrealist painting. Vast tracts of land seem diseased, as if something is eating into the land, leaving behind huge gaping wounds. The air is laden with coal dust - you can easily brush it off your shirt collar. Welcome to the Jharia Coalfields …

The failure

"Nationalisation has completely failed to meet its objectives," says Ashok K Rudra, deputy director general of mines safety in Dhanbad. The government talked about welfare of workers but it failed to do justice to any of its agenda. Today, people die in same way as they did before nationalisation. They …

What now ?

"Colliery is in a coma. And only a change in the policy of the government - they must believe in self reliance in the coal sector - will ensure proper growth of the industry," says A K Roy, leader of Bihar Colliery Kamgar Union, Dhanbad. Several industry experts say the …

Making hell holes

There are some clear indications of the air quality in Jharia and Dhanbad. The dust particles in the air contain carcinogenic polyaromatic hydrocarbons (pahs), particulate matter smaller than 10 microns (pm10), carbon compounds and trace metals that are also carcinogenic, says D N Singh, scientist at Central Fuel Research Institute …

Out with diesel

For the first time in the world, a government has imposed restrictions on buying diesel vehicles for commercial use as an anti-pollution measure. Quite predictably, this move has come from the South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD), California, which leads the world in air quality management. It adopted three …

A bit of iodine in my salt

as the Union health ministry's 45-day deadline for comments and suggestions regarding the withdrawal of the ban on non-iodised salt approaches (June 24), conflicting reports in the media have created confusion in the people's minds. What has served to exacerbate matters is the fact that the reports emanate from within …

Whither clean fuel?

the us oil industry has locked horns with environmental regulators over a new proposal to make diesel burn cleaner. The proposal made by the us Environment Protection Authority (epa), plans to bring down the sulphur content of diesel by 97 per cent, starting from 2007, according to a report in …

Welcome signals

new york will become the first state in the us to require homeowners to post warning flags to alert their neighbours when they use pesticides on their lawns. The measure, which is expected to be passed in both houses of the state's legislature, will take effect next spring. "Parents and …

PERU

A truck carrying mercury, spilled its toxic load near a remote Andean village poisoning 47 people, including 7 children. Mercury is the by-product of gold mining and is coveted by villagers for its medicinal value and special appearance. The villagers collected large quantities of the metal from the spill and …

Chemical banned

CONSUMERS have decided to stop using products containing chlorpyrifos till more information about it is available. Even store managers are going to lay off these products for the time being. The chemical poses a threat to children due to its effect on the nervous system and brain development and has …

Air pollution in Calcutta elicits adverse pulmonary reaction in children

Pulmonary responses of children chronically exposed to ambient air pollution in Calcutta have been investigated. A total number of 153 children from Calcutta and 116 from rural West Bengal in the age group of 6-17 yr were included in this study. Respiratory symptom complex, sputum cytology and micronucleus (MN) count …

Respiratory symptoms and spirometric observations in relation to atmospheric pollutants in a sample of urban population

The prevalence of respiratory problems and the ventilatory functions in subjects belonging to three sample areas with different levels of pollution was studied to ascertain if there is any association between air pollutant levels and abnormal ventilatory functions. The predominant activity existing in that area served as the basis for …

Furore over seeds

in a late disclosure that triggered the wrath of environmentalists across Europe, the seed company Advanta issued a statement that farmers in Britain, France, Germany and Sweden were unwittingly growing genetically modified ( gm ) rapeseed crops. The seeds had apparently been contaminated by its gm variety in Canada from …

Down with the dump

in march 1997 when the heavy drilling machines ploughed into the barren land of the desert village Sanawada, just a few kilometres from India's nuclear weapons testing site, Pokran, officials of the public sector Mineral Exploration Corporation Ltd ( mecl ) told the residents, "There are precious stones beneath the …

Back from the past

The hazardous pesticide, chlordane

UNITED NATIONS

In a sharp criticism of rich multinational tobacco companies with strong political and economic influence, the director-general of the World Health Organisation (WHO) Gro Harlem Brundtland said they were the main obstacles in controlling the "tobacco epidemic' which accounts for 11,000 deaths a day. At the launch of World No-Tobacco …

Victims of pollution

the health of hundreds of women who live off the Pulicat Lake, a bird sanctuary on Chennai's northern outskirts, have been severely affected due to pollution of the lake by industrial and domestic waste. These women earn a living by fishing in the lake and now they are suffering from …

In toxic ating moments

According to a new study, a romantic candlelight dinner may turn out to be more hazardous to your health. Environmental chemist Jerome Nriagu of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor found that when burned some candles with metal wicks gave off lead. The dark, shiny metal wick cores are …

Breathe easy

that wound infections are common and serious complications of surgery is widely known. About 5 per cent of all patients who have undergone surgery and as many as 10 to 20 per cent undergoing colorectal surgery have postoperative infection in hospitals in the developed west. It is significantly higher in …

Waste: Unavoidable dangers

It is the very core of the ecological footprint theory

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