Central to the achievement of the Agenda for Sustainable Development is an adequate, equitably distributed and fully supported health workforce. Nurses are the largest occupational group and represent an indispensable force with which to combat inequities in access to health services and progress towards health-related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), while …
recent investigations reveal that shipments of discounted hiv drugs, worth us $18 million, intended for African countries were, diverted to Europe and sold at the marked price. Drugs of pharmaceutical giant Glaxo SmithKline Beecham were intercepted by profiteers and sent to markets in Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands and the uk …
Over one third of European fish oil supplements contain dioxin levels far exceeding European Union's (EU) food safety limits, show tests conducted by Food Standards Agency (fsa), a UK-based food safety watchdog group. The tests were conducted on 33 products, of which 12 were found to exceed the limits extensively. …
it might not be a million dollar question, but is worth us $7,600. A newspaper is offering the amount to anyone who can explain why, over the past almost 30 years, Britain's rural sparrow population has declined by about 60 per cent. For many experts, clues to this puzzle lie …
A revolution in farming is in the offing across Europe, courtesy the new Water Framework Directive . The order must become a national law across the 15-nation European Union (eu) bloc by the end of 2003. It sets tough new limits on the level of pollutants permitted in rivers and …
See Score Card Raw material sourcing phase To rate the companies on the raw material sourcing phase, grp used the following indicators: the quality of input salt, transportation of salt, self-sourcing of water (water harvesting) and the use of renewable and clean fuels. The Indian caustic-chlorine industry has performed poorly …
Pondicherry-based Chemfab Alkalis Ltd (cal) has been rated as the greenest caustic-chlorine company in India. With an overall score of 46.7 per cent, it has been given the Three Leaves Award. Set up in 1985 by Krishnamurthy Rao, a technical expert, cal set the trend by going in for membrane …
Although there has been a belated shift from the polluting mercury cell technology to the membrane cells, mercury pollution in India is still very high. India does not produce mercury and relies completely on imports. Between 1998-2001, the annual mercury imports stood at 170-190 tonnes, which is 10 per cent …
It’s a Catch-22 situation. How does one rate an industry where the pollution is minimal at the production plant and peaks the moment the product leaves the factory gates? How does one rate an industry that is the mother of all chemical industries? How does one rate an industry that …
What would you say of an industry that takes common salt and turns it into one of the most environmentally deadly substances we know of today, namely chlorine? And what if in its production process it uses yet another deadly substance, mercury? We are talking about India's caustic-chlorine industry. Centre …
it is a downpour that has left most parts of central and eastern Europe submerged in misery. Over the past few weeks, unprecedented and severe storms have triggered floods in the region, claiming more than 112 lives, rendering thousands homeless and causing damage worth more than us $21.5 billion. Authorities …
recently, us researchers have proved for the first time that the water vapour exhaust trails or contrails that are left by cruising jet planes have an insulating effect on daily temperatures. Andrew Carleton from us-based Pennsylvania State University and colleagues measured the effect of contrails during the three-day grounding of …
the un Environment Programme (unep) needs to revamp its publicity department so that it can report with accuracy. With the World Summit on Sustainable Development (wssd) at Johannesburg barely a few weeks away, it chose to release the preliminary study on the Asian haze, which it claims to have sponsored. …
The Indian government has sent the right signals before the World Summit on Sustainable Development (wssd) by approving the ratification of the Kyoto Protocol. After the cabinet meeting which gave the go-ahead for the approval of the protocol, Union minister for information and broadcasting, Sushma Swaraj said the move will …
Europe's growth hormone-laced animal feed crisis continues to become bigger. From merely three Dutch pig farms in June 2002, the tainted feed has made its way to farms in 11 European Union (eu) nations. The Dutch authorities have halted exports from 2,000 more pig farms. European scientists suspect the medroxyprogesterone-acetate …
around 10,000 years ago, farmers from the Middle East carried civilisation with them to Europe, reveals a recent genetic analysis. It makes it clear that new agrarian technologies were not purely a spread of ideas, but a mass movement of people who settled and mixed with hunter-gatherers of Europe. The …
Emil Salim, chair of the global preparatory committee for the World Summit on Sustainable Development (wssd) and former Indonesian environment minister has urged India's Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, to lead the delegation of the developing world in Johannesburg. He has, meanwhile, exhorted countries not to bow to the internal …
European Commission has adopted a communication that will allow businesses to reach suitable agreements on environmental rules through self-regulatory and co-regulatory mechanisms. The move seeks to help companies develop environmental solutions more quickly and effectively.
for a country that suffers from chronic power failures and electricity deficiency, India has been the slowest off the block to implement any kind of energy efficiency regulations. Electrical appliances and products continue to be sold without any labelling or rating process to measure their energy efficiency. The result: the …
