In India, a country with a vast population and a diverse socio-economic fabric, healthcare remains fraught with challenges including disparities in access. These socio-economic disparities are deep, and they influence health outcomes. It is imperative to bridge these gaps amid the ongoing epidemiological, nutritional and demographic transitions that are bringing …
transgenic potatoes may be used in the future to vaccinate women against cancer of cervix caused by the human papilloma virus (hpv). It is the most common form of cancer afflicting Indian women. The vaccine was developed by a team of scientists from us-based University of Rochester, Cornell University and …
The Bandi river in Rajasthan is dying. Flowing through various villages of Rohet tehsil in Pali district, its water has a reddish hue like red rum. It can no longer be used for irrigation or drinking. "Even animals do not drink this water,' says Gangadhan Charan, a resident of Gadhawara …
The lac dye is bright red. It is derived from insects like cochineal, kermes and lac, also called Kerria lacca. It takes about three lakh insects to yield one kilogramme of dye. These scale insects thrive on a variety of trees and bushes such as kusum (Schleichera oleosa), palash (Butea …
We know the potential, we know the opportunity. We have the necessary diversity and the knowhow. But still, not many plants are in use for extraction of dyes in India. Of 40 species of indigo found in India, only 16 yield the dye and only four are commercially grown in …
Five years ago, Ama Herbal, a Lucknow-based company, quick to see potential in the natural dye industry, started to manufacture natural dyes. “The response was tremendous. Everyone asked us for samples within 15 days of writing to them,” says Y A Shah, the company’s managing director. “But later, everything backfired. …
The Brazilian government will provide about us $2 million to support research in areas such as therapeutic cloning, which involves using cells and tissues from cloned human embryos to replace those damaged by cancer, heart attacks, car accidents, burns and other kinds of mishaps. The new fund known as the …
peruvian farmers and indigenous peoples' organisations are up in arms against two us patents on maca ( Lepidium meyenii ), a plant related to the mustard family, cultivated for centuries in the Puna highlands of Peru. Maca is a staple food crop of Peru and is widely marketed in the …
a simple, cost-effective and easy test for detecting the presence of aflatoxins in foodstuff has been recently developed by Andhra Pradesh-based International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT). Aflatoxins are chemicals produced by the fungus Aspergillus that commonly grows on food material. Even small doses of the toxins …
THE US government is considering charging Imclone Drugs Inc, a biotechnology firm for deluding investors about the status of their cancer drug, Erbitux. Company officials revealed that they have received a 'wells notice' from the Securities and Exchange Commission. This notice is issued when the staff of the panel is …
No one who reads a newspaper, however cursorily, could miss the news that Stephen Jay Gould, Professor of Zoology at Harvard University, died of lung cancer on May 20, 2002. He had fought his way out of another cancer, a rare form of abdominal cancer, 20 years ago. His reaction …
by the 2030s, climate change could become the main factor leading to ozone loss, surpassing even industrial products such as chlorofluorocarbons (cfcs), says a new National Aeronautics and Space Administration (nasa) study. While attributing this to changes occurring in water vapour and temperature in the upper atmosphere due to rising …
breathing toxic chemicals exposes all us citizens to a lifetime cancer risk at least 10 times greater than the level considered acceptable under us federal law, shows a recent assessment of the us Environmental Protection Agency (epa). The epa assessment has been based on emissions data from 1996 because inventories …
The memories of Belgium's 1999 dioxin crisis were revived with Germany shaken over feed grain contaminated by nitrofen, a cancer-causing chemical banned in the European Union (eu). Even though thousands of organic chickens were slaughtered, it was feared that infected meat and eggs had already entered the food chain. Consequently, …
safe inside the warm womb of the mother, a child kicks and turns. This is the third time that Sarah Connell is pregnant, but she has never reached her second trimester of pregnancy. She aborted twice earlier. This time she has moved houses, cleaned up her home, and taken every …
Waterborne diseases, caused by the intake of chemicals and contaminated water, affects around 3.4 million people globally. In India, around 563,000 people are affected annually, one fourth of which are children, according to the Union ministry of health and family welfare. Water gets contaminated due to sewage from households, industrial …
Indians are at great risk of lifestyle diseases. Inactivity alone claims two million lives globally every year, warns a recently-published who report. Indians, particularly the younger generation, are increasingly facing problems due to overweight, blood pressure, stress, high cholesterol and diabetes, all of which are a fallout of physical inactivity. …
Some chemicals can affect brain development and function. They also have serious effect on children's learning and behavioural abilities. Compared to other organs, the human brain develops over a long period of time
Open the recent National Human Development Report (nhdr), or any glossy document of the World Bank and its ilk, and it will reveal how the world is a much better place. Death rates have declined, people live longer, fewer children are dying and incomes are increasing. Of course, forget the …
