WHO, UNDP, UNEP and UNICEF have partnered to create a new compendium of 500 actions aimed at reducing death and diseases driven by environmental risk factors, the first such resource to unite this expertise from across the UN system. Environmental pollution and other environmental risks cause 24 per cent of …
What is the level of radiation in Jaduguda? Has the UCIL or the BARC conducted a study in this regard? There is no radiation or any related health problems in Jaduguda and its surrounding areas. As per the international practice, the health physics unit (hpu) at Jaduguda regularly monitors the …
more than a decade after the explosion of Ukraine's Chernobyl's nuclear power station, the radioactive leak is threatening to cripple the health of the younger generations. "Statistics show rising numbers of radioactivity-related diseases,' said Olha Bobyleva, Ukraine's deputy health minister. "We have also registered a growth in the number of …
According to a report by the US-based World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), the seasonal hole in the ozone layer over Antarctica reached record proportions in September 1998. Covering an area of 25 million square kilometres, or about 2.5 times the area of Europe, this hole surpassed the previous record
SIXTEEN British ex-servicepersons, who served in the 1991 Gulf War, have tested positive for depleted uranium contamination, according to the National Gulf Veterans' and Families' ssociation (ngvfa). Depleted uranium poisoning is the cause of a variety of illnesses veterans are suffering from since the war against Iraq, said a spokesperson …
scientists from Switzerland and Ukraine have developed what they call a "biological equivalent of the Geiger counter'. The team has engineered a plant that warns of dangerous levels of radiation. Right now, the only method to detect if plants have been exposed to radiation is to look for cell damage …
RADIOACTIVE radiation from the Uranium Corporation of India Limited (UCIL) mines in Jaduguda, Bihar, is causing large-scale health hazards to the tribal population living in the adjoining areas. This was stated in a report by the Environmental Committee of the Bihar Legislative Council (BLC). Due to the effects of radiation, …
RADIATION -INDUCED conditions and tumours; other than thyroid cancer have increased significantly in the former Soviet republic of Belarus since the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear plant in 1986, say researchers. Many experts claim that the only significant health effect of the accident was to increase the number of people …
A CAT scanner developed at the Tennessee-based Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) is allowing geneticists to watch the effects of a genetic mutation on the organs of a living animal. Called the MicroCAT, the scanner produces images at 10 times the resolution available with conventional CAT scanners. It uses X-ray …
GERMAN scientists have warned that the Earth's ozone layer, which filters radiation from space, is regenerating itself at a slower pace than originally predicted. "Even if international agreements on the protection of the atmosphere are strictly followed, the size of the ozone hole 20 years from now will be the …
RESEARCHERS at the University of California, Berkeley, USA, say they have come across something unprecedented in their 30 years of study of the Universe. A burst of radiation from a star smashed into the Earth's uppermost atmosphere on August 27. The radiation, they say, had enough energy to power civilisation …
RUSSIAN and Kazakh experts explained why they did not like the recent nuclear tests in India and Pakistan at an anti-nuclear conference. "We are still suffering from the radiation effects of nuclear tests carried out by Russia and China," said Tatiana Leschenko, an eye specialist and president of the Union …
THE mid and late-1980s witnessed global tension rise when scientists discovered a hole in the ozone layer of our planet's atmosphere. This, they said, could be dangerous as ozone shields us from the Sun's ultraviolet (UV) radiation that can cause skin cancer. The main culprit responsible for "punching" the hole, …
Sunflowers and spinach could be used to clean up spillage of radioactivity from around nuclear plants if an experiment by the British nuclear industry proves successful. British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL) is growing dwarf sunflowers, spinach, sugar beet and Indian mustard on an 80-metre-stretch of land contaminated by leaks from the …
"we've had it. Enough is enough,' said Gary Locke, governor of Washington state, at a press conference, announcing that the state would sue the us energy department for failing to clean up the worst nuclear waste dump site in the us. He said the energy department had missed two deadlines …
people living in the villages near the Uranium Corporation of India Ltd (ucil), Jaduguda, Bihar, are suffering from a large number of radiation-induced diseases, deformities, mental retardation as well as disturbances in reproductive physiology. This was revealed in a recent survey by a team led by B N Pandey of …
fresh leaks from the Chernobyl nuclear plant have revived fears about whether the plant should stay open. Recently, officials suddenly closed the plant's only working reactor. Authorities admitted that there was a slight radioactive leak. However, the reactor was reopened after assurances that all was well. Vadim Grichenko, a senior …
high levels of plutonium has been found in sediments at the end of Sellafield nuclear discharge pipeline. It even exceeds plutonium contamination levels found in the sea at Russia's Novaya Zemlya nuclear weapons test site, according to Greenpeace. Sellafield which is operated by the state-owned British Nuclear Fuels ( bnfl …
the Bonn government has banned transport of radioactive waste within and outside Germany from its nuclear power stations. The decision has been taken following the discovery of radiation on the outer surface of a "castor' container for used fuel elements. French researchers had recently found a German container with gamma …
hospitals in the us performed radiation experiments on mentally retarded Norwegians during the Cold War, reveals a retired senior health official. Fredrik Mellbye, a top government doctor from 1950 until 1972, says that these people were used to determine the effect of radiation on humans. Such experiments were carried out …
