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 …
SCIENTISTS are discovering that specialised structures in the minute world of cells do not float randomly from place to place but are actively transported along well laid out tracks by a veritable menagerie of motor molecules (Science, Vol 256 No 5065). The motor molecules play a fundamental role in the …
A report by a scientist claiming Indian chocolates are deliciously dangerous because they contain excessive cancer-causing nickel has sent the manufacturers to court and set off a panic among consumers. Not surprisingly, in the nasty slanging match that has followed, the manufacturers and M C Saxena. seem to be quoting …
THYROID cancer has started appearing sooner and spreading faster than expected among children exposed to radiation from the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in April, 1986, according to two studies. A World Health Organisation team of pathologists and epidemiologists detected 102 cases of malignant thyroid cancer, usually not found among the children …
THOUGH only about 10 per cent of rainforest plants -- far less diverse than ocean life -- have been screened, these have still yielded a number of anti-cancer, anti-viral and anti-inflammatory drugs. Research on marine natural products which are far more diverse did not begin until 1973, but according to …
SCIENTISTS have good news for tea and coffee drinkers: they need not kick the habit for fear that the caffeine in the beverages causes cancer. Research indicates that caffeine may actually help prevent cancer caused by radiation and certain chemicals and that it can be useful in radiotherapy. Till 20 …
PROLONGED use of chlorinated drinking water can cause cancer, says a study by scientists at the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR). When chlorine gas reacts with naturally occurring organic contaminants in water, minute concentrations of carcinogenic compounds are formed. The risk is greater in water got from rivers and …
SURGEONS may soon be able to call upon living micro-organisms to fight tumours that cannot be reached by the surgeon's scalpel. US scientists are proposing a new form of "molecular surgery" involving the transfer of a viral gene into the tumour and then attacking it with the anti-viral drug, ganciclovir. …
Sunlight can be used to treat cancer using a method developed by University of Tokyo researchers. Their method focusses sunlight on the cancer-affected areas using optical fibres. The photochemical reaction with a previously injected substance kills cancer cells. Cancer treatment methods, using lasers in photodynamic therapy, already exist, but the …
NEWS FOR smokers gets worse and worse. According to earlier studies, about one-fourth the number of regular smokers were expected to die of tobacco-related diseases. Latest estimates put the figure at one-third. Richard Peto of the Imperial Cancer Research Fund in UK, along with the World Health Organisation and the …
IT'S BEEN a rat race to get the patent. But Harvard University's onco-mouse, a creature designed in a laboratory for cancer research, may still not make it. In mid-May, shortly after the European Patent Office published its patent for this mouse that has been given cancer-causing genes, European green activists …
When governments are desperate for cash, they sell death. While South American countries deal in cocaine, the US government is taking to aggressive pushing of its tobacco industry. In Korea, the opening up of cigarette markets recently increased smoking rates among male Korean teenagers from 18.4 per cent to 29.8 …
WITH so much worry about the rapid ozone depletion taking place in various parts of the earth, Indian scientists are closely monitoring the ozone layer over India for possible depletion trends. Opinions are many and varied. According to S K Srivastava, head of the National Ozone Centre in New Delhi, …
THE Himalayan yew Taxus baccata is in the news. Researchers at the University of Kansas have found that the yew contains the anti-cancer drug, taxol, in sufficient quantities for it to replace its cousin, the Pacific yew. Indian botanists fear that the graceful tree may become gradually extinct. American researchers …
Potassium bromate (KBrO3) is an oxidizing agent that has been used as a food additive, mainly in the bread-making process. Although adverse effects are not evident in animals fed bread-based diets made from flour treated with KBrO3, the agent is carcinogenic in rats and nephrotoxic in both man and experimental …
Fuel price reform is inevitable and necessary, but clean fuel and public transport agenda for health protection must not be derailed Photo: Chaitanya Chandan The UPA government has finally allowed oil marketing companies to raise diesel prices in small amounts from time to time until the subsidy is fully pruned. …
Not raising diesel prices would harm economy much more' The government has finally taken the bold step to hike diesel prices as well as limit subsidy on cooking gas. This is the highest ever diesel price hike that makes the fuel dearer by Rs 5 without value added tax. At …
AN EXPERT committee, appointed by the Maharashtra government to study the effect of mobile phone towers on public health, has recommended a ban on these structures near schools and hospitals, and restricted access to rooftops of buildings having such towers. The panel, headed by additional chief health secretary, was set …
Government and business in India's capital are struggling to cope with the environmental consequences of the city's economic growth. The FT's Victor Mallet examines the cost to human health.
Is your love for red and processed meat getting you into trouble? The World Health Organisation seems to think so. It has released a report stating that consumption of red and processed meat is linked to cancer of the stomach, colon and pancreas. But is a renouncement of meat the …
In a shocking revelation, Delhi-based research group Centre for Science and Environment has found in its study that most the bread brands and food items sold by popular fast-food brands contains cancer causing chemicals.The reports said about 84% of 38 popular brands of breads, buns and burgers and pizzas were …