Good Food is First Food. It is not junk food. It is the food that connects nature and nutrition with livelihoods. This food is good for our health; it comes from the rich biodiversity of our regions; it provides employment to people. Most importantly, cooking and eating give us pleasure. …
scientists at the Imperial College, London, are close to finalising a simple blood test for tuberculosis (tb), which will be useful, especially in detecting the disease in children. The test involves looking for certain proteins, or markers, in the blood that are present only if the patient has tb. The …
as the Simlipal National Park in Orissa's Mayurbhanj district closes during monsoon to protect wildlife, it turns into a graveyard for its human inhabitants, reports an independent working group on protected areas. In June, an infant's death inside the sanctuary sparked off an investigation by this group of local ngos …
shampoos may make your hair look good but appearances can be deceptive. A compound called diethanolamine (dea), which is used in shampoos to create foam, has been found to interfere with normal brain development of foetuses in pregnant mice, claim researchers at the University of Carolina at Chapel Hill in …
In the last week of July, most of the residents in the village Salkiana in Jalandhar, Punjab, experienced suffocation and breathlessness, following the spray of a deadly pesticide phorate in a nearby sugarcane field. Workers of the sugarcane field had used Sudarshan Chemical's sutox 100 and had sprayed 15 kilos …
the struggle against the callous industrialists who dumped toxic chemical waste on two plots in the Sindh Industrial Trading Estate (site) in Karachi, resulting in the death of a child and serious burn injuries to over 20 people (see
"THE tribals need to change their attitude and lifestyle," said R.K. Dixit, the Chief Medical Health Officer (CMHO) of Sheopur district in Madhya Pradesh, in response to a query about continuing reports of children starving to death in the region. The Sahariyas, one of the poorest tribal communities in Madhya …
leukaemia breakthrough: A study by a team of scientists at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Children's Hospital in Boston, USA, shows that cancer stem cells are different from normal blood stem cells. Led by Scott Armstrong, the team suggests that targeting these cells would be an effective way to treat …
evidence has been found of pesticide exposure in small children (1-6 year olds) of farm-workers in the us, say researchers at the Wake Forest University in North Carolina. Led by Thomas Arcury, the scientists say that their study conducted among immigrant farm-workers across six North Carolina counties confirmed the exposure …
sterilising produce: A new method to sterilise fruits and vegetables has been developed, which literally sucks life out of germs. It could replace ozone-depleting chemicals, like methyl bromide, which are currently used to sterilise fresh produce. Called metabolic stress disinfection, the technique was developed by Manuel Lagunas-Solar and his team …
To document and compare the magnitude of inequities in child malnutrition across urban and rural areas, and to investigate the extent to which within-urban disparities in child malnutrition are accounted for by the characteristics of communities, households and individuals.
As many as 500,000 women and children die in India each year due to indoor air pollution caused by use of solid biomass as cooking fuel, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). The poor in India, who form the majority of the population and live in congested, slum-like conditions, …
Exposure to pesticides lowers the intelligence quotient (IQ) of children, claims a US study. Conducted by researchers from the University of North Dakota (UND) in the US, the study examined two groups of 64 children each, aged 7-12 years. One group comprised of children living on or near farms and …
In the 1980s, worried parents and medical researchers in the us alleged that mercury in vaccines was responsible for the growing number of autism cases among children in the country. The issue was debated in medical circles, wheels moved in many western countries, but developing countries still don’t have a …
dam height to be raised: A Supreme Court division bench has directed the Kerala government to increase the water level in the Mullaperiyar dam to 142 feet from its existing 136 feet. A petition by the Tamil Nadu (TN) government and Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy had appealed to raise …
the inclusion of Hepatitis b vaccine in India's universal immunisation programme (uip) could be stayed till there is adequate data on the vaccine's efficacy. Following a meeting on March 3 in New Delhi, between who officials and Indian paediatricians, the un body said it would look into the doctors' concerns …
high fluoride: Almost 35 per cent of school children above 8 years of age in the Palam area of Delhi suffer from dental fluorosis, according to a study by the Fluorosis Research And Rural Development Foundation based in the capital. Of the 576 water sources tested, as many as 112 …
Exposure to pesticides as a foetus or as a child can double the risk of developing leukaemia, according to a French study. It also shows, for the first time, that use of insecticides for killing head lice could lead to cancer. Researchers from the Institut National de la Sant
Among the consequences of war, the impact on the mental health of the civilian population is one of the most significant. Studies of the general population show a definite increase in the incidence and prevalence of mental disorders. Women are more affected than men. Other vulnerable groups are children, the …
