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 …
As a preventive measure, Westchester county near Manhattan in the US will hand out anti-radiation tablets to people living near the Indian Point nuclear power plant. The pills (potassium iodide) are supposed to protect the residents from possible radiation exposure, if an emergency arises. There are growing concerns about Indian …
Radiation from cellular phones is a well-known risk. Now there is another type of pollution from the wireless device which has raised a wave of worry. A study conducted by Inform, an environmental research organisation, says that within three years the us will discard about 130 million cellular telephones a …
radioactive fallout from Cold War nuclear weapons tests throughout the world caused at least 15,000 cancer deaths in the us, revealed a us government study made public recently. The health and human services department study also indicated that 20,000 non-fatal cancers among us residents born after 1951 could be linked …
at least 11,000 us citizens died from cancer after being exposed to radioactive fallout from nuclear testing done during the Cold War. This was revealed in the report of a recent study conducted by the us Department of Health and Human Services (dhhs). The report further mentions that virtually every …
This Radiation Protection Standard (hereafter referred to as ‘the Standard’) sets limits for human exposure to radiofrequency (RF) fields in the frequency range 3 kHz to 300 GHz. The Standard includes: mandatory basic restrictions for both occupational and general public exposure involving all or part of the human body; indicative …
A chemical involved in immune system signalling may be able to reverse some types of skin damage caused by sunlight. It could reduce sunburn by activating DNA-repair mechanisms, suggests a new study by researchers from Germany-based University of Munster. This finding raises the possibility that the chemical might be used …
A new range of substances to replace ozone-depleting substances like chlorofluorocarbons and hydrofluorocarbons, which are banned under the Montreal Protocol, are doing more harm than good. These alternative substances, such as n-propyl bromide and halon-1202, may also have the potential to damage the ozone layer. Although these alternative chemicals, used …
lake Ontario of Canada is in a perilous condition due to leakage of nuclear waste from a facility managed by Cameco Corporation, the world's biggest supplier of uranium. The leakage of toxic substances such as arsenic and uranium from the storage site of Cameco at Port Granby has been going …
most materials expand when heated and contract when cooled. But what about a material which contracts when in light and expands in the dark? Scientists in Germany and uk have developed precisely such a material. If the material can be made into other compounds, it could prove immensely useful in …
picture this: it is the peak of summer in Kolkata and an office operates normally without any air conditioner, but none of the people inside are sweating (or complaining). West Bengal Renewable Energy Development Agency ( wbreda ) has proved its efficiency in renewable energy once again. Its new office …
while huge concessions have been given to the umbrella group countries under the Kyoto protocol for using forests as carbon sinks to meet their targets, latest research shows that planting forests to curb global warming could backfire. Planting trees across the snow-covered swathes of Siberia and North America will heat …
It's easier to recognise a face when its owner's race matches our own, is the controversial finding of a new study. An imaging study shows that greater activity in the brain's expert
india's first public hearing on the effects of a nuclear installation in Kanchipuram near Kalpakkam, Tamil Nadu, on July 27, 2001, was a statement on how the country's nuclear establishment is run. The hearing was held for the controversial prototype fast breeder reactor ( pfbr ), which is to be …
after 11 years, the Hubble Space Telescope ( hst ) has completed its measurement of the Hubble constant, a fundamental number that determines how old and how big the Universe is. The value of the constant determined by the hst is close to its value expected by astronomers. As noticed …
A public prosecutor's office in Paris has ordered an investigation into allegations regarding some French citizens falling ill due to the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster. An investigating magistrate will conduct the probe. The directions were given after a lawsuit was filed by a group of 51 plaintiffs with thyroid ailments, …
CHITRA GOPALAKRISHNAN WASHINGTON DC It is celebration time for the nuclear power industry in usa . The cause celebre: the national energy policy unveiled by President Bush on May 18 gives the go-ahead for nuclear reactor construction after 25 years of abstinence. Arguing that nuclear power is cheap, clean, safe, …
Arjun Makhijani, president of Maryland-based Institute for Energy and Environment Research ( ieer ), contradicts the French repository programme as "non-existent'. France has no repository as yet and the proposed site is expected to come up only by 2015. There was intense opposition in France in 1987 when the French …
officials in the uk have been illegally smuggling bodies of children to help researchers from the us conduct nuclear experiments, according to the us department of energy ( doe) . Documents released by the department state that "researchers employed deception in the solicitation of bones of babies from intermediaries.' The …
The Rossi X Ray Timing Explorer has observed the first direct evidence of the rotation of a black hole. Observations show a black hole eating up a nearby companion star. The matter form the star collects on an accretion disk that is orbiting the black hole before it plunges into …
When light passes from air to water, it is refracted. This refraction is dependent upon the index of refraction of water, which is basically the ratio of the speed of light in air to its speed in water. Scientists have demonstrated a negative index of refraction in a material. The …
