On July 15, 1962, a Washington Post story, ‘Heroine of FDA keeps bad drug off market,’ shocked Americans. The heroine in question was Frances Oldham Kelsey. She had joined the US Food and Drug Administration two years earlier as a drug application investigator. With her expertise in pharmacology, she was …
Universally, honey is believed to be a natural product. Regulations across the world say as much. The Codex Alimentarius Commission is a global body set up jointly by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) to develop food standards for international trade; it defines …
OXYTETRACYCLINE Belonging to the common antibiotic class of Tetracyclines, this antibiotic is used by beekeepers against bacterial foul brood diseases. The BIS recommends it for the treatment of European foul brood disease. HEALTH IMPACTS: Chronic exposure to oxytetracycline or OTC can lead to bloodrelated disorders, liver injury and delayed blood …
Multiple antibiotics in high amounts were found in 11 out of the 12 samples. All 11 samples failed the antibiotics standards set by the Indian government’s Export Inspection Council (EIC) for exported honey. The two imported honey samples were also highly contaminated with antibiotics. Both would have failed their own …
Antibiotic resistance is the ability of a microorganism to withstand the effects of an antibiotic. If even at a large dose, the antibiotic is not effective in treating an infection, then the microorganism that is responsible for the infection is declared resistant to that antibiotic. Antibiotic resistance is a global …
They say you are what you eat. But do we know what we are eating? Do we know who is cooking and serving us the food we take to our kitchens and then into our bodies? The more I dig into this issue it becomes clear that our world of …
Tango with nature India has been using lakes, ponds and baolis (step wells) since ancient times ('What monsoon means', July 16-31, 2010). Delhi was once replete with water bodies. In the past 50 years, government agencies started disbanding natural ponds, lakes and baolis, declaring their water untested, and therefore, unfit …
The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), on August 8, notified two sugar substitutes that can be used in blended form in soft drinks: acesulfame potassium or Acesulfame K and sucralose sold as Splenda. This is the second combination to be allowed as di-blend that combines two additives …
CSE laboratory tests find high levels of antibiotics in well-known brands of honey sold in the market. Antibiotics are found in honey largely because they are used in apiculture for treatment of bacterial diseases. Oxytetracycline is commonly used to treat European foulbrood disease (EFB) and American foulbrood diseases (AFB) caused …
The red haze mixes with sweat to form a sticky paste that does not peel off one's skin easily. It becomes dried blood The appearance is deceptive. The district headquarters of Bellary in Karnataka could be any other small town in India: rows of tiled houses, potholed lanes, a bustling …
PAINTERS and those working in the construction industry are at a risk of developing bladder cancer, according to a report that reviewed the case studies of 3,000 painters with bladder cancer. Bladder cancer is the ninth most common form of cancer that claims 130,000 lives a year worldwide, according to …
AN 11-MEMBER committee, formed by the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR), is set to begin screening of toys made in India and abroad for toxicity. The tests will be conducted on 2,800 samples of toys collected from across India. Samples of branded and unbranded toys will be picked from …
LEAD poisoning is one of the oldest occupational and environmental hazards. Present in everything from house paints to toys, even a small amount of lead can interfere with children’s developing brain and nervous system and affect their learning and cognitive ability. But the precise mechanism by which lead affects brain …
INDIA’S Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) has rejected a request by University of Agricultural Sciences in Bengaluru to conduct trials on transgenic groundnuts for commercial development in difficult terrain. The university wanted to conduct trials for drought and salt tolerance. GEAC noted that transgenic groundnut expresses transcription factors— proteins that …
The Union health ministry launched a Rs 150-crore scheme last month to promote menstrual health among rural adolescent girls. Unavailability and high costs of sanitary napkins deter menstrual hygiene in rural India. The scheme aims to provide one pack of six sanitary napkins at Re 1 to girls in the …
LATELY things have not been going smoothly for Koel Dutta. A homemaker in Kolkata, the 38-year-old has asthma. Doctors have put her on Pediapred—a class of glucocorticoid steroids—for the past one year. Since January, Dutta was getting fractures easily. Once she tripped on the doorstep and fractured her wrist. The …
THE Union health ministry is pushing for the inclusion of the pentavalent vaccine in the universal immunization programme (UIP) for children. In April, the government tried to convince the Delhi High Court to clear the vaccine by submitting a World Health Organization (WHO) report that said there was no problem …
Volatile Organic Compounds or VOCs play an important role in tropospheric chemistry by affecting the OH radical concentration, production of organic acids and photochemical oxidants. In order to develop efficient air pollution abatement strategies, it is important to know the sources and fate of VOCs, specially in the South-East Asian …
Luck plays in strange ways. I was reaching for my scooter when the telephone rang in my office-cum-residence in Bhopal. I opened the gate, unlocked the door downstairs, ran up the steps to the first floor and opened the door to my apartment. Normally the caller would have given up, …
DESPITE a 40-year national programme to mitigate its prevalence, anaemia remains the second most common cause of maternal deaths in India. Since 1970, government doctors have been recommending iron and folic acid tablets to pregnant women—and distributing them free—to combat anaemia. Yet, studies conducted in rural Delhi in 2002 show …
