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. …
The European Union parliament has passed an amended version of the registration, evaluation and authorisation of chemicals (reach) bill. The controversial bill has the industry against the labour unions and environmental groups. If enacted, reach will force businesses to disclose the amount and kind of chemicals it uses, encourage a …
The cement industry is India's ultimate sunshine industry. Up until the 1980s, it was not growing phenomenally. Now it is. After cement was decontrolled in 1989, the industry took off
Underneath the sleepy suburbs of Orange, New Jersey, usa, lies a unique site in the history of labour rights and the understanding of radioactive materials. For it was in a factory here in the 1920s that almost hundred young women were slowly poisoned to death with radium. The ensuing case …
The ambient air quality monitoring was carried during the May 2003 to April 2004 along the (NH-6) passing through Jalgaon city. The average concentration of SOx 64 μg/m3, NOx 58 μg/m3, particulates (>10 μ) 515 μg/m3 and respirable dust particulates 224 μg/m3 was reported at Prabhat during the study period …
The us Environmental Protection Agency (epa) has once again encouraged an unethical practice, urging pesticide companies to go for human trials of their products. This, despite the us House of Representatives prohibiting the agency from accepting human pesticide dosing studies as evidence of safety (when other methods of determining a …
"it is high time that the Indian government and corporates learn something from their Japanese counterparts,' says Ban Asbestos Network of India, a coalition of civil society groups. Japan announced on July 9, 2005, that it will totally ban asbestos use by 2008. The move followed data disclosure by many …
a herbicide, Roundup, based on the chemical glyphosate, is being promoted by multinationals as a solution to the problem of toxicity from pesticides. But a study by French scientists published in Environmental Health Perspectives (Vol 113, No 6, June 2005), shows both Roundup and glyphosate can be toxic to human …
India's construction sector contributes about six per cent to her Gross Domestic Product. In the Tenth Five-year Plan currently unfolding, that figure is likely to go up. The plan envisages massive construction activity across the country. Over 60 per cent of the total plan outlay is likely to be spent …
a canadian study suggests that combined chronic exposure to noise and carbon monoxide in the workplace can induce hearing loss. Based on over 9,000 audiograms, the study by Adriana Lacerda of the
The pesticide 1,2-dibromo-3-chloropropane (dbcp) has created more legal trouble for three us fresh food producers and two global chemicals giants. These companies were earlier sued by Costa Rica's banana pickers for exposing them to various health problems by using and distributing dbcp, which is banned in the us ( see …
function deadly() { var popurl="images/20050415/44.htm" winpops=window.open(popurl,"","width=500,height=450,scrollbars=yes") } function table() { var popurl="image/20050415/44-table.jpg" winpops=window.open(popurl,"","width=300,height=350,scrollbars=yes") } Being a coal mine worker is a risky job in China, the world's most intensive consumer of coal and minerals and boasting the biggest coal mining industry. Though the Chinese government claims 6,027 coal mine workers …
Why research whistleblowers? I had for many years studied cooperatives of workers and women and how their organisation differed from the bureaucratic model of organisation. People kept asking me, "But what of people with strong values in the corporate or public sector?' I realised that value-driven people in bureaucratic organisations …
one in five us farm workers regularly handling organophosphate (op) and carbamate (cb) pesticides suffers serious health effects such as nausea, headaches, fatigue and seizures, according to a report released in mid-February. These pesticides are neurotoxins that significantly inhibit production of cholinesterase
Asbestos crimes: In an exemplary verdict in the US, seven present and former executives of WR Grace & Company, an asbestos firm, were recently indicted for a 26-year conspiracy. They were charged with hiding from the company's workers, their families and other people the fact that the vermiculite mined in …
The authors examined the association between pesticide use and breast cancer incidence among farmers’ wives in a large prospective cohort study in Iowa and North Carolina. Participants were 30,454 women with no history of breast cancer prior to cohort enrollment in 1993–1997. Information on pesticide use and other information was …
agricultural workers are not only exposed to pesticides via inhalation, but also through the skin. Researchers of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, usa, and the us Environmental Protection Agency (epa) have found that dermal exposure to chlorpyrifos, a widely used pesticide, contributes substantially to workers' total exposure. The …
as per a study, workers employed in Indian salt farms are prone to hypertension with their injuries and skin ulcers leading to sub-skin absorption of salt. Excessive consumption of common salt (sodium chloride) is a known cause of acute hypertension. The study was conducted by researchers from the Jodhpur-based Desert …
in a major step towards checking adulteration in soft drinks, the Drinks and Carbonated Beverages Sectional Committee (fad 14) of the Bureau of Indian Standards (bis) has decided to segregate soft drinks as a separate category for setting final product standards. The decision was taken in the tenth meeting of …
common concern: A Montana jury ordered ChevronTexaco Corporation to pay us $40.3 million for environmental damage from a gasoline pipeline leak in 1955. The case is of potential concern for energy companies, which under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act, or the Superfund law, have been held responsible …
