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 landscape looks straight out of a surrealist painting. Vast tracts of land seem diseased, as if something is eating into the land, leaving behind huge gaping wounds. The air is laden with coal dust - you can easily brush it off your shirt collar. Welcome to the Jharia Coalfields …
"Nationalisation has completely failed to meet its objectives," says Ashok K Rudra, deputy director general of mines safety in Dhanbad. The government talked about welfare of workers but it failed to do justice to any of its agenda. Today, people die in same way as they did before nationalisation. They …
"Colliery is in a coma. And only a change in the policy of the government - they must believe in self reliance in the coal sector - will ensure proper growth of the industry," says A K Roy, leader of Bihar Colliery Kamgar Union, Dhanbad. Several industry experts say the …
There are some clear indications of the air quality in Jharia and Dhanbad. The dust particles in the air contain carcinogenic polyaromatic hydrocarbons (pahs), particulate matter smaller than 10 microns (pm10), carbon compounds and trace metals that are also carcinogenic, says D N Singh, scientist at Central Fuel Research Institute …
After issuing countless statements to the contrary in the past decades, the US government has at last admitted that workers who helped make nuclear weapons in the early years of the nuclear age were exposed to radiation and chemicals that produced cancer and early death. The admission comes in the …
at last, after innumerable accidents and deaths of workers in the Alang ship-breaking yard in Gujarat, chief minister Keshubhai Patel has pulled up maritime officials for maintaining poor working conditions and negligence in the yards. Admitting that the deaths were "black spots' on Gujarat's progressive image, Patel lauded efforts to …
Industrial survey statistics tell you that more than one-third - 36.3 per cent - of the total value added by to the raw materials through manufacture in the factory sector of the country comes from Maharashtra (23.66 per cent) and Gujarat (12.64 per cent). Easily, the two most industrialised states …
Three Thai workers were in a critical condition after being exposed to high-level radiation in the country's worst nuclear accident at a recycling plant in the suburbs of Bangkok. Hundreds of people living near or working at the plant were undergoing blood-tests. Authorities are investigating why a waste-disposal company failed …
for the 3,000 residents of Athwajan, the closing down of nine stone-crushing units was justice at last. For decades, the residents were forced to breathe air laden with fine particles carried from the crushers set up near their colonies. Repeated appeals to the authorities to shift these units went unheeded. …
the Union ministry of labour has taken a serious note of the continuing deaths of workers involved in shipbreaking at Alang in Gujarat. Recently, a carbon monoxide gas leak in one of the ships killed three workers. On January 7, 2000, the ministry held a meeting in New Delhi to …
for over 20 years, the Paducah uranium processing plant in Kentucky, usa, hid information about radiation levels in the factory from its staff. This was despite the fact that its employees used to collapse on the factory floor or suffered from serious ailments, including leukaemia. These findings have come to …
grasim industries ltd ( gil ), an Aditya Birla group company, sought the permission of the Kerala government to close down its viscose plant located on the banks of the river Chaliyar at Mavoor, Kozhikode district. The company also posted copies of the notice to the trade unions on August …
workers at Hema Chemical Industries in Vadodara Gujarat are still on strike against the negligent approach of the management towards implementing health and safety norms. S K Varma, surgeon at the Factory Inspector Office, Vadodara, had recently confirmed that about 43 workers at the company are suffering from nasal septum …
the us department for energy ( doe ), which has been raising money for its costly environmental cleanup of old bomb factories by leasing them to commercial tenants, may be exposing ordinary factory workers to excessive radiation, says a us -based environmental group, Institute for Energy and Environmental Research. At …
in his budget speech on February 27,1999, Union finance minister Yashwant Sinha announced the abolition of the five per cent additional customs duty on all foreign ships that are brought to the country for scrapping. Obviously, the government is trying to boost the scrap steel industry. This particular step might …
Near each coal mining area in India is a residential block for employees. A study conducted on air quality around the Singarani coal field in Andhra Pradesh reveals unacceptably high levels of heavy metals. These lead to a host of diseases and ailments. Traces of these metals, some of them …
WORKERS at Gujarat's only basic chromium sulphate factory, Hema Chemicals, are suffering from nasal septum perforations, or holes in their noses, due to continuous exposure to hazardous chemicals. The factory lacks essential facilities such as proper ventilation, provision for natural light and fire exits. The result is all too evident. …
The first concrete evidence that repetitive strain injury (RSI) is caused by damage to sensory nerves by has been reported by researchers at the University of London, UK. This study shows a quantitative sensory deficit in patients with RSI. Jane Greening and her team used a 100-hertz vibrameter to obtain …
FEW areas have received as much attention as the very mundane of human activities - sleep. The annual joint meeting of the American Sleep Disorders Association and Sleep Research Society in Washington Dc recently monitored progress in the field. Participants reviewed two rather interesting studies on sleep: one conducted in …
The tale of the Gulf War syndrome, affecting thousands of war veterans, is getting curiouser and curiouser. New studies indicate that the disease and hospitalisation rates of those who served in the war and those who did not, were not dissimilar. Published in the recent issue of the New England …
