Reply on behalf of the Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI) in response to the National Green Tribunal (NGT) order September 12, 2024. The matter related to the news item titled "People are breathing in cancer-causing chemicals in their cars study find" appearing in NDTV.com dated May 8, 2024. ARAI …
MORE THAN 36 tonnes of highly toxic chemicals are stored even after their date of expiry in the godowns of the Agriculture Inputs Corp at Amlekhgunj, in central Nepal. The Nepal Forum of Environmental Journalists (NEFEJ) says these pesticides were supposed to be burnt in the kiln of the Hetauda …
When the Union agriculture ministry announced in July, with great fanfare its decision to ban 12 pesticides and restrict 13 others, it received much kudos from nongovernmental organisations and voluntary agencies. Praise was showered on agriculture secretary M S Gill. However, enquiries by Down To Earth revealed the decision on …
SEVERAL foods people all over the country consume daily -- milk, butter and cereals, for example -- have been found to contain substances hazardous to health by a nationwide survey conducted by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). The ICMR surveyors found that as much as 87 per cent …
POISONING of nature is a constant obsession with BBC's Nature series. The latest episode in the series was on the ubiquitous yet controversial chlorine, a chemical the programme dubs as "The Devil's Element". The title has been derived from the words of a professor of environmental chemistry: "There are 91 …
ENVIRONMENTALISTS are concerned that plans by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) to provide Cambodia with a US $3.78 million aid package, includes supply of 30 tonnes of insecticides worth US $800,000. Japan Tropical Forest Action Network, an NGO, reports two of the chemical fertilisers are diazinon and sumicidin, which are …
MAJOR differences of opinion have surfaced within the government in Japan over the shipment of weapons-grade plutonium from Europe even as the Japanese freighter Akatsuki Maru continues its 27,000 km-long journey from Cherbourg in France to Japan. This is the first large-scale shipment of commercial plutonium fuel, the opening step …
A bacterium that causes botulism can be used to temporarily banish wrinkles (Asian Wall Street Journal, Nov 9, 1992). While treating a patient with dystonia -- a condition characterised by severe muscle contractions -- researchers at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Centre discovered the patient looked younger after being injected with minute …
THE HOODED pitohui, a bird native to New Guinea, has a deadly surprise in store for predators. Its brilliant orange and black feathers and its skin are laced with a potent toxin called homobatrachotoxin, and researchers say it is the first known bird using poison in self-defence. The poison acts …
THE BRITISH Technology Group (BTG) recently licensed Penn Pharmaceuticals to manufacture a "safer paracetamol," according to a report in New Scientist (Vol 135 No 1836). Paracetamol was considered a safe painkiller until it was found that if consumed in large doses, it could be fatal. When broken down in the …
STEWART Cole and his team of scientists at the Pasteur Institute in Paris have discovered that the absence of a single large gene is responsible for making certain strains of tuberculosis bacteria resistant to isoniazid, the principal drug used to treat the disease. (Nature, Vol 358, No 6387) On reinserting …
THE INCREASE in phosphate wastes released into rivers over the last 20 years may in turn have increased the frequency of "red tides" (coloured springtime algal efflorescences) which poison and kill numerous fish in American estuaries. Certain single-celled algae called dinoflagellates , which make up a large part of ocean …
THE "arms race" between plants that produce defence mechanisms to ward of foragers such as deer and animals who attempt to evolve mechanisms to counter these defences, have long intrigued evolutionary biologists. Scientists say the moose (Alces alces), a large herbivorous mammal found in temperate regions, appears to be leading …
Potassium bromate (KBrO3) is an oxidizing agent that has been used as a food additive, mainly in the bread-making process. Although adverse effects are not evident in animals fed bread-based diets made from flour treated with KBrO3, the agent is carcinogenic in rats and nephrotoxic in both man and experimental …
Imagine discovering a product that you've been using is causing serious damage to your health and the environment. But instead of safely disposing of that toxic product, you decide to go next door and sell it to your neighbor. Hard to imagine, right? This scenario isn't entirely unimaginable. In the …
Waste Management: India's Need Of The Hour Approximately 36.5 million tonnes of waste is generated annually. But where does it go? In this episode we trace the journey of waste and how challenging it is for the sanitary workers to manage the waste in our country. http://www.ndtv.com/video/shows/banega-swachh-india/waste-management-india-s-need-of-the-hour-427342
