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 …
any elementary physics text book will tell you that a metallic plate with holes will not allow any radiation to pass through provided the holes are of a smaller diameter than the wavelength of the radiation. This principle is used in many devices, such as microwave ovens, where the glass …
Phytotech, a company based in Monmouth Junction, New Jersey, USA, has come out with a technique to purify water contaminated with radiation. Interestingly, the technique uses sunflowers. It works by soaking up uranium from streams and other water sources near derelict nuclear sites. Phytotech tested the effectiveness of sunflowers in …
polymers that turn ultraviolet (uv) light into visible light could be used for everything from advertising to protecting plants from damage as the ozone layer thins. Researcher Rudi Danz from the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Polymer Research in Teltow, usa, has developed polymers that contain napthalene groups, which excited by …
a scientific investigation by the Russian and Norwegian governments has found that radioactive contamination from the production of plutonium for the former Soviet Union's nuclear weapons was far higher than was ever believed. Since 1948, the Mayak nuclear complex in the southern Urals has leaked 8900 petabecquerels of radioactive isotopes …
In 1974, the International Radiation Protection Association (IRPA) formed a working group on non-ionizing radiation (NIR), which examined the problems arising in the field of protection against the various types of NIR. At the IRPA Congress in Paris in 1977, this working group became the International Non-Ionizing Radiation Committee (INIRC).
IN 1974, the International Radiation Protection Association (IRPA) formed a working group on non-ionizing radiation (NIR), which examined the problems arising in the field of protection against the various types of NIR. At the IRPA Congress in Paris in 1977, this working group became the International Non-Ionizing Radiation Committee (INIRC). …
According to Bangkok gemologists, hundreds of dangerously radio-active gemstones are circulating in the Asian markets and some have even found their way into finished jewellery. Tests conducted by radiologists in the Thai capital have revealed radiation levels in some stones were more than 50 times the us safety limit. Experts …
Gemologists in Bangkok say that hundreds of dangerously radioactive gemstones are circulating in Asian markets and some of them have found their way into finished jewellery. Tests conducted by radiologists in the city revealed that some stones had radiation levels 50 times higher than that permissible under us standards. These …
Scientists are developing radar flashlights that would see through doors and walls. The device developed at Atlanta's Georgia Tech Research Institute, USA, can detect a stationary human's presence through solid wood or a 20 cm block wall from nearly 1.2 m away. The flashlight uses simple microwave technology. It emits …
donen , Japan's state-run nuclear agency, admitted that corrosion had caused leakage of radiation from about 2,000 underground drums storing radioactive waste from a fast-breeder nuclear reactor before February in Tokai, a village north of Tokyo. Government officials said that water was surrounding the dumping site was safe, even as …
high levels of radioactive discharge into the English Channel from a reprocessing plant at La Hague, France, have increased the incidence of leukaemia in children of the region. The alleged removal of an underwater monitoring equipment by Cogema, the company that operates the plant, has led to the serious problem. …
bangladesh's main nuclear reactor in Savar district has been shut down after one of the waste water cooling tanks leaked radioactive water at a rate of 0.3 gallons per minute. This is for the first time a leakage has taken place since it started operation in 1986. The tank has …
a study funded by the British department of health has found plutonium in the teeth of children throughout England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. The study shows that the radioactive discharges from Sellafield plutonium reprocessing factory have contaminated people throughout the region. The study involved the examination of over 3,300 …
exposure to nuclear tests conducted in the early '90s at the Nevada test site near Las Vegas may have caused 10,000 to 75,000 thyroid cancers among Americans, 70 per cent of which have not yet been detected, states a recently released report of the usa -based National Cancer Institute. "There …
MAYAK, a nuclear energy facility in the former Soviet Union that remained shrouded in secrecy for over 40 years now, has been identified as perhaps the most disastrous, according to a recent research report. Though not as well- known as the nuclear power plant at Chernobyl, the Mayak complex is …
THERMAL power plants, fertiliser firms and other industries involved in largescale coal combustion could be a major source of radiological pollution. A team of researchers from the research and development division of the Projects and Development India Limited, a New Delhi-based public sector company, have called for regular monitoring of …
daylight is not all dewdrops and honey. It also contributes to the destruction of the ozone layer in the stratosphere, say Patrick Aimedieu of France's National Space Research Centre and Bob Sheldon of the University of Houston, us, who base their claims on studies using balloons above southern France ( …
innumerable cracks and holes that have appeared on the sarcophagus, that is meant to stop radioactivity leaking from the damaged nuclear reactor at Chernobyl in Ukraine, can now be plugged. Eurotech, a company based in La Jolla, California, has been given the green signal by the Ukranian government to start …
Trees contaminated by radioactivity from the 1986 Chernobyl disaster are to be burnt to produce electricity. Scientists from the us and Belarus are planning to construct a power plant fueled by timber from around the crippled reactor. Larry Baxter, a chemical engineer working in the area claims that more than …
the first global analysis of satellite data by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration ( nasa ) has revealed an interesting finding. Collating 15 years of data, scientists have come to the conclusion that harmful radiation from the sun has been hitting major population centres across the world in increasing …
