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 …
Closed-door meeting at Kanyakumari on January 29, 30 The 15-member Central Expert Group constituted by the Union government on the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant in the wake of protests is looking forward to reaching out to a cross section of people and create a ‘win-win situation' for all. An internal/closed-door …
A recent order of the National Green Tribunal could impact the clearances being granted to coal-fired thermal power plants. The tribunal has asked the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) to make a detailed assessment of the supposed radiation caused by the thermal power plants in the country. Last …
IT IS standard practice in most Indian hospitals to recommend a physical regime consisting of yoga and gentle exercises to patients undergoing cancer treatment. There has been an understanding that yoga improves physical function and emotional wellbeing as chemotherapy—the commonly used treatment for cancer—causes fatigue and weakens the immune system. …
For years the World Health Organization (WHO) maintained that radiation from cell phones is generally safe. But on May 31, it changed its stand and announced that cell phones pose a possible cancer risk. A panel of 31 scientists at the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), a part …
As officials in Japan agonise over what constitutes a safe radiation dose for people who live near the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactors, the state of the science has been a daunting problem. Studies on the effects of exposure are based mostly on large doses delivered quickly by atomic bombs, while …
Expressing concern over the effects of radiation from mobile towers installed in residential areas, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has held that it is the duty of the government and mobile companies to inform residents about the harmful effects. A division bench ruled the government will be duty bound …
The problems associated with the accidents at the Fukushima nuclear reactors continue, weeks after an earthquake and a tsunami struck Japan. On March 27, Japanese officials announced that leaked water sampled from one unit was highly radioactive, exposure to which would cause severe radiation sickness in hours. Estimates of releases …
THE slow-moving disaster at the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan that is spreading a cloud of anxiety across the world has forced most nations to either suspend or review their nuclear power programmes—but not India. In the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami that struck the huge Daiichi power complex …
INDIA is constructing six nuclear power plants—two each at Kudankulam in Tamil Nadu, Kakrapar in Gujarat, and Rawatbhata in Rajasthan. Together, they will generate 4,800 MWe of power, states the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board’s website. This is a big leap towards enhancing the country’s nuclear stature. But is the country …
This new report provides basic quantitative and qualitative facts about nuclear power plants in operation, under construction, and in planning phases throughout the world.It finds that nearly three-quarters of reactors under construction are located in China, India, Russia & S.Korea but none of these nations have historically been transparent about …
The Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization, an arm of the United Nations in Vienna, forecast the possible movement of the radioactive plume coming from crippled Japanese reactors. It shows the plumes churning across the Pacific, and touching the Aleutian Islands on Thursday before hitting Southern California late Friday. The projection …
The current nuclear crisis in Japan is the most critical one after the Chernobyl disaster in 1986. Tracking it closely means a lot for India as it points out how a nuclear crisis is managed. It is important at a time when the world is getting obsessive with nuclear safety. …
“LET the headlines be that mobile towers are safe,” declared Rajan Mathews, director of the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI). He said this while presenting the findings of a survey commissioned by cell phone service providers to measure radiation from mobile phone towers in Delhi. The survey conducted at …
FIVE people working in a scrap metal shop in Delhi were hospitalised on April 7 following exposure to radioactive radiation. Nuclear experts rushed to the shop in Mayapuri junk market and found a radioactive material, cobalt-60, of the size of a pen cap. Nearby shops also indicated high radiation. It …
Uranium from ores mined at the three mines - Jaduguda, Bhatin and Narwapahar (Jharkhand) - is processed in the mill and the waste emerges as tailings. The recorded radioactivity level in these tailings is very low, but to avoid any long-term effect of these tailings on the atmosphere, humans, cattle …
The rapid increase in mobile telephone use has generated concern about possible health risks related to radiofrequency electromagnetic fields from this technology. An interview-based case Original Source
Controversy surrounding the true toll and disease burden caused by fallout from the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986 has resurfaced following the release of a new study.
The November 2009 exposure of employees at the Kaiga nuclear power plant to tritiated water is not the first instance of high radiation exposures to workers. Over the years, many nuclear reactors and other facilities associated with the nuclear fuel cycle operated by the Department of Atomic Energy have had …
Following the action taken by the Noida Authority against unauthorised cellphone towers in the area, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) has decided that no such towers in the Capital will be sealed for the time being. The civic agency has also directed all operators who have installed unauthorised towers …
In utero exposure - cancer link was unknown Study confirms that ionising radiation is a weak carcinogen The study of atomic bomb survivors in Hiroshima and Nagasaki continues to provide very useful information on the effects of radiation on man. Recently, Dr Dale Preston and co-workers examined the incidence of …
