Claims by the government and industry that environmental regulations are throttling India's economic growth are belied by the latest study by Delhi-based non-profit, Centre for Science and Environment (CSE). The assessment which comprehensively analysed forest clearances granted by the Indian government in the 11th Five-Year-Plan—2007 to 2011—shows that rate of …
Updates from UN Down To Earth reports on UN General Assembly in New York. Keep visiting to know the latest on non-communicable diseases. 'Lifestyle' diseases spur UN to act Health is rarely the topic of discussion at the UN general assembly. But starting September 19, the UN began a high-level …
Jyotsna GovilHonorary additional secretary of the Indian Cancer Society It is the first time the government has agreed that the numbers (of people) killed by non-communicable diseases (NCDs) have long overtaken the communicable diseases numbers. Government was till now concentrating only on the communicable diseases like polio and AIDS. According …
Health is rarely the topic of discussion at the UN general assembly. But starting September 19, the UN began a high-level meeting to debate a strategy to tackle non-communicable diseases (NCDs). This is the second time that the world body is calling a meeting on health. More than a decade …
Global leaders are preparing to meet in New York on September 19 and 20 to chart the way forward to tackle noncommunicable diseases, the number one killer in the world. On the stealth, the pharma and food industries and some rich countries are also at work to weaken the initiative. …
In May when Kerala banned seven highly toxic insecticides so that it switches to safer chemicals, it did not fare better. It ended up replacing them with six others, banned or severely restricted in most parts of the world. For instance, it replaced carbofuran, a pesticide that affects the nervous …
The overpowering stench of municipal waste hits one hard on entering Boragaon. Women and children from the nearby squatter’s colony squabble over the garbage unloaded by trucks from Guwahati, the sprawling business hub of northeastern India and a million-plus city of Assam. A sole adjutant stork, an endangered bird, meditates …
IT IS no mean task to detect tuberculosis. Suspects are subjected to a battery of tests, including sputum and molecular, to ascertain the disease. One of the most expensive and widely used by private pathological labs is the blood test. But the World Health Organization (WHO) has issued advisory asking …
GRAPEFRUIT or chakotra is widely used in bodywashes and gels. But its peel finds limited use. Now, Indian researchers have shown the peel can be effectively used to filter methylene blue, a dye which is used to colour silk and cotton and is the main ingredient of the textile industry …
WHILE waste from drug factories continues to be a major concern for the environment, not much attention is paid to pollution that results from household consumption of drugs. Very few models exist to trace the trajectory of drugs and determine their fate. Now scientists from Autonomous University of Barcelona in …
EXPOSURE to organic pollutants can disrupt the formation of nervous system in a foetus. This in turn may lead to neural tube defects. The disease affects over 320,000 infants worldwide every year. Earlier studies have linked organic pollutants like polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), from indoor coal stoves, smoking and vehicle …
CARE for some tea? Before reaching out for that cuppa here is some information: herbal brews and some tea brands contain ingredients unlisted on the packet. The unlisted contents include weeds that could result in allergic reactions. Teas are made from leaves of the plant Camellia sinensis, native to India …
Describe your study and its findings. From 2006 to 2009 over 70 per cent of the forest staff in the reserve, which lies in a protected area in the Eastern Himalayan global biodiversity hotspot, suffered from malaria. Its treatment cost park managers nearly three per cent of their total budget …
Matters reached a head earlier this year when the prime minister assured the power ministers’ conference the government would decide within a month about power projects which were ready in all respects except for environment clearance. At a meeting convened by the prime minister’s office, the Kayamkulam project in Kerala …
The residents of Bamni were fed up with the constant feud between two farmers in their village. Their quarrels, which often came to fisticuffs, went on day and night, at home and in the farms, for years. Occasionally their neighbours had to rush them to a doctor after they had …
Recently, on discovering that I work in the forest department, a lady co-passenger in a flight asked, “Are you people really doing anything for the forests?” The unconcealed taunt set me and my friends discussing with the sceptic the scenario of green governance in India. How are we managing our …
Rocks and fossils tell many stories. They contain records of life on earth. But the geological record is fundamentally patchy. Even the most rapidly deposited sedimentary rock is marked by periods of non-deposition, or even erosion. So rocks need a narrator to tell their story. Science journalist Brian Switek is …
A TV show that claimed to show the “reality of life” of an Amazonian tribe has been slammed for faking scenes and mistranslating interviews to perpetuate stereotypes. Mark and Olly: Living with the Machigenga was shown on the Travel Channel and on the BBC last year. The show claimed to …
In the first week of August, the Angolan police arrested radio journalist Adao Tiago for reporting on a bizarre wave of mass fainting. Since April, over 800 people, mostly teenagers, have fainted after complaining of sore throats and eyes, shortness of breath and coughs. Angola’s interior minister Sebastiao Martins claims …
Using cell phones to broadcast text messages reminding health workers in Kenya how to treat children’s malaria increased the number of cases handled correctly, a study has found. The study by researchers from Oxford and the Kenya Medical Research Institute was published in The Lancet. It involved 119 health workers …
