Hyderabad Dec. 1: More and more people in the city are suffering from health problems caused by high levels of pollution. Mr Pawan Reddy, an IT professional, went to a hospital because he was suffering from constant breathlessness and was diagnosed with asthma by a pulmonologist. The reasons were obvious.

Burning 1 tonne of wheat or paddy stubble releases 3 kg of particulate matter, 60 kg of carbon monoxide, 1,460 kg of carbon dioxide, 199 kg of ash and 2 kg of sulphur dioxide.

Beijing: An accident in a northern Chinese coal mine has left 21 miners dead, state press reported on Monday, citing a local provincial mining bureau. The cause was not immediately clear but miners were first reported trapped in the mine in one of China's prime coal producing areas on Saturday morning, the China News Service said.

Public health threats rise to the surface during a flood like the one in the Midwest with animal waste runoff from farms and overflowing city sewer lines. But people are usually smart enough to avoid what can make them sick, experts say. For example, the 1993 floods in the same region produced no illnesses from contaminated water despite the worries of floating waste, said Nancy Hall, a public health microbiologist at the University of Iowa's University Hygienic Laboratory in Iowa City.

BAIHATA CHARIALI

About 1,000 miners have been withdrawn from an underground mine of Western Coalfields Ltd (WCL) in Maharashtra after a carbon monoxide leak. WCL shut down two pits of Ballarpur collieries after traces of carbon monoxide were noticed spreading steadily through the tunnels on Tuesday. The gas leak was first noticed on Tuesday afternoon after the workers complained that there was smoke in the mine. The miners were immediately withdrawn from the spot. TNN