India, with a population of more than 1 billion people, has many challenges in improving the health and nutrition of its citizens. Steady declines have been noted in fertility, maternal, infant and child mortalities, and the prevalence of severe manifestations of nutritional deficiencies, but the pace has been slow and falls short of national and Millennium Development Goal targets.

By Jyotshna Pandit

For the first time, a comprehensive assessment on what climate change would manifest in over the next two decades - by 2030 - has been made available to the country as compared to earlier scenarios that projected climate change far beyond 2050s.

Higher temperatures, heavier precipitation, rise in sea levels and adverse impacts on agriculture productivity and human health a

Solid waste management is one of the major environmental burdens particularly in megacities of many developed and developing Asian countries. An alarming rate of solid waste generation trends can be seen parallel to urbanization, industrialization and economic development.

This report presents WHO guidelines for the protection of public health from risks due to a number of chemicals commonly present in indoor air. The substances considered in this review, i.e.

Country-dwellers miss out on the bustle and bright lights

The increase in the number of chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients from the north central region of Sri Lanka has become a environmental health issue of national concern. Unlike in other countries where long-standing diabetes and hypertension are the leading causes of renal diseases, the majority of CKD patients from this part of Sri Lanka do not show any identifiable cause.

ANDREW JACOBS

Three lakh, forty thousand people in India and China die each year from cardiovascular and respiratory dis eases that can be traced to noxious emissions

Information is scarce about the combined effects on breast cancer incidence of low-penetrance genetic susceptibility polymorphisms and environmental factors (reproductive, behavioural, and anthropometric risk factors for breast cancer).

Conflicts of interest, situations where personal or organizational considerations have compromised or biased professional judgment and objectivity, can weaken scientific credibility, pose threats to biodiversity and ecosystem services, and are often precursors to corruption. Here, we review historical and international examples of conflicts of interest and their impacts on global biodiversity.

Early-life exposure to environmental pollutants such as 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD) or diets high in fat has been associated with an increased risk of cancer. La Merrill et al. (p. 596) investigated how developmental exposure to TCDD and a high-fat diet (HFD) might interact to alter breast cancer susceptibility in a laboratory animal model.

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