Barnala: At least 40 students of a government school in Roore Ke village in Barnala district were taken ill after eating fruit of jatropha (ratanjot) grown on the school premises. Sources said all the students were admitted to Barnala Civil Hospital, where they were said to be out of danger.

As a parent you might have wanted your child to be "a complan boy". But have you ever wondered whether the large number of nutrients printed on the labels of these 'health foods' are actually present in them? According to experts, most of these tall claims made by packed foods are just claims and the advertisement part of any product. "Since advertisements give visibility to products they are designed to create hype among consumers, so they make tall claims," opines Chandra Bushan, Associate Director at the Centre for Science and Environment.

Deepsikha Cancer Care Foundation, an NGO working exclusively for cancer patients, has taken the initiative to make the common masses aware about the abuse of tobacco and its harmful effects. With this aim in view, it has opened its first branch of stop tobacco centre in the Deomornoi community health centre recently. The centre aims to provide information, awareness and support to people willing to quit tobacco.

From K M Balavenkatesh,KGF: Are the residents of KGF afraid of the Aashada wind? It appears so, for at the onset of the season, traders, farmers, and other residents residents look forward to this season with some amount of dread. Nearly seven years after the closure of the gold mines, the people of this region face a serious problem in the months of July and August - the winds that carry with them cyanide particles, from the piles in the mines.

Pune July 06 Jarden Consumer Solutions has launched its newly designed Bionaire tower airpurifier with permanent HEPA-Type filter. The Bionaire tower air purifier is certified globally by Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers and British Allergy Foundation. A press release stated that "The air purifier is an effective solution to the all-pervasive problem of indoor pollution. Bionaire Tower Air Purifier can filter out airborne particles including smoke, fine dust, bad oduor, harmful organic gases, bacteria and viruses as small as 0.3 Micron .'

Kohima, July 6: The Nagaland Agriculture Department has ruled out apprehensions of famine following invasion of grasshoppers in several areas of the State. A release issued by the Director of the Agriculture Department stated that the long-horned grasshopper of

PANJIM, JULY 5

Enough body of evidence exists linking tobacco use with life-threatening diseases and disabilities- Bobby Ramakant Despite of the India's legally-binding Cigarette and Other tobacco products Act (2003) and repeated appeals of India's Health and Family Welfare Minister Dr Anbumani Ramadoss to bollywood film-stars to refrain from on-screen smoking, there seems to be less compliance in the guise of 'creative liberty'.

SOUMEN BHATTACHARJEE Street food has always been scrumptious. It will now be safe, too. The central government has chosen Bidhannagar Municipality to implement the first Safe Street Food programme in Bengal, with the focus on setting up vending zones where any hawker can do business as long as the food is hygienic. That could mean the neighbourhood puchkawalla having to use gloves and switch to mineral water, and the chicken, mutton and egg roll vendor using branded sauces instead of the toxic-looking ketchup customers are used to.

Chewing tobacco and snuff are less dangerous than cigarettes but the smokeless products still raise the risk of oral cancer by 80%, the World Health Organisation's cancer agency said. The review of 11 studies worldwide showed people who chewed tobacco and used snuff also had a 60% higher risk of oesophagus and pancreatic cancer. The researchers who published their findings in Lancet Oncology, found frequency of use varies greatly both across and within countries, depending on sex, age, ethnic origin and economic background, and were highest in the US, Sweden and India.