If an influenza pandemic is declared, investigations by New Scientist suggest that global preparedness for a pandemic is extremely patchy.

On 27 April, 6 days after the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) first reported an unusual swine flu outbreak in humans, international agencies were still struggling to determine how serious a threat the virus posed.

Agriculture has fueled the eruption of human civilization. Efficiently raised, affordable crops and livestock feed our growing population, and hunger has largely been banished from the developed world as a result. Yet there are reasons to believe that we are beginning to lose control of our great agricultural machine.

The most common and accepted method of fumigation is to produce fumes using formaldehyde along with potassium permanganate. The formaldehyde cause sulphydryl poisoning, protein aggregation and cancer inducing nature due to protein cross linkage. Indians follow the practice, Homam

Allergic manifestations such as rhinitis, asthma and eczema are increasing all over the world and more steeply in western industrialized countries during the last few decades. The underlying causes are poorly understood. Genetic factors are unlikely to explain the increased prevalence of allergic diseases as genetic shift in the population cannot occur in such a short duration.

The potential impact of climate change was highlighted at the recent United Nations Climate Change Conference (Dec 3