Poisoning from pesticides, drug medicaments, biological substances and snake bites, are now the eight causes of death in Sri Lanka. In 2005 18,174 people died of poisoning, in 2006 19,381 died of poisoning and in 2007 23,675 people have died of poisoning.
Although the issue of anthropogenic climate forcing and public health is widely recognized, one fundamental aspect has remained underappreciated: the impact of climatic change on plant biology and the well-being of human systems. The authors aimed to critically evaluate the extant and probable links between plant function and human health, drawing on the pertinent literature.
This report contains monographs prepared at the sixty-eighth meeting of the Joint FAOM0 Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA), which met in Geneva, Switzerland, from 19 to 28 June 2007.
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
Two chemicals widely used in cleaning agents for homes, offices and hospitals cause birth defects and fertility problems in mice whose cages have been in contact with them, according to Patricia Hunt at Washington State University in Pullman. The quaternary ammonium compounds ADBAC (n-alkyl dimethyl benzyl ammonium chloride) and DDAC (didecyl dimethyl ammonium chloride) were identified after an exhaustive search for what was causing a massive drop-off in mouse fertility after Hunt moved her research animals to Pullman from Case Western Reserve Medical School in Cleveland, Ohio, in 2005.
The European Union's (EU) Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) directive, which took effect a year ago, on 1 June 2007, is widely regarded as the strictest chemical safety law in the world. Unlike the 1981 EU legislation it replaces, or the US Toxic Substances Control Act, REACH applies to all existing chemicals, not just new ones. (Editorial)
Trouble is brewing in the waters off the Chukotka Peninsula in the far east of Siberia. In the past few years, the aboriginal whalers of the eastern coastline who hunt grey whales for meat have reported that an increasing number of the creatures they catch smell so foul that even dogs won't eat them. The few people who have tried the meat suffered numb mouths, stomach ache and skin rashes.
THE State Government has decided to set up poison treatment centres in all districts in Tamil Nadu. The Directorate of Public Health and Preventive Medicine will set up these centres with support from the National Rural Health Mission, said Director of Public Health Dr P Padmanabhan. "Poisoning is becoming a modern epidemic," said Dr C Rajendran, Professor of Medicine and Chiefin-charge of the Intensive Medical Care and Poison Centre, Government General Hospital. Last year alone, the GGH saw nearly 2,500 cases of poisoning, he said.
Two years ago, I lay paralysed in a hospital bed, unable to use my arms or legs, to hug my young son or daughter, or to type a word to meet an impending book deadline.
endosulfan, the deadly pesticide, now has a destroyer. Scientists at iit Madras have found a bacterial mixture that can break it down to environment friendly inorganic chemicals. Ligy Philip
