What's new at the Centre for Science and
Environment (CSE), New Delhi, IndiaFor 10 years, a
doctor struggled to understand it. Why were so many people - children in particular - in
his Kerala village suffering from disorders of the central nervous system? Cerebral palsy,
congenital anomalies and mental retardation, among other disorders. Then, one day in
December 2000, he asked: Could it be the pesticide endosulfan? The effects of this toxin
on the human body are quite similar to the maladies he was seeing. The Plantation
Corporation of Kerala has been spraying endosulfan for years in its neighbouring cashew
plantations. CSE got samples from Kerala analysed at its recently set up Environment
Monitoring Laboratory. The amount of endosulfan was unbelievably high in all the samples.
Blood, milk, water, soil, food...The amount of endosulfan in one woman's blood was found
to be 900 times the limit set for water. The full results will be on our website in a
week's time, but if you are in New Delhi, you are invited to a public meeting, 5:00 pm,
Wednesday, February 21st at our New Delhi office to release the laboratory results showing
how pesticides have poisoned the human body and the environment in a Kerala village.
http://www.cseindia.org/html/extra/invikerala.htm
SURFING VILLAGES
Are they for real and do they stand to benefit from artificial intelligence? Can India's
villages ride on the infotech highway to development? To a certain extent this is already
happening but it is a knotty situation where Down To Earth comes across some success
stories and some very tall blunders as the villages of India try to use Information
Technology to better their lot.
http://www.cseindia.org/html/dte/dte20010215/dte_analy.htm
UNDESIRABLE ALIENS?
Will genetically modified food put an end to hunger or spawn a host of hitherto unknown
problems for humankind? Multinational corporations have appropriated the science of
genetic engineering of food and are making all attempts to derail the biosafety protocol.
A report on the murkypolitics created by business interests to hide the true story.
http://www.cseindia.org/html/dte/dte20010215/dte_analy1.htm
FISHING FOR A BILL
The Aquaculture authority bill is drawing flak from traditional fisherfolk, they fear that
it will make a mockery of the Supreme Court ruling which banned commercial aquaculture in
1996.
http://www.cseindia.org/html/dte/dte20010215/dte_srep1.htm
KEEP YOUR SHIRT ON
The textile business is changing. Reliance on organic cotton is gradually gaining
ground. There are reasons for this. You get to keep your shirt and you get to stay
in a healthy environment as well, free from herbicides, and chemical fertilisers. In three
years the production of organic cotton has doubled.
http://www.cseindia.org/html/dte/dte20010215/dte_srep.htm
A message from the Chairperson,
Anil Agarwal:
NUCLEAR MADNESS
Even as the
world abandons nuclear power, the Indian government and industry are pushing for it |
Visit our website at www.cseindia.org and check out what's new.
Our website carries our science and environment fortnightly Down To Earth, a daily
environment news flash by subject categories, a catalog of books and publications that are
available, and all of our recent press releases. We also give regular updates on all of
our campaigns on topics like vehicular pollution, climate change, biodiversity, water
resources, wildlife, forests etc. Our online library of books, journals, images and videos
is searchable through a thesaurus of environmental keywords at
http://data.cseindia.org
We are also looking for reciprocal linking to other websites
in this area. Let us know your website address and we would be happy to link to you.
Please feel free to forward this message to other interested individuals. Past
messages of this bulletin are available at
http://www.cseindia.org/html/au/au6.htm
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