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| The Mercurial Menace |
| More and more Indians today face the threat of
being crippled by mercury poisoning. But, the use of this deadly metal is growing rapidly
in India, unfettered by regulations |
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| Mercury, a heavy metal, is used
in a number of industrial applications and products. It is a highly mobile element and
cannot be broken down into harmless components. No mercury is actually consumed, so
whatever is used has to be discharged with effluents, wastes, air emissions or has to be
present in the products. As it is a highly mobile substance it continuously escapes in
traces, even from sludge buried deep within "secure" landfills, and companies
have no facilities to monitor this escape. More than |
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90
per cent of the mercury used in industrial processes literally vanishes into thin air.
Though elemental mercury is less hazardous, its other forms, especially organic mercury
compounds (when it combines with carbon) such as methyl-mercury are more toxic.
Methyl-mercury, is the most common form of mercury found in the environment. It can pass
into the air, soil and the foodchain, mostly through aquatic animals and can become a
considerable health risk.
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Fruit for thought
Karen Lock of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and his fellow
researchers have estimated the global burden of disease attributable to inadequate fruits
and vegetables consumption.
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| BRIEFS |
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Safe water
Project Well, a non-profit organisation has developed a
community-based programme to provide arsenic-free water to afflicted villages in India,
Nepal and Bangladesh.
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| CAMPAIGN |
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For the child in need
The Child in Need Institute (CINI) is
working with poor communities in Kolkata
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| BOOKS |
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Ayurveda Nature’s Medicine
David Frawley and Subhas Ranade on the principles of Ayurveda.
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| PRODUCT WATCH |
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Adsorbing Arsenic
Parabond 23 is the latest arsenic removal
media developed by Parabond Products International, USA.
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