Centre for Science and Environment lauds Delhi government’s decision to ban registration of diesel taxis in the capital from January 2000 to control toxic particulate pollution in the capital.

Challenges in Air Pollution Management and the Role of WHO Public Lecture by Dr Dietrich Schwela (WHO, Geneva)

• In the year 1995-96 120,000 to 470,000 people died prematurely worldwide due to high levels of suspended particulate matter only.
• Calcutta and Delhi show PM₁₀ levels exceeding 250m g/m³, the highest among 100 cities analysed by WHO worldwide.
• While there is increasing medical evidence that exposure to fine and ultra fine particulate matter produced primarily by diesel, have grave health implications WHO says that there are no safe levels for them.
  

Date: 9th September "99
"If small particulaau4_090999.htmte pollution level in California ever reached the same levels as in Delhi today, Californian environmental authorities would have declared emergency, shutting all emission sources in the city and taking vehicles off the road," informed Dr Shankar Prasad, the community health adviser, California Air Resources Board, while noting the alarming difference in the levels of particulate levels in California and Delhi in a public lecture organised by the Centre for Science and Environment in the capital today.

Date: 3rd September "99
IOCs move to supply 0.05 per cent sulphur much before the deadline in Delhi comes as a slap in the face of the ministry of petroleum and natural gas which has obstinately maintained that it would not be possible to lower sulphur content in diesel any further in the near future. Market forces have finally pushed the oil industry to meet the demand for cleaner fuel.

Date: 18th July ''99
The Greenest Paper Mill in India
The Centre for Science and Environment releases the results of its Green Rating Project on the Pulp and Paper Industry

Date: 3rd July ''99
Merchants of menace
Our health is at the mercy of transnational carmakers (TNCs).
And the Merchants of Menace—the top brass in these companies—don’t give a damn. Well aware that tiny particles from diesel exhausts kill thousands in Indian cities, TNCs—from Toyota and Ford to Mercedes—are bent upon introducing diesel cars that will add to the death count

Date: 5th  June '99
SICK OF AIR POLLUTION
Cancer, asthma, bronchitis, sinus and a host of other respiratory disorders are the diseases of urban India, which cost the country Rs 4,550 crores annually. Prevention is definitely better than cure under the circumstances, doctors advice Delhi’s chief minister, in a statement released in a CSE meeting

Date: 13th  May '99
The Centre for Science and Environment expresses displeasure at the way in which the Government of  India has pleaded in the Supreme Court today to protect the business interests of the automobile industry in complete disregard of public health concerns. Even more damaging has been the abdication of responsibility by the Government to certify Euro norm compliance to the vehicle manufacturers.

Date: 4th  May '99
ENVIRONMENTALISTS ARE THREATENED WITH RS 100 CRORE LEGAL SUIT BY TELCO FOR THEIR CAMPAIGN AGAINST PRIVATE DIESEL CARS. THEY TELL TELCO NOT TO THREATEN BUT TO TAKE THEM TO COURT.

Date: 30th  April '99
Centre for Science and Environment expresses deep appreciation of the Supreme Court’s move to restrict the car sales and for making compliance with more stringent emission norms conditional for selling cars in Delhi

Date: 23rd April '99
"Government, Legal System Does Not Work For The Benefit Of People"
"It is a myth to believe that the government always works for the benefit of theRajinder Singh, from the Alwar-based NGO Tarun Bharat Sangh, said at a workshop on public participation in environmental decision making. The two-day workshop was organised by the Centre for Science and Environment, in collaboration with the Washington-based Environmental Law Institute

Date: 20th February '99
Green Leaders
In the first-ever effort of its kind in India, the Centre for Science and Environment conducted a survey among environmentalists and Down To Earth (DTE) readers to find out how "green" the country’s chief ministers are. dte carried a readers’ survey in September 1998. There were 335 responses. In addition, 237 environmentalists rated the chief ministers of their respective states.

Date: 14th January '99
Will we die like the vultures
At a public meeting organised by the Centre for Science and Environment today, Asad Rahmani, director of the Bombay Natural History Society, put forward research confirming that vulture populations in India were on a drastic decline.

Date: 4th January '99
Killers at large
Vultures are dying in India. And Down To Earth, India's leading science and environment fortnightly, reports high levels of pesticides in the carrion of buffaloes, the main food source of the vultures, in its latest issue (dated January 15, 1999; Vol 7, No 16).