Environmental Awareness Catching up in Tamil Nadu

Chennai Mayor has implemented a law to keep Chennai Environmentally clean.
Fines have been assigned for each offense:
Spitting, Garbage throwing, Animal Waste, Public Urination & Defecating etc.

This has to be implemented strictly all over the country, so that one day India will become Clean & more Beautiful.

As an Environmental Scientist from India, I always dreamed about this Clean & Environmentally Friendly India.

One drawback is the poverty that India faces. Poor people should also have access to Proper Garbage Disposal and Proper Toilet Facilities. With India's growth (Great Dr. Abdul Kalam's dream is coming true. Now at least in Cricket - India has become a financial super power and even country such as Australia say that) and status improving, I think India can achieve this.

Government should provide the necessary for the poor (Fundamental amenities, Education, Awareness & Training) without any hindrance, not only the city will be clean & Environmental friendly, but also the entire Country.

As we fine the violators, the followers should be given incentives.
Example:
Weekly, Monthly & Yearly Clean Environmental Keeper - Monetary award.
These types of incentives will promote Environmental Awareness and the goal can be achieved sooner.

Environmental Topics

Effects of chemicals as medicines:

THIMEROSAL - More on Thimerosal Toxicity.

EcoJustice - A True Statement:

"The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated." - Mahatma Gandhi

Effect of Water Pollution:

A stunt in the new "Batman" movie is canceled because of extreme water pollution in Hongkong.


Great Wall old hat as Beijing eyes Great Wheel - Pollution - SMOG spoiling the party in CHINA:

"The wheel itself is a nice add-on to the city. It's a new icon for the city," Great Wheel Corp Chief Executive Officer Stephan Matter told Reuters ahead of the ground-breaking ceremony.
Matter brushed off worries Beijing's notorious smog may spoil the party.

"It is an issue, but it's increasingly better," he said. "I believe the Chinese government will improve it further and yes you will have pollution, but the wheel itself is an attraction.

EFFECTS OF POLLUTION:

http://www.bhopal.org/achildisborn.html

SONG:



Makesh Karuppiah

Moving Forward 2

By Gods Grace we are moving to the third stage:

Share holders:
1) AKA
2) KSR
3) MKK
4) CSK
5) SMN
6) GMK
7) PK
8) KCS
9) AAK
10) SCS

We need 15 more and then we can start the Phase I of this Great Environmental Project.

School with only one Teacher

Valparai- A school has only one teacher. So some of the classes are taught by students even.

Source - www.dinakaran.com

Same time I read that some high level business man could spend millions for a Gift.

NEPAL: Street children sniff glue to beat hunger pangs

Thani oru manthithanuku unnavu illai endral intha Jagathinai allithiduvom - Great Mahakavi Bharathair words.
However in some parts of world the following story still happens-
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IRIN/62b38d27423dd9147d1ebe223e53e2af.htm
Source: IRIN

Bhim Pariyar, who grew up on the streets of the capital, Kathmandu, huddled in a corner with other boys like him, all trying to warm themselves around the fire they had made by burning plastic, paper and tyres.
"It's time for fun now," Pariyar told his friends as he took out the packet of dendrite.
"You know, this helps us to get rid of our hunger," explained his friend, 14-year-old Rajen Subba, who fled his home in Jhapa district in southeast Nepal due to grinding poverty and started to work as a rag picker.
But he cannot afford regular food or clothing to keep warm, and has been living on the streets for the past six years.
"I wish I was home even if it means living without food because I would not have to suffer like this," said Subba, who complains of chest pain and often gets sick.
Subba tries to forget his hardships by inhaling the fumes from the carpet glue, squeezing the dendrite from the tube into a plastic bag and holding it to his mouth.
The adhesive glue contains toluene, a sweet-smelling and intoxicating hydrocarbon, which is neurotoxic. The solvent dissolves the membrane of the brain cells and causes hallucinations as well as dampening hunger pangs, and wards off cold.
"I forget everything. I won't feel cold and hungry and can sleep easily," said Shyam Tamang, 12, another street boy.
Glue sniffing on the increase
Glue sniffing in Kathmandu has been increasing to dangerous levels among children, according to rights activists, who said their health is at risk and it is even affecting their mental health.
It can cause neurological damage, kidney or liver failure, paralysis and even death, according to local child health workers.
According to a prominent child rights NGO, Child Workers in Nepal (CWIN), there are approximately 800-900 street children in Kathmandu out of 5,000 in the country.
The decade-long armed conflict between the Nepali government and Maoist rebels that ended last year also contributed to the rise in numbers, say activists. But despite the signing of the peace treaty in November 2006, many children continue to live on the streets, homeless, food-insecure and suffering from serious health problems, according to CWIN.
CWIN found that almost all street children were addicted to glue sniffing because of hunger and the influence of friends. About 95 percent of street children were using glue, and it would not take much to introduce the habit to the remaining 5 percent, it said.
It found that some children used as many as 15 tubes a day (one tube of dendrite can be used four to five times) and many used it as a substitute for regular meals.
The cheapest of all dendrites is Nepal-made, besides the imports from India and China. It is available in all hardware shops and costs less than 40 US cents per 25mg tube.
"I was really surprised why these children came so often to my shop to buy the carpet dendrite and now I know why," said Ramesh Shrestha, a local shopkeeper, who was unaware children were using the glue as a drug.
Thanks to the street awareness programme organised by several NGOs, including CWIN, Sath Sath, and Kathmandu Valley Police, some shop owners have stopped selling glue to street children or increased prices to discourage them.
But on the whole, many shops still make it readily available, said activists.
Laws needed, say activists
"The government should make it illegal to sell dendrites to minors. That's one of the best ways to control glue sniffing and prevent health hazards among the street children," said Sumnima Tuladhar from CWIN.
"This is an emerging problem. If we don't take this seriously, then a lot of lives will be at stake," said Biso Bajracharya from Sath Sath.
At the official level, only the Kathmandu Valley Police has paid serious attention to the problem but since glue sniffing is not considered illegal, they have difficulty preventing shops from selling the dendrite products to children.
"The best we can do is to raise awareness among shop owners and the street children. We ask them to be more careful about their health," said a local police officer, who did not want to be named.
The trend of glue sniffing is new in Nepal compared with other countries in Latin America, Southeast Asia and Africa. Nepalese activists want their country to apply the same strict measures as taken in Kenya, which has laws against supplying harmful substances to minors.
"It is time for us take this issue seriously because the trend is also fast entering schools," says Bajracharya. "Nepal really needs a new law to combat the growing abuse of glue sniffing."

View:
Just praying to God that one day everyone on earth will have food to eat and live a sustainable peaceful living.

Cancer Capital & Cancer Village - Kolkata and Periyavelai - Nagerkoil

Cancer Capital - Air Pollution:
Kolkata, not Delhi is the pollution capital of India: Study

Kolkata, May 28: Kolkata has upstaged Delhi as the air pollution capital of India, accounting for more deaths due to lung cancer and heart attack than the capital city.

More than 18 persons per one lakh people in Kolkata fall victim to lung cancer every year compared to the next highest 13 per one lakh in Delhi, according to environmental scientist and advisor of Chittaranjan National Cancer Institute (CNCI), Twisha Lahiri.

Not only lung cancer, cases of heart attack were also rising fast in the eastern metropolis, Lahiri said quoting a six-year survey conducted by the cancer institute.

She said incidents of heart attack were occurring more frequently in the city.

CNCI scientists maintain that more than seven in 10 people here suffer from various kinds of respiratory disorder, including children as well as elderly people.

Lahiri said roadside hawkers, shop owners, traffic policemen, auto-rickshaw drivers, rickshaw-pullers and others who spend long hours on the road were the most vulnerable.

Children mainly suffer from breathing difficulties like asthma while elderly people are victims of lung cancer, the scientists said.


Cancer Village - Mining Problems:

Radiation from sand mining causes this unthinkable effect on a village on the Southern India.
Reproductive failure, Brain Diseases, Cancer in various organs are the major effects of the sand mining.


Links:
Cancer Village
Tamil: Kungumam -
http://www.dinakaran.com/dncgibin/kungumam.asp?imge=2007/oct/25/33
English: Hindu -
Radiation affecting health of villagers
http://www.hindu.com/2007/10/14/stories/2007101453750300.htm


Nagercoil: Conservation of Nature Trust here has urged the Government to extend annual medical check-up for cancer, insurance cover and provision of radiation dosimeters for the benefit of fishermen in Kanyakumari district living in the localities of ‘high-radiation’ area.
Its chairman R.S. Lal Mohan said that a recent study revealed that radiation in the coastal sand was as high as 65,000 becquerel per kg in places such as Chinnavilai and Periavilai, where sand mining was rampant. In these villages, there were 17 cancer patients and 31 mentally ill people.
Radiation in Kooduthalai, another sand mining village, was as high as 95,000 becquerel per kg.
Here beta radiation was very high; it was more powerful than alpha radiation as it could travel more distance and penetrate the skin. “It is strange that sand extraction firms that remove the radioactive sand claim that they were removing the radiation even while bringing the underground radioactive sand to the surface.”
Radioactive sand — geological sediments accumulated over thousands of years — could be found at a depth of some feet.
“Minerals are needed for the industries. But it must be ensured that affected people get proper medical treatment. The problem with cancer is it is hereditary. Once chromosomal changes are caused by radiation, the effects are irreversible.”
An independent study by Dr. Lucy Forster and her team from Cambridge University found background radiation along the Kanyakumari coast to be high. Poor fisherfolk take part in the hazardous job of carrying radioactive sand because of their poverty. All along coast
The coastal belt of south Kerala from Chavara to Kanyakumari has a radiation level of up to 325 ream owing to presence of monazite. This and other rare metals have accumulated after getting swept by wind.
These rare metals originate from the Western Ghats and drained by rivers such as the Kodayar, the Kuzhithurai and the Valliyar.
The radiation was first noted by a German industrialist, Schomberg, in coir exported from Colachel. In those days, the coir industry was vibrant along Kanyakumari coast.
Mr. Lal Mohan has urged the Government to either ban sand mining in the coastal areas of the district or to provide security to the livelihood of fishermen.

Gap Vows Action After Child Labor Report

Gap Promises Action After British Newspaper Finds Subcontractor in India Using Child Labor
LONDON (AP) -- Clothing retailer Gap Inc. said Sunday that it will convene all of its Indian suppliers to "forcefully reiterate" its prohibition on child labor after a British newspaper found children as young as 10 making Gap clothes at a sweatshop in New Delhi.ADVERTISEMENT The Observer newspaper quoted the children as saying they had been sold to the sweatshop by their families in Indian states such as Bihar and West Bengal and would not be allowed to leave until they had repaid that fee.
Some, working as long as 16 hours a day to hand-sew clothing, said they were not being paid because their employer said they were still trainees.
Gap said it first learned of the child labor allegations last week and discovered the sweatshop was being run by a subcontractor that a vendor had hired in violation of Gap's policies. The product made there will be destroyed so it cannot be sold in Gap stores, company spokesman Bill Chandler said.
"We appreciate that the media identified this subcontractor, and we acted swiftly in this situation," Chandler told The Associated Press on Sunday. "Under no circumstances is it acceptable for children to produce or work on garments."
The Observer quoted one boy identified only as Jivaj as saying that child employees who cried or did not work hard enough were hit with a rubber pipe or had oily cloths stuffed into their mouths.
The paper said the sweatshop, or "derelict industrial unit," that it found during its investigation in New Delhi was "smeared in filth, the corridors flowing with excrement from a flooded toilet."
The Observer printed a photograph of one of the child workers, and British Broadcasting Corp. television broadcast what it said was footage of the youngsters taken at the sweatshop by an unidentified German TV crew.
Gap did not immediately cut ties with the supplier it accused of improper subcontracting, but Chandler said the company was taking the breach of its child labor policies "extremely seriously."
"We're willing to end relationships with vendors when they don't meet our standards," he said.
The company requires its suppliers to guarantee that they will not use child labor to produce garments, Chandler said, and Gap stopped working with 23 factories last year over violations uncovered by its inspectors. The San Francisco-based company has 90 full-time inspectors who make unannounced visits around the world to ensure vendors are abiding by Gap's guidelines, he said.
Gap has about 2,000 suppliers worldwide, including about 200 in India, Chandler said.
The company plans to convene all of its suppliers in the India region at a summit in the coming weeks to "forcefully reiterate the prohibition on any child labor," he said.
Marka Hansen, president of Gap North America, said its prohibition of child labor is non-negotiable.
"While violations of our strict prohibition on child labor in factories that produce product for the company are extremely rare, we have called an urgent meeting with our suppliers in the region to reinforce our policies," Hansen said in a statement. "Gap Inc. has one of the industry's most comprehensive programs in place to fight for workers' rights overseas."
Besides its chain of Gap stores, the company also owns Old Navy and Banana Republic and operates more than 3,100 stores in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, France, Ireland and Japan.

My View: Gap vows action - what type of action - I am not sure. Action can be jailing the sub-contractor and stoping the contract. Sub-contractor may have contacts and bribe someone and will be out in days. What Gap needs to do is regularly inspect such contractors. With their profit they can even hire trust worthy non-profit groups to inspect such contractors. Instead of spending money on the action in a useless way, they can support a school in one place where the harm was done. They can train students vocationally and select for them for their future operations. That way Gap will have some respect for what they have done indirectly to a society.