A close hard look

When McDonald’s ate crow

In 1990, McDonald’s threatened activists of a London-based ethical food group with libel suits. A pamphlet, What’s wrong with McDonald’s, had earned them the ire of the fast food biggie. Three of the activists from London Greenpeace—not to be confused with Greenpeace International, which distanced itself from the matter— apologised to McDonald’s and agreed not to circulate the leaflet. But Helen Steel, a part time bar worker earning £65 a week, and David Morris, an unemployed single parent, were dragged to a London court.

Not learning from Bhopal

It is 25 years of the Bhopal gas disasterthe night when chemicals spewed out of the Union Carbide factory to kill and maim thousands over generations. The question is if we have learnt from the disasterlearnt how to handle chemical accidents; to dispose of industrial toxic waste; to manage crucial medical relief, to give monetary compensation speedily and to establish the liability of pollutersso that accidents like this do not happen again.

The real pandemic

The influenza A(H1N1) virus is not transmitted to humans by eating pork, that much is now known and said. But what are the origins of this virus, winging across our air-travel interdependent world? Why is this question never asked? Why are the big doctors of our world looking for a vaccine for all kinds of influenza without checking on what makes us so susceptible to pandemics, year after year? Is there something more to the current contagion?

High ammonia content in Yamuna

the second week of November saw south and central Delhi reeling under a severe water crisis because of high levels of ammonia in the Yamuna at the city's water intake point. It led to a reduction in water supply from two of its water treatment plants--Wazirabad and Chandrawal--supplying around 1,000 million litres of water on a normal day. The levels of ammonia touched four parts per million (ppm), much higher than the 0.3-0.4 ppm levels, which the city's treatment plants are designed to treat.

Australia amends asbestos-related compensation law

Victims of asbestos exposure have welcomed a recent amendment to a compensation law in Victoria, Australia. The earlier law said people who were not at work when they were exposed to asbestos had a cap on claims for lost earnings. But now asbestos victims are exempt from that legislation.

Give us today our daily threat

Twisha Lahiri works at the Chittaranjan National Cancer Institute in Kolkata. For some years now, she has been busy measuring the impact of air pollution on people in Kolkata and Delhi. Her results should worry us: 56 per cent of people in Kolkata and 46 per cent in Delhi she studied, suffered from impaired lung function. These were non-smokers. When she compared these results to a "control" population -- from rural and suburban areas, not so exposed -- she found a palpable difference. This isn't surprising. We know that the air in our cities is foul.

Mucky findings

A water quality assessment of 54 different sites in Nepal's capital, Kathmandu, revealed that 57 per cent of the water samples were contaminated with faecal coliform. The assessment was conducted by a non-governmental organisation called Environment and Public Health Organization (ENPHO).

Consuming trends

Is It Really Safe? By Soumi Home Roy Consumer Unity & Trust Society Jaipur 2004

House warning

Smoke from indoor cooking fires kills one person every 20 seconds in the developing world. This is the finding of a survey conducted recently by the Intermediate Technology Development Group (itdg), a uk-based campaign organisation.