More cities critically polluted

on november 18, the Union environment ministry revised the ambient air quality standards for the country after a gap of 15 years. The new standards are more stringent. They also mandate that air quality in industrial areas should be at par with residential areas.

For a clean ganga

Certain plants absorb pollutants from wastewater for their metabolism. A team from the National Botanical Research Institute in Lucknow, planned a plant-based project to clean the Ganga. U N Rai, environment scientist who heads the team, speaks to Savvy Soumya Misra On how the project began

Home truths

Modern houses are suffused with harmful chemicals. One of them is lead, present in paints. It is banned in several countries but not in India. The Centre for Science and Environment tested popular paints in India for lead content. It found 72 per cent of the samples had lead much higher than the voluntary limit specified by the Bureau of Indian Standards. Only the Dulux brand of ICI was lead-free; Asian Paints cleaned up later.

What's happening inside disposal units?

Enforcement and monitoring are the key to safety Having tsfds and guidelines in place does not mean the waste has been taken care of. As the beil accident showed, cpcb's guidelines that existed before the new ones, like mandatory labelling of drums, were not enforced.

Change is in the process

One way of managing waste do not produce it

Mercury is now traceable

The heavy metal can be fingerprinted to find its source

Field science

Pali farmers teach state pollution body a few things technical

Science & Technology - Briefs

biological sciences Water bears in space Life for a certain kind of tiny invertebrates is possible in space. About 1.5 mm long water bears were found to survive there, a European Space Agency (esa) experiment showed. This makes the eight-legged invertebrates, also called tardigrade, the first animals known to survive the harsh combination of low pressure and intense radiation.

Science & Technology - Briefs

food Store bread without worry

Heavy damage