The Radium Girls

Underneath the sleepy suburbs of Orange, New Jersey, usa, lies a unique site in the history of labour rights and the understanding of radioactive materials. For it was in a factory here in the 1920s that almost hundred young women were slowly poisoned to death with radium. The ensuing case of the 'Radium Girls' would change perceptions of radioactive materials, forever. Labour laws in many countries also bear the imprint of this case.

Radiation talk

If you use a cell phone, take a call on its health effects. Despite cell phone manufacturers sticking to the line that there are no confirmed adverse effects of the contrivance, studies doubting its innocuousness continue to appear with a grim regularity. Not only that; its innocence is being lawfully questioned. Consider this:

Wonder herb

A commonly used Indian herb, Terminalia chebula, which belongs to the family Combretaceae, is likely to receive international attention following the discovery that its fruit can protect people from the damage caused by nuclear radiation.

Fading out

Short Wave & Medium Wave Transmission

Power plant turns gas chamber

Four Japanese electricity workers were killed and seven injured when turbine steam escaped at a nuclear plant in Mihama, on the Sea of Japan. The incident, involving the highest number of fatalities at a Japanese nuclear power plant, has heightened concern about the nuclear industry.

Towering menace

in what is perhaps a first for India, a Mumbai civil court recently ordered a cellular phone service provider to dismantle one of its networking antennae from a residential apartment over fears that the device was causing radiation exposure. The latent message behind the directive is that mobile phone towers and base stations can be hazardous to human health.

Nuclear buzz

the un, a key opponent of weapons of mass destruction, is ironically all set to harness nuclear energy to combat malaria. Its International Atomic Energy Agency (iaea) intends to soon use the Sterile Insect Technique (sit) in Africa -- the disease hotspot.

X factor

x-rays, the largest human-made source of radiation exposure for the general population, are adding in hundreds of more cancer cases every year across the world, indicates a study published in The Lancet (Vol 363, No 9406, January 31, 2004). In the uk -- a country with stringent regulations for x-ray diagnostics -- 0.6 per cent of the cumulative cancer risk for people up to 75-year-old can be attributed to x-rays. This means about 700 cancer cases per year.

Calling for trouble

ralph Mills first knew something was wrong with his brain when he lost track of his own garden. As a truck driver, he had navigated his way across Europe; suddenly his own house was a big maze. Baffled, he visited a doctor, and within an hour was hospitalised; a brain tumour, the size of a tennis ball, was diagnosed above his right ear. Mills, from Essex, the uk, wondered whether the tumour was related to his constant use of a cellphone?

Bytes

marine boom: An unprecedented census of marine life is reporting three new fish species a week on an average. In the first interim report of the census, an international team of scientists predicts that as many as 5,000 unknown fish species may be lurking in the waters. By the time they are done in 2010, the scientists may have found more than two million new species. So far, in two years they have found 15,304 species of fish and 214,696 species of other marine creatures.