Saturday, February 28, 2015
Friday, February 27, 2015
Need of the Hour
Cricket: Srinivasan apologises to Supreme Court
What can get our attention which are not getting:
- Millions of mentally ill patients are roaming our streets and public places and none cares to care for them. No plan- no vision.
- Millions of men and women with no vision(eye sight) suffer and there is no concrete programme to help them stand on their own legs
- With overflowing godowns, still millions suffer from hunger and all are not reached with few exceptions.
- Health is one of the most neglected areas and ruled by the private players, who have made a ' health industry' (?). State hospitals are few and are overcrowded.
- 1,50,000 die on our roads every year and 15,00,000 are injured in different degrees and one third of them becoming physically challenged. Again no vision or mission
- Thousands of Indians suffer abroad in labor disputes and lead their lives in abysmal conditions and no one cares for them till the entire media highlights an issue.
- Millions of literate, illiterate, educated, skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled youth are waiting for a suitable job. But valuable time is spent on mere political bickering and none bothers
- Elected representatives assemble for very few days and quarrels, tearing papers or throwing mikes and verbal abuses galore. No healthy discussion of Edmund Burke is heard not even once. But the media which take sides
- Neither the corrupt nor the criminal; almost none gets any punishment as the systemic loopholes help them escape and the poor once again suffering
- Hundreds of water bodies and scores of rivers die every day and none cares to protect them
- At least 40% of the energy consumed can be saved if the people follow the tips given by the energy experts and none bothers
- Education is not for employment but to gain knowledge. In reality there is a rat race to score 100% in every exam,every subject, in every class and at every time.
- Millions of our kids need electric lamps. Till now they are contented with kerosene.
"A new government report says 32,719 murder cases were registered last year, double the figure in the US and three times more than in Pakistan.
Experts say the real crime rate in India is even higher with many cases going unreported. Overall, five million cases of crime, including murder, rape and drug offences, were reported in India in 2007-08, the report compiled by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) and released by the Indian home ministry says.
The rate of murder in India is three per 100,000 people while that of rape is four in 100,000, according to the report" BBC news
- Who will talk about the punishment for these killers?
- Millions do not follow traffic rules and millions ride without helmets and millions more go merrily with drunken driving
- Atrocities on the poor continues and the bonded laborers are identified in the most advanced states- almost every week
- Child labor is rampant and kids are harassed by many and at many places with no solution in sight
The list will continue...
But let us talk cinema,politics and religion- Religion-politics-cinema....
Thursday, February 26, 2015
Sunday, February 22, 2015
Beware! Population Explosion is more Lethal than Nuclear Explosion.
Population Explosion is more Lethal than Nuclear Explosion. The title of this piece may be explosive. But the truth is indisputable. Millions suffer and millions die due diseases, hunger, poor living conditions, accidents and so on. All due to an unbridled growth rate of population of the humans.
Population and Development are intrinsically interwoven and they are the major forces behind the damages caused to the Environment. Today the development or growth is skewed irrespective of the nations or issues. The intelligentsia of this world conveniently forgets that the most important cause for the rising pollution levels is the unchecked growth of population.
The Asian majors; China, India, Pakistan,Bangladesh and Indonesia are with 50% of the world population. These nations think that they can occupy the whole earth without any battle or war. The silent war is on and it is massive. But the nations with lot of knowledge neglect this most crucial issue and they would be talking about all other issues. Neither in these 'high growth' nations nor the UNO care for this most crucial issue.
If just 5 nations are going to occupy the whole planet what would be the pressure on land, water and all other vital resources we depend on the earth? None in these countries bother about this menace. In 1970's and 80's children in the Indian sub-continent schools would be writing essays on Population explosion to pass in their academics and the news magazines would also carry the negative impact of the unabated growth of population. Today none uses the word, 'population' at all.
Unless some guidelines are in place, awareness programmes are carried out, incentives given to promote small families these 5 countries would capture the whole globe wielding pens alone.
Total population
In 2013, the world’s population reached 7.2 billion people, of which 60 per cent lived in Asia, 15 per cent in Africa, 10 per cent in Europe, 9 per cent in Latin America and the Caribbean, 5 per cent in Northern America, and 1 per cent in Oceania. China and India have the largest populations in the world— 1.4 and 1.3 billion respectively, while 34 countries and territories are inhabited by less than 100,000 people.
Share of persons aged 65 years or over.
The world’s population is ageing rapidly; 1 out of every 12 persons is 65 years old or over in 2013. The share of older persons is higher in the more developed regions than in the less developed regions: while one in six persons in Europe and one in seven persons in Northern American are aged 65 years or over, this proportion is much lower in Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean (1 in 14) and lower still (1 in 29) in Africa. All regions and most countries of the world are ageing.
Under-five (child) mortality.
In 2013, 51 out of every 1,000 newborns in the world did not survive to their fifth birthday. In the less developed regions, child mortality is 8.5 times higher than in the more developed regions. In the least developed countries, one in 10 children die before reaching age 5 years, while in Northern America, the ratio is 1 to 145. Child mortality varies widely across regions, from 4 deaths per 1,000 births in Western Europe to 158 deaths per 1,000 births in Middle Africa. At the country level, child mortality is lowest in Singapore (2 deaths per 1,000 births) and highest in Chad (153 deaths per 1,000 births).
Life expectancy at birth.
At the world level, life expectancy reached 70.1 years in 2013, but is only 60.8 years in the least developed countries. Life expectancy at birth in the more developed regions (77.8 years) is almost 10 years higher than in the less developed regions (68.4 years). With a few exceptions, female life expectancy exceeds male life expectancy, on average by 4.5 years. The gender gap tends to be larger in lower mortality populations. Female life expectancy exceeds male life expectancy by 6.8 years within the more developed regions and by only 2.7 years within the least developed countries.
Adolescent fertility rate.
Adolescent childbearing, which entails various types of risks for both mother and child, remains at high levels in many less developed regions. The birth rate among adolescent women (aged 15 to 19 years) is highest in sub-Saharan Africa (109 births per 1,000 women), with Middle Africa and Western Africa recording rates as high as 137 and 119 births per 1,000 women, respectively. Latin America and the Caribbean also have a relatively high adolescent fertility (68 births per 1,000 women). By contrast, adolescent fertility is very low (less than 10 births per 1,000 women) in Eastern Asia, Southern Europe and Western Europe. In Australia and New Zealand, Northern America, other European regions, Central Asia, and South-Eastern Asia, adolescent fertility rate ranges between 14 and 35 births per 1,000 women.
Contraceptive prevalence.
Contraceptive use helps to avert unintended and closely spaced pregnancies as well as to reduce unsafe abortions. Contraceptive prevalence is low in the least developed countries, where just over one in three (37.7 per cent) married or in-union women of reproductive age are currently using a method of contraception. The lowest contraceptive prevalence is recorded in sub-Saharan Africa where only one in five married or in-union women of reproductive age practice contraception. By contrast, contraceptive prevalence is much higher in the less developed regions (two out of three women, or 63.6 per cent) and even higher in the more developed regions (almost three-quarters of women, or 72.4 per cent).
Urbanization.
The twentieth century witnessed a rapid urbanization of the world population. More than half (52 per cent) of people were living in urban areas in 2011. The more developed regions tend to be more highly urbanized than less developed regions: while more than three-fourths (78 per cent) of the population in the more developed regions live in areas classified as urban, less than half (47 per cent) of those in the less developed regions do so. Among the less developed regions, though, Latin America and the Caribbean is an exception. With an urbanization rate of 79 per cent, that region is more urbanized than Europe (73 per cent) and not very far from Northern America (82 per cent). Asia and Africa are less urbanized but their urban populations are growing faster than in other regions of the world. At the country level, urbanization rates range from just over 10 per cent in Burundi and Papua New Guinea to populations that are entirely urban, such as those of Hong Kong (SAR of China), Macao (SAR of China) and Singapore.
Gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, at purchasing power parity.
On average, GDP per capita in the less developed regions ($6,470) is less than onefifth of that of the more developed regions ($37,423). Countries in sub-Saharan Africa rank the lowest, with an average per capita GDP per capita of $2,390. Among the less developed regions, Latin America and the Caribbean have relatively high GDP per capita, of $12,901 on average. GDP per capita varies widely across countries; in the more developed regions, for example, it ranges from $3,424 in the Republic of Moldova to $88,318 in Luxembourg. In these regions, GDP per capita is on average lowest in Eastern Europe, and highest in Western Europe and Northern America.
Poverty headcount ratio at $1.25 a day (PPP).
New estimates from the World Bank show that extreme poverty, that is, the proportion of the population living on less than $1.25 a day, has fallen considerably in developing countries, from 47 per cent in 1990 to 22 per cent in 2010. However, this average figure masks great variations across regions and countries. In Africa, 43 per cent of the population still lives on less than $1.25 a day. In Southern Asia, almost more than 30 per cent of the population are in this category, whereas in Latin America and the Caribbean, Western Asia and Northern Africa, less than 10 per cent of the population live in extreme poverty. At the country level, extreme poverty is still widespread (ranging from 60 per cent to 90 per cent of the population) in 13 countries located mainly in Sub-Saharan Africa and the Caribbean. The Democratic Republic of the Congo has the highest rate of extreme poverty: 87.7 per cent. By contrast, extreme poverty has dropped significantly in several countries of Asia and Latin America. In developed countries, extreme poverty is lower than 2 per cent and is found only in a handful of countries located mainly in Eastern Europe and Southern Europe.
Gini index.
Developing countries tend to have higher income inequality than developed countries, as measured by the Gini index. In the less developed regions, inequality levels are high in the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean and sub-Saharan Africa, mostly within the 40-59 per cent range, than in the countries of Asia and Northern Africa, mostly within the 30-39 per cent range. In the more developed regions, inequality levels are higher in the countries of Northern America, 33 per cent in Canada and 41 per cent in the United States of America, than in the countries of Europe (mostly within the 20-29 per cent range in Eastern Europe and within the 30-39 per cent range in the rest of Europe. Seven developing countries and three developed countries have the highest inequality levels: the Gini coefficient is over 40 per cent in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Russian Federation and United States of America, and it is greater than 60 per cent in Comoros, Seychelles, Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, Haiti and Micronesia.
Mean years of schooling.
At the world level, the average length of schooling of the total population aged 25 years or over was 7.2 years in 2010. Educational attainment is much higher in the more developed regions than in the less developed regions (11.5 years vs. 6.7 years of schooling, on average). In the more developed regions, the mean years of schooling is somewhat higher in the countries of Northern America and Oceania (above 12 years) than in the countries of Europe (10-11 years). In the less developed regions, no country has yet attained an average of 10 years of schooling. Educational attainment is particularly low in the least developed countries; In all but two, the mean years of schooling was less than 5 years in 2010.
Energy use.
Energy use has been growing rapidly in the less developed regions, but the more developed regions still use four times as much energy on a per capita basis, 4,942 kilograms of oil equivalent in the more developed regions versus 1,112 kilograms in the less developed countries. Energy use per capita is correlated with per capita income, as demonstrated by the low use in Africa (730 kilograms on average), and the higher use in Latin America and the Caribbean (1,283 kilograms on average) and in Asia (1,341 kilograms). In the more developed regions, countries in Northern America use more energy per capita (more than 7,000 kilograms) than countries in Oceania and Europe (almost 5,000 kilograms of oil equivalent). In Europe, energy use per capita is higher in Northern Europe and Western Europe (around 4,000 kilograms) than in Eastern and Southern Europe (less than 3,000 kilograms in general). At the country level, the oilproducing countries of Western Asia, such as Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, use the highest amounts of energy, more than 7,000 kilograms per capita.
Carbon dioxide emissions.
Atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2), the main gas linked to global warming, have increased substantially in the course of economic development. CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions also affect human health through local air pollution. At the world level, manmade emissions of carbon dioxide in 2009 stood at 4.7 metric tons per capital.
CO2 emissions per capital in the more developed regions stood at 11.2 metric tons in 2009, compared to only 2.9 metric tons in the less developed regions, 0.9 metric tons in sub-Saharan Africa and 0.3 metric tons in the least developed countries. Since CO2 emissions are determined, in large part by consumption, population size is also an important factor of emissions. For instance, China and India produce 23 per cent of global emissions of carbon dioxide despite of their being slightly above (China) and much below (India) the world average with respect to per capita emission.
Sulfur dioxide emissions.
Sulfur dioxide, which is generated by the combustion of coal and petroleum, is a precursor to acid rain and a major air pollutant that has significant impacts upon human health and biodiversity. There is a slight inverse relationship between emissions of sulfur dioxide per capita and the level of economic development. Among the countries with data in 2012, anthropogenic emissions of sulfur dioxide were highest in Australia, Bulgaria, Iceland, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Montenegro and Serbia (more than 100 kilograms per capita) and lowest in Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, and Togo (less than 0.5 kilograms per capita).
Particulate matter concentration.
In 2010, particulate matter concentration, which is a measure of urban air pollution, stood at 46 micrograms per cubic meter at the world level. The particulates have natural origins and are also generated by man-made activities, such as burning of fossil fuels in vehicles, power plants and various industrial processes. Coal combustion in developing countries adds significantly to this type of pollution since coal is the primary energy source for heating homes and supplying electricity. The concentration of particulate matter is inversely correlated with the level of development. The level of urban pollution is almost three times higher in the less developed regions (49 micrograms per cubic meter) than in the more developed regions (18 micrograms per cubic meter) although wide variations exist within each development group. Whereas countries with the highest concentrations of particulate matter (more than 100 micrograms per cubic meter) are all developing countries (Bangladesh, Mali, Sudan and Uruguay), countries with the lowest concentrations (less than 10 micrograms per cubic meter) are found in both less developed and more developed regions—Belarus, Denmark, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon.
Saturday, February 21, 2015
Food Becomes Poison for Many
Food safety
Key facts
- Access to sufficient amounts of safe and nutritious food is key to sustaining life and promoting good health.
- Unsafe food containing harmful bacteria, viruses, parasites or chemical substances, causes more than 200 diseases - ranging from diarrhoea to cancers.
- Foodborne and waterborne diarrhoeal diseases kill an estimated 2 million people annually, including many children.
- Food safety, nutrition and food security are inextricably linked. Unsafe food creates a vicious cycle of disease and malnutrition, particularly affecting infants, young children, elderly and the sick.
- Foodborne diseases impede socioeconomic development by straining health care systems, and harming national economies, tourism and trade.
- Food supply chains now cross multiple national borders. Good collaboration between governments, producers and consumers helps ensure food safety.
Major foodborne illnesses and causes
Foodborne illnesses are usually infectious or toxic in nature and caused by bacteria, viruses, parasites or chemical substances entering the body through contaminated food or water.
Foodborne pathogens can cause severe diarrhoea or debilitating infections including meningitis. Chemical contamination can lead to acute poisoning or long-term diseases, such as cancer. Foodborne diseases may lead to long-lasting disability and death. Examples of unsafe food include uncooked foods of animal origin, fruits and vegetables contaminated with faeces, and raw shellfish containing marine biotoxins.
Bacteria:
- Salmonella, Campylobacter, and Enterohaemorrhagic Escherichia coli are among the most common foodborne pathogens that affect millions of people annually – sometimes with severe and fatal outcomes. Symptoms are fever, headache, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain and diarrhoea. Examples of foods involved in outbreaks of salmonellosis are eggs, poultry and other products of animal origin. Foodborne cases with Campylobacter are mainly caused by raw milk, raw or undercooked poultry and drinking water. Enterohaemorrhagic Escherichia coli is associated with unpasteurized milk, undercooked meat and fresh fruits and vegetables.
- Listeria infection leads to unplanned abortions in pregnant women or death of newborn babies. Although disease occurrence is relatively low, listeria’s severe and sometimes fatal health consequences, particularly among infants, children and the elderly, count them among the most serious foodborne infections. Listeria is found in unpasteurised dairy products and various ready-to-eat foods and can grow at refrigeration temperatures.
- Vibrio cholerae infects people through contaminated water or food. Symptoms include abdominal pain, vomiting and profuse watery diarrhoea, which may lead to severe dehydration and possibly death. Rice, vegetables, millet gruel and various types of seafood have been implicated in cholera outbreaks.
Antimicrobials, such as antibiotics, are essential to treat infections caused by bacteria. However, their overuse and misuse in veterinary and human medicine has been linked to the emergence and spread of resistant bacteria, rendering the treatment of infectious diseases ineffective in animals and humans. Resistant bacteria enter the food chain through the animals (e.g. Salmonella through chickens). Antimicrobial resistance is one of the main threats to modern medicine.
Viruses:
Norovirus infections are characterized by nausea, explosive vomiting, watery diarrhoea and abdominal pain. Hepatitis A virus can cause long-lasting liver disease and spreads typically through raw or undercooked seafood or contaminated raw produce. Infected food handlers are often the source of food contamination.
Parasites:
Some parasites, such as fish-borne trematodes, are only transmitted through food. Others, for example Echinococcus spp, may infect people through food or direct contact with animals. Other parasites, such as Ascaris, Cryptosporidium, Entamoeba histolytica or Giardia, enter the food chain via water or soil and can contaminate fresh produce.
Prions:
Prions, infectious agents composed of protein, are unique in that they are associated with specific forms of neurodegenerative disease. Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE, or "mad cow disease") is a prion disease in cattle, associated with the variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD) in humans. Consuming bovine products containing specified risk material, e.g. brain tissue, is the most likely route of transmission of the prion agent to humans.
Chemicals:
Of most concern for health are naturally occurring toxins and environmental pollutants.
- Naturally occurring toxins include mycotoxins, marine biotoxins, cyanogenic glycosides and toxins occurring in poisonous mushrooms. Staple foods like corn or cereals can contain high levels of mycotoxins, such as aflatoxin and ochratoxin. A long-term exposure can affect the immune system and normal development, or cause cancer.
- Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are compounds that accumulate in the environment and human body. Known examples are dioxins and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), which are unwanted byproducts of industrial processes and waste incineration. They are found worldwide in the environment and accumulate in animal food chains. Dioxins are highly toxic and can cause reproductive and developmental problems, damage the immune system, interfere with hormones and cause cancer.
- Heavy metals such as lead, cadmium and mercury cause neurological and kidney damage. Contamination by heavy metal in food occurs mainly through pollution of air, water and soil.
The evolving world and food safety
Safe food supplies support national economies, trade and tourism, contribute to food and nutrition security, and underpin sustainable development.
Urbanization and changes in consumer habits, including travel, have increased the number of people buying and eating food prepared in public places. Globalization has triggered growing consumer demand for a wider variety of foods, resulting in an increasingly complex and longer global food chain.
As the world’s population grows, the intensification and industrialization of agriculture and animal production to meet increasing demand for food creates both opportunities and challenges for food safety. Climate change is also predicted to impact food safety, where temperature changes modify food safety risks associated with food production, storage and distribution.
These challenges put greater responsibility on food producers and handlers to ensure food safety. Local incidents can quickly evolve into international emergencies due to the speed and range of product distribution. Serious foodborne disease outbreaks have occurred on every continent in the past decade, often amplified by globalized trade.
Examples include the contamination of infant formula with melamine in 2008 (affecting 300 000 infants and young children, 6 of whom died, in China alone), and the 2011 Enterohaemorrhagic Escherichia coli outbreak in Germany linked to contaminated fenugreek sprouts, where cases were reported in 8 countries in Europe and North America, leading to 53 deaths. The 2011 E.coli outbreak in Germany caused US$ 1.3 billion in losses for farmers and industries and US$ 236 million in emergency aid payments to 22 European Union Member States.
Food safety: a public health priority
Unsafe food poses global health threats, endangering everyone. Infants, young children, pregnant women, the elderly and those with an underlying illness are particularly vulnerable.
Foodborne and waterborne diarrhoeal disease kill an estimated 2 million people annually, including many children and particularly in developing countries. Unsafe food creates a vicious cycle of diarrhoea and malnutrition, threatening the nutritional status of the most vulnerable. Where food supplies are insecure, people tend to shift to less healthy diets and consume more “unsafe foods” – in which chemical, microbiological and other hazards pose health risks.
Governments should make food safety a public health priority, as they play a pivotal role in developing policies and regulatory frameworks, establishing and implementing effective food safety systems that ensure that food producers and suppliers along the whole food chain operate responsibly and supply safe food to consumers.
Food can become contaminated at any point of production and distribution, and the primary responsibility lies with food producers. Yet a large proportion of foodborne disease incidents are caused by foods improperly prepared or mishandled at home, in food service establishments or markets. Not all food handlers and consumers understand the roles they must play, such as adopting basic hygienic practices when buying, selling and preparing food to protect their health and that of the wider community.
Everyone can contribute to making food safe. Here are some examples of effective actions:
Policy-makers can:
- build and maintain adequate food systems and infrastructures (e.g. laboratories) to respond to and manage food safety risks along the entire food chain, including during emergencies;
- foster multi-sectoral collaboration among public health, animal health, agriculture and other sectors for better communication and joint action;
- integrate food safety into broader food policies and programmes (e.g. nutrition and food security);
- think globally and act locally to ensure the food produce domestically be safe internationally.
Food handlers and consumers can:
- know the food they use (read labels on food package, make an informed choice, become familiar with common food hazards);
- handle and prepare food safely, practicing the WHO Five Keys to Safer Food at home, or when selling at restaurants or at local markets;
- grow fruits and vegetables using the WHO Five Keys to Growing Safer Fruits and Vegetables to decrease microbial contamination.
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