Q&A: Coal, a Silent Killer
Marcela Valente* – Tierramérica
BUENOS AIRES, Apr 28 2010 (IPS) – Fatal accidents at coalmines, like the recent tragedies in China and the United States, cause great public alarm. But U.S. physician Alan Lockwood warns that many more deaths are caused by the pollution that comes from the use of coal as an energy source.
Alan Lockwood Credit: Courtesy of Greenpeace
Backed by studies from the organisation Physicians for Social Responsibility (affiliated with the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, 1985 Nobel Peace Prize winner), Lockwood asserts that coal causes heart and chronic respiratory diseases, strokes and cancer, which are among the five leading causes of death in the United States.
He and other experts published their conclusions last N…
Hepatitis Hits Haemophiliacs in Kashmir
SRINAGAR, Apr 17 2012 (IPS) – Recent research has found that over 90 percent of haemophilia patients across Kashmir are also affected by hepatitis due to the dearth of safe Anti- Haemophilic Factor (AHF) in the Valley.
Haemophiliac children receive treatment at Srinagar hospital. Credit: Sana Altaf/IPS
The long-term use of Fresh Frozen Plasma (FFP) as a substitute for AHF has put hundreds of haemophilia patients at high risk of contracting deadly infections, mainly hepatitis.
A survey conducted by members of the Haemophilia Society of Kashmir in 2011 found that out of 137 haemophilia patients registered at Srinagar’s Shri Maharaja Hari Singh (SMHS) hospital, 115 were affected by hepatitis…
Floods Wash Away India’s MDG Progress
When isolated by floodwaters, families have no choice but to use boats for transportation; even children must learn the survival skill of rowing. Here in India’s Morigaon district, one week of rains in August affected 27,000 hectares of land. Credit: Priyanka Borpujari/IPS
MORIGAON, India, Oct 7 2014 (IPS) – The northeastern Indian state of Assam is no stranger to devastating floods. Located just south of the eastern Himalayas, the lush, 30,000-square-km region comprises the Brahmaputra and Barak river valleys, and is accustomed to annual bouts of rain that swell the mighty rivers and spill over into villages and towns, inundating agricultural lands and washing homes, possessions and livestock away.
Now, the long-term impacts of such natural disasters are proving to be a thorn in the side of a government that is racing against time to meet its commitments under the Mill…