The myth that Fukushima radiation levels were too low to harm humans persists, a year after the meltdown.  A March 2, 2012 New York Times article quoted Vanderbilt University professor John Boice: “there’s no opportunity for conducting epidemiological studies that have any chance for success – the doses are just too low.”  Wolfgang Weiss of the UN Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation also recently said doses observed...

115 women will be attending seminar in Paris   Usha Chomar and Guddi Athwal would not have even dreamed of a foreign sojourn let alone speaking at an international forum in Paris on the issue of health problems that manual scavengers have had to face. Both Usha and Guddi have put their past behind them and are among the 115 manual scavengers of the Alwar District of Rajasthan who have since been rehabilitated....

-The Hindu   Schools of Delhi Govt., MCD, NDMC, Delhi Cantonment and anganwadis to be administered tablets today Two months into the Chacha Nehru Sehat Yojna (CNSY) that seeks to provide free and comprehensive health services to all school-going children in Delhi, Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit on Monday launched a major State-wide de-worming campaign by administering chewable tablets to 50 school-going children at her residence. Since soil-transmitted worms are the commonest infestations in pre-school...

-The Business Standard   A proposed move by the Centre to slash natural gas supplies to phosphorous and potash-based (P&K) fertiliser manufacturing units has seen a number of farmer bodies, agro-experts and scientists raise a howl of protest. The move could seriously impact soil fertility, which in turn could hit food production in the country, they warned. Nutrients in soil are necessary to increase overall productivity of agri-commodities to help meet the country’s...

-Reuters   Global warming will get worse as agricultural methods accelerate the rate of soil erosion, which depletes the amount of carbon the soil is able to store, a United Nations' Environment Programme report said on Monday. Soil contains huge quantities of carbon in the form of organic matter. which provides nutrients for plant growth and improves soil fertility and water movement. The top metre of soil alone stores around 2,200 billion tonnes of...