Indoor air pollution 4th leading risk factor for diseases

Health and Family Welfare Minister Prof AFM Ruhal Haque has said necessary measures will be taken to reduce indoor air pollution (IAP) to minimise its dire impact on human body, preserve ecosystem and mitigate global warming.
He was speaking at the inaugural session of a workshop titled 'Indoor Air Pollution' organised jointly by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and GTZ, a German agency for technical cooperation, at a city hotel yesterday.
“We have to take measures to mitigate climate change for our survival, and to preserve our local ecosystems by ensuring maximum utilisation of our natural resources,” the minister said.
Presenting the keynote paper Dr Joseph H Graziano, professor of Environment Health Science at Columbia University, said cooking by burning biomass like charcoal, wood, agricultural residue and cow dung is primarily responsible for IAP.
At least 20 percent of global warming is caused by IAP, he said, adding that it doubles the risk of pneumonia, tuberculosis, asthma, cardiovascular diseases, low birth weight and prenatal health outcomes.
Dr Joseph said it has been estimated that in developing countries IAP is the fourth leading risk factor contributing to various diseases.
“In the urban as well as rural areas of Bangladesh, the level of indoor air pollution is higher than outdoor air pollution,” he added.
Dr Joseph said GTZ has promoted an improved stove to reduce indoor air pollution and its associated health impacts at the household levels.
A better ventilation, which has been set in the improved stoves, is the replacement of traditional three-stone or shielded open-fire cooking, he added.
Dr Joseph said the improved stoves are mainly developed by the Institute of Fuel Research and Development of Bangladesh Council of Scientific and Industrial Research and further improved by its partner organisation GTZ.
To date more than 1000 young women and men have been trained, who have constructed over 1,40,000 stoves in the country under the supervision of GTZ, he added.
He also laid emphasis on creating mass awareness about the health damage caused by IAP and encouraging people to take preventive measure in this regard.
Dr Andrew Trevett, acting WHO representative to Bangladesh, Otto Gomm, programme coordinator of GTZ, and Sheikh Altaf Hossain, secretary to health and family welfare ministry were present at the workshop.
Bangladeh news

Biofuels To The Fore In Fight To Reduce Emissions

Biofuels could be used to replace jet fuel in less than five years following recent tests by plane-maker Boeing, while the industry says it is putting billions of dollars into improving its environmental impact.
Boeing's director for environmental strategy Billy Glover told Reuters that results from recent test flights using biofuels such as jatropha and algae had been "better than expected," meaning a partial replacement for jet fuel could be become a reality in "three to five" years.
"It works -- no problem. We don't have to make any changes to aeroplanes or engines," he said at the Paris Air show.
"We expect to get approval for the fuel from the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) next year," he added.
The industry predicts that if 100 percent of all jet fuel was replaced with biofuels it would cut airline carbon emissions by 80 percent. This is because carbon is taken out of the atmosphere by growing plants before being put back in by planes.
Airlines including Virgin Atlantic, Continental and Air New Zealand took part in test flights for Boeing over the past year.
BIGGEST THREAT
EADS-owned rival Airbus is planning its first commercial test flight with biofuels later this year, according to Axel Krein, the company's senior vice president of research & technology. He said Airbus currently spends 2 billion euros ($2.79 billion) a year on research and development -- the bulk of which goes into fuel efficiency.
"I am confident that 100 percent of jet fuel will come from biofuels. The question is, when is that date?" he said, forecasting that 30 percent of fuel could come from plants by 2030.
Boeing and Airbus are also working on reducing carbon emissions via weight and drag reduction on new aircraft.
The importance of cutting emissions for the industry was spelled out by Airbus CEO Tom Enders earlier in the airshow.
"Concerns about the environment and what aviation does to the environment I believe are long-term. if we do not tackle them, they are one of the biggest threats to the aviation industry," he told reporters.
"Of course, given the fact that fuel is up to 40 pct of airline costs, we would be crazy if we hadn't tackled it. efficiency, cost reduction and environment benefit fall together," he added.
Boeing's Billy Glover said the next stage after approval for biofuels would be to set up commercial projects for mass production of plants.
Jatropha, a poisonous plant that produces seeds that can be refined into biofuels, and algae are seen as the most able to be produced commercially, as they do not grow on land currently used for farming foodstuffs.
"The biggest hurdle is supply of plants and getting up to scale. That's the biggest cost -- how to actually get people to produce it on a regular basis," he said.
FRANCE news

Carbon tax on CNG withdrawn

The government on Thursday withdrew the decision of levying carbon surcharge on Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) by deleting the word "carbon" from the head of the levy. Now "surcharge" will be used for taxing petroleum products from the next financial year ie 2009-10 after severe drubbing from different quarters.Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani announced in the National Assembly to withdraw the decision of imposing carbon surcharge on CNG and directed the Finance Minister to review the levy as a whole taking into account other petroleum products.Speaking in the National Assembly, the Prime Minister said that the government has withdrawn carbon surcharge on CNG worth Rs 12 billion and "I have directed the Ministry of Finance to review the decision of carbon surcharge and come up with a transparent taxation mechanism."On the occasion, majority of members in the National Assembly lauded the decision of the government and hailed the Prime Minister's view to look into what the members termed anti-poor tax. The government has recently introduced carbon surcharge in the budget 2009-10, which was widely criticised by the lawmakers of both the Houses of the Parliament.Majority of the opposition lawmakers were of the view that the decision to impose carbon surcharge was taken to counter the verdict of the Supreme Court that directed the government to reduce petroleum prices in line with global price mechanism.Meanwhile, Advisor to Prime Minister on Finance Shaukat Tarin informed the Senate standing committee on finance that the government had taken the decision to exempt the CNG industry from the carbon surcharge.Members of the committee demanded exemption of the kerosene oil from the carbon surcharge. But the advisor said that the government feared adulteration of kerosene oil with other petroleum products if the government exempted it from the surcharge.The government has taken this decision after members of the Senate body on finance on Wednesday strongly criticised carbon surcharge saying it was to be imposed for friendly environment but use of CNG had no chance of polluting environment.Analysts are of the view that after exempting CNG from carbon surcharge and its possible imposition on petroleum products would result in price differential that would lead to increase in sale of CNG. CNG dealers are criticising the government to maintain reasonable difference between prices of CNG and petroleum products. Government has targeted collection of carbon surcharge on petroleum products at Rs 122 billion in next financial year ie 2009-10 that would possibly be used to bridge the budget deficit, one analyst said.
Pakistan news

Solving the puzzle: researching the impacts of climate change around the world

This report addresses some of the major questions facing climate change researchers, and how those puzzles are being addressed by NSF-funded activities. Complex computer models are being developed and refined to predict Earth’s future climate. Observations of climate conditions from observatory networks distributed in Earth’s oceans, polar regions, land masses, and near-Earth orbit improve the accuracy of the climate models. Records of Earth’s past climate provide important insights into the mechanisms involved in climate cycles of the past, and can help to refine computational models by allowing researchers to simulate past climate. Through social, economic, and behavioral science, researchers are learning how human behavior factors into climate change—and how human behavior can be modified to ameliorate the impact on Earth’s climate. Physical scientists and engineers are developing alternative ways of creating, storing, and using energy to reduce the amount of carbon that human activities contribute to the atmosphere. Researchers are also building the scientific foundation for the tools that humanity may need in the future to counteract the effects of global climate change.

Environment Policy

Why Environment is so important?
Development of mankind impacts and, in turn, is impacted by the Environment. Both are not only inter-related but are also inter-dependent
What will we do to protect and advance it ?
We will neither advocate to maintain status-quo nor encourage exploitation of natural resources for short term economic objectives. Instead, through sound and sustainable practices, we shall establish a creative partnership between development and environment. Increase in green cover, conservation of scarce resources, control of pollution, promotion of economic progress are important guiding lights we will follow for nurturing such a relationship.
How will we protect and advance it ?
We will fulfill this policy by committing ourselves to continuous improvement, updation of our processes, products and facilities, on one hand, and through spreading awareness, education and training of our associates, on the other.
Environment Policy for Jain Plastic Park
Environmental and Social Action Plan & Summary Report - Project Environment and Social Risk Management

Water Supply, sanitation and hygiene development

Water Supply, sanitation and hygiene development

Around 1.1 billion people globally do not have access to improved water supply sources whereas 2.4 billion people do not have access to any type of improved sanitation facility. About 2 million people die every year due to diarrhoeal diseases, most of them are children less than 5 years of age. The most affected are the populations in developing countries, living in extreme conditions of poverty, normally peri-urban dwellers or rural inhabitants. Among the main problems which are responsible for this situation are: lack of priority given to the sector, lack of financial resources, lack of sustainability of water supply and sanitation services, poor hygiene behaviours, and inadequate sanitation in public places including hospitals, health centres and schools. Providing access to sufficient quantities of safe water, the provision of facilities for a sanitary disposal of excreta, and introducing sound hygiene behaviours are of capital importance to reduce the burden of disease caused by these risk factors.
The work of WHO in this field covers the following topics:
Operation and maintenance
Environmental sanitation and hygiene development
Healthy settings
Environmental health in emergencies and disasters
Water and sanitation on ships and aircrafts
Household water treatment and safe storage
See alsoInternational Year of Sanitation 2008 International health regulations Revision of the International Health Regulations [pdf 400kb]
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EVENTS
Household Water Treatment & Safe Storage Network [pdf 147kb]Technical Meeting21–23 September 2009
International Year of Sanitation 2008
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Health and Environment LexiconLink to the database
List of publications in alphabetical orderFull text
RECENT PUBLICATIONS
Calcium and Magnesium in Drinking-water: Public health significance
Water Safety Plan Manual: Step-by-step risk management for drinking-water suppliers
Guidelines for Drinking-Water Quality, Second Addendum to the 3rd Edition Volume 1 - Recommendations
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Water Supply and Sanitation Monitoring

At the end of the International Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation Decade (1981-1990), WHO and UNICEF established a Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation (JMP). The overall aim of the JMP is to report globally on the status of water supply and sanitation sector, and to support countries in improving their monitoring performance to enable better planning and management at the country level. The JMP is the official arrangement within the UN System to produce information for the UN Secretary General on the progress of achieving the Millennium Development Goals related to water supply and sanitation.
Although the JMP has been producing coverage reports since 1990, it was only in 2000 that the JMP statistics were based mainly on data from household surveys such as Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS), Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS) and World Health Surveys (WHS). The reports listed below (available for downloading) are the latest JMP reports, all of them based on survey information.UN-Water Global Annual Assessment of Sanitation and Drinking-Water (GLAAS) Progress on Drinking-water and Sanitation: special focus on sanitation A Snapshot of Sanitation in Africa Meeting the MDG drinking-water and sanitation target: the urban and rural challenge of the decade Water for life: Making it happen. WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Report, 2005 WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation Sanitation: Meeting the MDG drinking water and sanitation target, 2004 Global Water Supply and Sanitation Assessment 2000 Report
See alsoCore questions on drinking-water and sanitation for household surveys Asia Water Watch 2015
Additional information on JMP can be seen at: www.wssinfo.org.
SUBSCRIBE
Subscribe to the WATERSANITATION mailing list
EVENTS
Household Water Treatment & Safe Storage Network [pdf 147kb]Technical Meeting21–23 September 2009
International Year of Sanitation 2008
HIGHLIGHTS
Health and Environment LexiconLink to the database
List of publications in alphabetical orderFull text
RECENT PUBLICATIONS
Calcium and Magnesium in Drinking-water: Public health significance
Water Safety Plan Manual: Step-by-step risk management for drinking-water suppliers
Guidelines for Drinking-Water Quality, Second Addendum to the 3rd Edition Volume 1 - Recommendations