35-year-old man became the sixth victim of swine flu in Pune Sassoon Hospital early Wednesday.
According to an official of the State Swine Flu Control Room, Sanjay Mistry, a resident of Pimpri, near Pune, was admitted to the hospital last Sunday in a critical condition and put on a ventilator.
With this, the total number of swine flu casualty in Maharashtra has gone up to eight.
Currently, there are five critical patients in the Pune Sassoon Hospital and another two critical patients in a Mumbai hospital.
Two more people have died of swine flu in Gujarat and one each in Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
Kerala man is 11th swine flu victim
Thiruvananthapuram, Aug 11 (IANS) A 31-year-old man died here Tuesday as the swine flu toll in India rose to 11 in a matter of nine days.
Wilson Lukose died at a private hospital at around 9.30 p.m., Kerala Health Minister P.K. Sreemathi confirmed.
Lukose had come from A 31-year-old man died here Tuesday as the swine flu toll in India rose to 11 in a matter of nine days.
Wilson Lukose died at a private hospital at around 9.30 p.m., Kerala the US to Chennai and then to his home here. He was hospitalised five days ago and his condition worsened Monday, officials said.
This was the first case of swine flu death in Kerala, where 55 people have been confirmed positive, and nine of them are still in hospital.
Swine flu claims four lives, toll rises to 11
New Delhi/Mumbai/Thiruvananthapuram, Aug 11 (IANS) India was gripped by a swine flu scare Tuesday and authorities stepped up efforts to curb the spread of the contagious virus that claimed four victims, taking the nationwide death toll to 11 in a matter of only nine days.
A worried Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad urged the chief ministers to take urgent steps to tackle the H1N1 disease that was unknown to India till the first case was reported May 16.
On Tuesday, a record 119 people were tested positive, with the virus spreading to cities like Jammu, Osmanabad, Nagpur, Nasik and Manipal. Of the 1,079 positive cases in India, 589 have been discharged, health ministry officials said.
The latest swine flu victims were a 13-year-old girl in Pune, the worst hit city where five people have died, a 63-year-old woman in Mumbai, a seven-year-old girl in Vadodara, and a 31-year-old man in Thiruvananthapuram.
Azad, who has immersed himself in the war against swine flu, telephoned some chief ministers Monday night and some Tuesday morning to warn that complacency could lead to a disaster.
Officials said he discussed with them urgent measures needed to combat the spread of the virus that has affected 1,079 people in India.
He also met senior bureaucrats tasked to visit various state to help contain the spread of the virus that originated in Mexico and has sparked a global scare.
Even as Minister Azad held a high-level meeting in New Delhi, Shruti Gavde, who tested positive last Saturday, died in Pune's Sassoon Hospital, barely hours after pharmacist Sanjay Tilekar died there Monday night.
A student of A.D. High School in Pune, Shruti had been admitted to the hospital Sunday in critical condition.
In the Maharashtra capital Mumbai, Shahida Warsi died at a private hospital. "The deceased was from Thane and had been brought to Mumbai for treatment," said Additional Municipal Commissioner Manisha Mhaiskar.
She had been brought to Mumbai's Noor Hospital in Byculla five days ago for treatment.
In Gujarat's Vadodara city, a girl died in a government hospital after being under ventilator for two days. She had been brought in for treatment Aug 7, said Health Minister Jaynarayan Vyas.
"The girl had no history of how she contracted the virus," Vyas said.
This was the second death reported in Gujarat on account of the swine flu. The first victim was NRI Pravin Patel, who came from Atlanta in the US and died Sunday.
In the Kerala capital , Wilson Lukose died at a private hospital at around 9.30 p.m. He had come from the US to Chennai and then to his home in Thiruvanathapuram.
Pune tops the list of casualties with five deaths followed by Mumbai (two) and one each in Ahmedabad, Chennai, Vadodara and Thiruvanathapuram.
Of the 119 positive cases reported Tuesday, Pune, which has been declared the epidemic city, reported 62. It was followed by Mumbai where 24 new cases were recorded.
As more swine flu cases poured in, the Haj Committee advised the elderly, children and pregnant woman to avoid going for the Haj pilgrimage.
Hasan Ahmad, acting chairperson of the Haj Committee of India, said that pilgrims above the age of 65, those younger than 12 years and the pregnant should avoid the pilgrimage this year. Saudi Arabia has issued similar instructions.
In New Delhi, Azad underlined the guidelines to help private labs and hospitals carry out tests and treat suspected patients.
The government had earlier insisted that all patients have to be tested and treated only in state-run hospitals but the enormity of the crisis has forced a change of mind.
Swine flu cast a shadow over the World Badminton Championship in Hyderabad, with the doubles coach of the Malaysian team showing symptoms of the viral disease.
Jeremy Gan has been quarantined at the Andhra Pradesh Chest Hospital, and his samples have been sent for testing, organisers of the event said.
With swine flu spreading panic, face masks are flying off the shelf at pharmacy shops in the national capital. Chemists say they are not getting fresh supplies that are being diverted to Pune.
A 17-year-old footballer, S. Tongber, from Meghalaya Tuesday tested positive for H1N1 virus, marking the first swine flu case in the northeast.
Azad speaks with chief ministers, officials on swine flu
New Delhi, Aug 11 (IANS) Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad Tuesday spoke to the chief ministers to gear up to tackle the growing swine flu menace that has claimed 10 lives and suggested various steps including involving private labs and hospitals.
The minister also met and briefed senior officials, who have been tasked to visit various states to help them contain the spread of the H1N1 virus.
Azad spoke to the chief ministers Monday night and also Tuesday morning, said health officials here.
"While appreciating the efforts being made by the state governments, he emphasized the need to step up the preparedness," according to a statement issued here.
According to a health official: "The health minister met and briefed joint secretaries and additional secretaries drawn from various departments.
"He advised them about capacity buildings in the states," the official told IANS.
These 35 senior bureaucrats will be meeting chief ministers too. These teams have been told to complete their visits before Aug 15.
"The health minister has also requested the chief ministers to meet these senior officials when they conduct the first meeting. This will help in fast-tracking all the decisions," the official said.
The decision to rope in the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officials to the various states was taken Monday when Azad held a meeting with Cabinet Secretary K.M. Chandrasekhar and senior health officials.
The central teams will be assisting the state government in identifying the private labs for tests and public and private hospitals for screening, diagnosis and treatment.
"It has been planned to involve central, state, local governmental establishments, medical colleges, institutes and private set-ups in this integrated strategy," the statement said.
The central teams will also discuss the training of the doctors and paramedical personnel and also highlight the importance of awareness campaigns.
Azad Monday had admitted that letters sent to the states about the swine flu pandemic had little impact and said the central government would send senior officials to help them tackle the spread of the disease.
Pune tops the list of casualties with five deaths so far followed two deaths in Mumbai and one each in Ahmedabad, Chennai and Vadodara.
There are 960 swine-flu infected cases, with 95 new cases reported Monday.
Private hospitals to help in swine flu testing: Shiela Dikshit
New Delhi, Aug 11 (IANS) To tackle the growing number of people queuing up to test for swine flu, the Delhi government may soon allow testing for the Influenza A (H1N1) virus at private hospitals, Chief Minister Shiela Dikshit said Tuesday.
So far, tests are being conducted only at 14 government institutions in Delhi.
"we don't want panic to be spread. We are working out a policy where we would involve private hospitals (for testing) in this. The government of India is doing whatever is possible to see that there is no scarcity of drugs or other requirements that can prevent this flu from spreading," Dikshit told a news channel here.
Over 250 people have tested positive for influenza A (H1N1) in Delhi, of whom 178 have been discharged while 58 are undergoing treatment in designated hospitals.
Panic has spread among residents with the infectious disease claiming 10 lives across the country.
Face masks, especially the safer N95 masks, are flying off the racks at pharmacy shops but chemists say they are not getting fresh supplies as the stocks are being diverted to Pune, where the highest number of cases have been detected and five have already succumbed to swine flu.
The chief minister, however, said that despite the panic buying of face masks, there was "no scarcity".
Asked if there was a shortage of masks and the consequent black marketing of the product in Delhi as reported in the media, Dikshit said: "No I don't think so - so far we have had no scarcity. We are reviewing it all the time and our ministers, the health minister and secretary are doing it. In fact, I called myself last night and I was told there is no scarcity."
She held that quarantine was important in swine flu patients. "Finally, quarantine is very important - both at home and work places and other places."
Record 119 new swine flu cases in India Tuesday
New Delhi, Aug 11 (IANS) India Tuesday reported 119 new cases of swine flu, highest so far for a single day, taking the total number of the infected people to 1,079. Three people - one in Gujarat and two in Maharashtra - succumbed to the infectious virus, taking to 10 the toll in the country, the health ministry said.
Among the new cases, Pune reported 62, Mumbai 24, Delhi 15, Manipal 2, Ahmedabad 1, Bangalore 4, Nagpur 3, Osmanabad 1, Nashik 1, Goa 1, Hyderabad 2, Thiruvananthapuram 2 and Jammu 1.
Of the 15 cases reported from Delhi, only one has a travel history. The 19-year-old man had returned from Manila via Hongkong.
Among Pune's new cases, one had returned from Saudi Arabia and the 61 others are indigenous cases.
Mumbai reported 24 cases during the day, two of whom have travelled from abroad. All other cases from Maharashtra are indigenous. All cases from Karnataka are from local contract.
While Ahmedabad reported one indigenous case, the patient in Goa had returned from Spain. Of the two cases in Hyderabad one patient has a travel history. The case in Jammu had returned from Mumbai and Pune. One of the two cases in Thiruvanathapuram has returned from Doha.
So far 5,000 people have been tested, of whom 1,079 are positive for influenza A(H1N1). Of the total cases, 589 have been discharged and 10 have died. The remainder of them are admitted to the identified health facilities.
81 new swine flu cases in Maharashtra, Thane civic schools shut
Mumbai, Aug 11 (IANS) Maharashtra, which has witnessed seven of India's 10 swine flu deaths, Tuesday recorded 81 new cases, taking to 408 the total number of people infected in the state , while the Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) ordered a five-day closure of all schools under it.
Among the new patients, 74 were in Pune, six in Panchgani and one in Mumbai, State Swine Flu Control Room head Pradip Awati said.
Of the people under treatment in various hospitals, six in Pune's Sassoon Hospital and two in Mumbai's Hiranandani Hospital are serious, he said.
"They are all on ventilators and we are constantly monitoring their condition," he added.
In the meantime, a whopping 35,000 people in Pune have been screened for H1N1 and another 4,500 in Mumbai as panicky citizens rushed to various screening centres opened in public and private hospitals.
Among the seven deaths in the state, five have been in Pune and two in Mumbai.
Additional Chief Secretary (Health) Sharvari Gokhale said Tuesday evening that the latest (second) victim in Mumbai, who passed away Monday morning, was suffering from pneumonia.
"After her death, the Noor Hospital sent her blood samples for check which were received today and were found positive for swine flu," Gokhale told media persons.
Shahida Abdul Aziz Warsi, a 63-year-old resident of Mumbra suburb of adjoining Thane district, passed away Monday, becoming the seventh victim of swine flu in the state.
Even as the Mumbai civic administration decided not to shut down educational institutions in the city, the Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) ordered a five-day closure of all schools under it, an official said.
While Municipal Commissioner Jairaj Phatak said "the current situation does not warrant steps like Pune" to shut down schools and malls, the civic administration was taking a poll of people over this issue.
"After two days, all educational institutions are getting a three-day break. Moreover, there's no guarantee that swine flu will disappear after a few days just as it had come," Phatak said.
Phatak pointed that even many school principals who interacted with him expressed reservations on shutting educational institutions in the city.
But senior TMC official R.D. Kendre said the civic body's education department had issued orders to shut down civic schools - as opposed to private schools - in its jurisdiction till Sunday as a precautionary measure in view of the swine flu epidemic.
In Mumbai, some private schools, including the prestigious Cambridge School in Kandivli suburb, issued advisories to parents on the dos and don'ts, precautions in school and outside. It has also permitted students to wear masks to school if they want.
15 new suspected swine flu cases in Chandigarh
Chandigarh, Aug 11 (IANS) At least 15 new suspected swine flu patients were reported in Chandigarh Tuesday, a health official said.
Seven cases were reported each in the Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) and at a government hospital in Sector 32. One case was reported at a Sector 16 hospital.
"Seven patients were admitted in hospitals whereas nine have been quarantined at their homes," the health official said.
"There is no need to panic and the situation is well under our control," the official added.
Two more swine flu cases in West Bengal, total reaches 12
Kolkata, Aug 11 (IANS) The number of swine flu patients in West Bengal rose to 12 with two more cases confirmed Tuesday.
"Two more people tested positive for swine flu today (Tuesday) at the designated Beliaghata Infectious Diseases (ID) hospital. Two other suspected swine flu patients took admission," the state government's nodal officer for swine flu Tapas Sen told IANS.
Six people - four confirmed and two suspects - are in the hospital now.
Meanwhile, Minister of State for Health Dinesh Trivedi arrived from Delhi along with a six-member team of medical experts and visited the airport and designated hospital for a first hand idea of the facilities for the detection and the treatment of the disease.
They first went to the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport and saw the screening infrastructure for the disease there. Trivedi gave some directives to the medical officers at the airport.
Later, the team went around the designated ward for the diseases at the ID hospital and interacted with the patients, their families and the doctors.
11 swine flu cases detected in Uttar Pradesh
Lucknow, Aug 11 (IANS) Eleven people in Uttar Pradesh tested positive for swine flu virus Tuesday, taking the total figure of the infected people to 12 in the state.
Eight of these infected people belong to the family of the first swine flu case - five-year-old Hasan Rizvi, who returned from Britain a few days ago.
Hasan is the grandson of former Congress minister Ammar Rizvi.
Of the remaining three, there was an eight-year-old who returned from Singapore recently. The sample of an 18-year-old man from Allahabad has also tested positive, while the third person belongs to Faizabad.
"We had carried out tests of about 50 samples, out of which 11 turned out to be positive," said S. Dhole, professor and head of the department of microbiology at the Sanjay Gandhi Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (SGPGIMS) here.
"But this should not be cause for any kind of panic as each of the detected cases was found carrying only primary infection, that is easily curable," he said.
Asked whether all the detected patients were put in isolation, he said, "Well, we have referred these cases to the district chief medical officer, who is supposed to provide the necessary treatment."
Chief Medical Officer A.K. Shukla said, "All the patients were being looked after well and the required drugs were made available also to those who had preferred to stay in their homes instead of getting admitted to hospitals."
"Fortunately, all the patients looked quite healthy. Even the five-year-old boy, who was the first one to be detected positive in Lucknow last week, looked healthy."
"There is no reason to panic as we are well equipped to deal with the menace," he said.
Nine suspected swine flu cases surface in Madhya Pradesh
Bhopal, Aug 11 (IANS) Samples of nine people, suspected to be infected with swine flu, have been sent to Delhi for testing, health department officials said Tuesday.
The samples include those from two students studying in Pune and one studying in Delhi. The three had voluntarily came to the Hamidia Hospital here - the designated swine flu nodal centre - saying they were in contact with affected people. All the three have been advised to stay away from other people till the test reports are received.
Though not a single case of swine flu has been reported in the state so far, the government has announced health and medical education departments will now jointly work towards checking the disease. It has cancelled leaves of doctors working in health, medical education and gas relief departments.
An official release said a meeting chaired by state Health Secretary S.R. Mohanty decided to shortlist 16 private hospitals in six districts for swine flu treatment, and to open control rooms in medical colleges and offices of the chief medical officers, health officers and divisional joint directors.
It was also decided that samples of suspected swine flu patients be sent to Pune and New Delhi for testing, and the authorities concerned have been directed to send samples to the designated laboratories within 48 hours of collection.
Court to hear plea on swine flu
New Delhi, Aug 11 (IANS) The Delhi High Court Tuesday admitted a public interest petition charging the government with not having taken adequate measures to tackle swine flu in the capital.
Anjana Jain filed a petition through her counsel Sugreev Dubey accusing the government with not having proper measures for distribution of medicines and masks. She also demanded that masks be made available with local chemists so that its black-marketing can be curtailed.
Delhi has so far reported over 250 cases of swine flu.
"Auto and taxi drivers who are going to airports, railway stations and bus terminals are most vulnerable to the flu and the government should make sure that they wear the masks and take all precautionary measures," the petition states.
Jain also blamed the government for not having sufficient resources to tackle the flu spread.
The petition is likely to be heard Wednesday.
Goa to screen bus passengers from Pune
Panaji, Aug 11 (IANS) All buses from Pune will be screened for possible swine flu infected passengers at two border checkposts in Goa from Wednesday, a top official said.
The decision was taken at a meeting chaired by Chief Secretary Sanjiv Srivastava at the state secretariat Tuesday evening.
"Goa receives some 7,000 inter-state buses everyday. The traffic from Pune is around 50 buses. Our health department teams stationed at the Patradevi and Mollem checkposts will be focusing on passengers coming into Goa from Pune using public transport," Srivastava told reporters.
Srivastava said while the screening would be limited to incoming public traffic from Pune initially, the idea was to cover all inbound vehicles coming into Goa in the near future.
"We are focusing on passengers coming in from high-risk areas presently," Srivastava said.
He said the health department's swine flu screening unit at Dabolim airport has been instructed to screen all passengers coming in by Maharashtra flights.
"We are in the process of working out a mechanism to cover passengers coming in by railway to Goa," Srivastava said.
Goa has reported 11 swine flu cases ever since the pandemic broke out a few months ago
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Govt tries to douse drought panic
More than a quarter of the 620-plus districts face the threat of a drought this year, raising the spectre of brutal food price increases in the country by December.Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee admitted Tuesday that sowing of rice was down 20 per cent because of an erratic monsoon.“We have declared 161 districts as drought-prone,” Mukherjee told reporters on the sidelines of a conference.On Monday, the Met department had lowered its monsoon forecast for the second time since June. It said rain during June-September would be 87 per cent of the average against the 93 per cent it had forecast earlier — placing it on a par with the rainfall deficit in 2002 when the country last faced a drought.But Mukherjee tried to douse panic by saying the government had a contingency plan and referred to the country’s experience in tackling droughts. “There is no point in pressing the panic button. This country managed the century’s worst drought in 1987. We transported drinking water through railways. We organised fodder for the cattle. This country has the experience of handling the situation and I will advise not to press the panic button.”Prime Minister Manmohan Singh exuded the same optimism and told a team of business leaders that his government would tackle inflation and had enough food stocks to deal with any shortages.“He (Singh) was quite confident that the government would be able to handle the food inflation,” Ficci secretary-general Amit Mitra said after leading a delegation for talks with the Prime Minister.A flurry of meetings was taking place at Krishi Bhavan, which houses the agriculture ministry, and at North Block.The drought-prone districts are not large crop producers but the rain deficit raised fears that the kharif season could turn out as bad as 2004 when the summer crop fell by 12 per cent.Agronomists expect this year’s rice crop to be 12 million tonnes less than the 99.4 million tonnes produced last year. However, the country has large grain buffer stocks of over 52 million tonnes, including rice stocks of almost 20 million tonnes.On Tuesday, the Prime Minister brought close aide and noted economist C. Rangarajan to head the Prime Minister’s economic advisory council — a position he gave up last October when he was nominated to the Rajya Sabha.Rangarajan is expected to guide the crisis management plans to tackle the drought and will also negotiate with the World Bank and the IMF for a greater voice for India.The reconstituted advisory council also took on board two agro-economists — Suman Bery, director-general of the National Council of Applied Economic Research, and V.S. Vyas, former director of IIM Ahmedabad.Officials, however, admit that the big worry is over essential commodities like sugar, pulses and edible oil whose prices have surged in recent months. India is the largest consumer of sugar and has already indicated that it will be importing both raw and white sugar this year.
China’s Incinerators Loom as a Global Hazard
In this sprawling metropolis in southeastern China stand two hulking brown buildings erected by a private company, the Longgang trash incinerators. They can be smelled a mile away and pour out so much dark smoke and hazardous chemicals that hundreds of local residents recently staged an all-day sit-in, demanding that the incinerators be cleaner and that a planned third incinerator not be built nearby.
After surpassing the United States as the world’s largest producer of household garbage, China has embarked on a vast program to build incinerators as landfills run out of space. But these incinerators have become a growing source of toxic emissions, from dioxin to mercury, that can damage the body’s nervous system
And these pollutants, particularly long-lasting substances like dioxin and mercury, are dangerous not only in China, a growing body of atmospheric research based on satellite observations suggests. They float on air currents across the Pacific to American shores.
Chinese incinerators can be better. At the other end of Shenzhen from Longgang, no smoke is visible from the towering smokestack of the Baoan incinerator, built by a company owned by the municipal government. Government tests show that it emits virtually no dioxin and other pollutants.
But the Baoan incinerator cost 10 times as much as the Longgang incinerators, per ton of trash-burning capacity.
The difference between the Baoan and Longgang incinerators lies at the center of a growing controversy in China. Incinerators are being built to wildly different standards across the country and even across cities like Shenzhen. For years Chinese government regulators have discussed the need to impose tighter limits on emissions. But they have done nothing because of a bureaucratic turf war, a Chinese government official and Chinese incineration experts said.
The Chinese government is struggling to cope with the rapidly rising mountains of trash generated as the world’s most populated country has raced from poverty to rampant consumerism. Beijing officials warned in June that all of the city’s landfills would run out of space within five years.
The governments of several cities with especially affluent, well-educated citizens, including Beijing and Shanghai, are setting pollution standards as strict as Europe’s. Despite those standards, protests against planned incinerators broke out this spring in Beijing and Shanghai as well as Shenzhen.
Increasingly outspoken residents in big cities are deeply distrustful that incinerators will be built and operated to international standards. “It’s hard to say whether this standard will be reached — maybe the incinerator is designed to reach this benchmark, but how do we know it will be properly operated?” said Zhao Yong, a computer server engineer who has become a neighborhood activist in Beijing against plans for an incinerator there.
Yet far dirtier incinerators continue to be built in inland cities where residents have shown little awareness of pollution.
Studies at the University of Washington and the Argonne National Laboratory in Argonne, Ill., have estimated that a sixth of the mercury now falling on North American lakes comes from Asia, particularly China, mainly from coal-fired plants and smelters but also from incinerators. Pollution from incinerators also tends to be high in toxic metals like cadmium.
Incinerators play the most important role in emissions of dioxin. Little research has been done on dioxin crossing the Pacific. But analyses of similar chemicals have shown that they can travel very long distances.
A 2005 report from the World Bank warned that if China built incinerators rapidly and did not limit their emissions, worldwide atmospheric levels of dioxin could double. China has since slowed its construction of incinerators and limited their emissions somewhat, but the World Bank has yet to do a follow-up report.
Airborne dioxin is not the only problem from incinerators. The ash left over after combustion is laced with dioxin and other pollutants. Zhong Rigang, the chief engineer at the Baoan incinerator here, said that his operation sent its ash to a special landfill designed to cope with toxic waste. But an academic paper last year by Nie Yongfeng, a Tsinghua University professor and government adviser who sees a need for more incinerators, said that most municipal landfills for toxic waste lacked room for the ash, so the ash was dumped.
Trash incinerators have two advantages that have prompted Japan and much of Europe to embrace them: they occupy much less real estate than landfills, and the heat from burning trash can be used to generate electricity. The Baoan incinerator generates enough power to light 40,000 households.
And landfills have their own environmental hazards. Decay in landfills also releases large quantities of methane, a powerful global warming gas, said Robert McIlvaine, president of McIlvaine Company, an energy consulting firm that calculates the relative costs of addressing disparate environmental hazards. Methane from landfills is a far bigger problem in China than toxic pollutants from incinerators, particularly modern incinerators like those in Baoan, he said.
China’s national regulations still allow incinerators to emit 10 times as much dioxin as incinerators in the European Union; American standards are similar to those in Europe. Tightening of China’s national standards has been stuck for three years in a bureaucratic war between the environment ministry and the main economic planning agency, the National Development and Reform Commission, said a Beijing official who insisted on anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the subject publicly.
The agencies agree that tighter standards on dioxin emissions are needed. They disagree on whether the environment ministry should have the power to stop incinerator projects that do not meet tighter standards, the official said, adding that the planning agency wants to retain the power to decide which projects go ahead.
Yan Jianhua, the director of the solid waste treatment expert group in Zhejiang province, a center of incinerator equipment manufacturing in China, defended the industry’s record on dioxin, saying that households that burn their trash outdoors emit far more dioxin.
“Open burning is a bigger problem according to our research,” Professor Yan said, adding that what China really needs is better trash collection so that garbage can be disposed of more reliably.
Critics and admirers of incinerators alike call for more recycling and reduced use of packaging as ways to reduce the daily volume of municipal garbage. Even when not recycled, sorted trash is easier for incinerators to burn cleanly, because the temperature in the furnace can be adjusted more precisely to minimize the formation of dioxin.
Yet the Chinese public has shown little enthusiasm for recycling. As Mr. Zhong, the engineer at the Baoan incinerator, put it, “No one really cares
After surpassing the United States as the world’s largest producer of household garbage, China has embarked on a vast program to build incinerators as landfills run out of space. But these incinerators have become a growing source of toxic emissions, from dioxin to mercury, that can damage the body’s nervous system
And these pollutants, particularly long-lasting substances like dioxin and mercury, are dangerous not only in China, a growing body of atmospheric research based on satellite observations suggests. They float on air currents across the Pacific to American shores.
Chinese incinerators can be better. At the other end of Shenzhen from Longgang, no smoke is visible from the towering smokestack of the Baoan incinerator, built by a company owned by the municipal government. Government tests show that it emits virtually no dioxin and other pollutants.
But the Baoan incinerator cost 10 times as much as the Longgang incinerators, per ton of trash-burning capacity.
The difference between the Baoan and Longgang incinerators lies at the center of a growing controversy in China. Incinerators are being built to wildly different standards across the country and even across cities like Shenzhen. For years Chinese government regulators have discussed the need to impose tighter limits on emissions. But they have done nothing because of a bureaucratic turf war, a Chinese government official and Chinese incineration experts said.
The Chinese government is struggling to cope with the rapidly rising mountains of trash generated as the world’s most populated country has raced from poverty to rampant consumerism. Beijing officials warned in June that all of the city’s landfills would run out of space within five years.
The governments of several cities with especially affluent, well-educated citizens, including Beijing and Shanghai, are setting pollution standards as strict as Europe’s. Despite those standards, protests against planned incinerators broke out this spring in Beijing and Shanghai as well as Shenzhen.
Increasingly outspoken residents in big cities are deeply distrustful that incinerators will be built and operated to international standards. “It’s hard to say whether this standard will be reached — maybe the incinerator is designed to reach this benchmark, but how do we know it will be properly operated?” said Zhao Yong, a computer server engineer who has become a neighborhood activist in Beijing against plans for an incinerator there.
Yet far dirtier incinerators continue to be built in inland cities where residents have shown little awareness of pollution.
Studies at the University of Washington and the Argonne National Laboratory in Argonne, Ill., have estimated that a sixth of the mercury now falling on North American lakes comes from Asia, particularly China, mainly from coal-fired plants and smelters but also from incinerators. Pollution from incinerators also tends to be high in toxic metals like cadmium.
Incinerators play the most important role in emissions of dioxin. Little research has been done on dioxin crossing the Pacific. But analyses of similar chemicals have shown that they can travel very long distances.
A 2005 report from the World Bank warned that if China built incinerators rapidly and did not limit their emissions, worldwide atmospheric levels of dioxin could double. China has since slowed its construction of incinerators and limited their emissions somewhat, but the World Bank has yet to do a follow-up report.
Airborne dioxin is not the only problem from incinerators. The ash left over after combustion is laced with dioxin and other pollutants. Zhong Rigang, the chief engineer at the Baoan incinerator here, said that his operation sent its ash to a special landfill designed to cope with toxic waste. But an academic paper last year by Nie Yongfeng, a Tsinghua University professor and government adviser who sees a need for more incinerators, said that most municipal landfills for toxic waste lacked room for the ash, so the ash was dumped.
Trash incinerators have two advantages that have prompted Japan and much of Europe to embrace them: they occupy much less real estate than landfills, and the heat from burning trash can be used to generate electricity. The Baoan incinerator generates enough power to light 40,000 households.
And landfills have their own environmental hazards. Decay in landfills also releases large quantities of methane, a powerful global warming gas, said Robert McIlvaine, president of McIlvaine Company, an energy consulting firm that calculates the relative costs of addressing disparate environmental hazards. Methane from landfills is a far bigger problem in China than toxic pollutants from incinerators, particularly modern incinerators like those in Baoan, he said.
China’s national regulations still allow incinerators to emit 10 times as much dioxin as incinerators in the European Union; American standards are similar to those in Europe. Tightening of China’s national standards has been stuck for three years in a bureaucratic war between the environment ministry and the main economic planning agency, the National Development and Reform Commission, said a Beijing official who insisted on anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the subject publicly.
The agencies agree that tighter standards on dioxin emissions are needed. They disagree on whether the environment ministry should have the power to stop incinerator projects that do not meet tighter standards, the official said, adding that the planning agency wants to retain the power to decide which projects go ahead.
Yan Jianhua, the director of the solid waste treatment expert group in Zhejiang province, a center of incinerator equipment manufacturing in China, defended the industry’s record on dioxin, saying that households that burn their trash outdoors emit far more dioxin.
“Open burning is a bigger problem according to our research,” Professor Yan said, adding that what China really needs is better trash collection so that garbage can be disposed of more reliably.
Critics and admirers of incinerators alike call for more recycling and reduced use of packaging as ways to reduce the daily volume of municipal garbage. Even when not recycled, sorted trash is easier for incinerators to burn cleanly, because the temperature in the furnace can be adjusted more precisely to minimize the formation of dioxin.
Yet the Chinese public has shown little enthusiasm for recycling. As Mr. Zhong, the engineer at the Baoan incinerator, put it, “No one really cares
G.E. Resumes Hudson Dredging, With Limits by E.P.A.
General Electric resumed dredging for contaminants in the upper Hudson River on Tuesday afternoon after shutting down operations in response to tests that showed that chemicals from the cleanup had traveled several miles downstream.The Environmental Protection Agency, which had ordered the dredging halted on Friday, said that operations would restart in stages and initially be confined to only three of 11 sites on the river where the dredges had been operating. Additional dredging areas may be added pending another round of water sampling, said Kristen Skopeck, a spokeswoman for the agency.
Water tests conducted about five miles south of Fort Edward in Washington County, where most of the dredging is under way, showed that levels of the chemicals known as PCBs exceeded water quality standards. E.P.A. officials has asked General Electric, which is overseeing the cleanup, to find methods for confining the sediment disturbed by the dredging to each site and keep PCB levels down elsewhere in the river.
The agency said that “enhanced engineering controls” would be incorporated at each dredge location to keep water from spilling out of the dredge buckets and back into the river.
The dredging operation, which began in May along a six-mile segment south of Fort Edward, is the first phase of a cleanup expected to last through 2015. (The current phase is expected to continue well into the fall.)
Two General Electric factories discharged PCBs for three decades beginning in the 1940s before PCBs were banned in 1977 as a health threat to people and wildlife. That led to the federal designation of nearly 200 miles of the river, from Hudson Falls, N.Y., to the southern tip of Manhattan, as a contaminated Superfund site.
Under the legislation that created the Superfund program, the responsible party, G.E., is required to supervise and pay for the cleanup. The company periodically posts updates on the operation at www.hudsondredging.com.
Another 34 miles of river, running to Troy, N.Y., are to be dredged in the project’s second phase.
Ms. Skopeck said the temporary shutdown was not expected to significantly delay the cleanup. Mark Behan, a spokesman for General Electric, said that heavy rains this summer had swelled the river’s flow and caused intermittent suspensions of some dredging already.
"It will have an effect in productivity,” he said of the shutdown. "But it’s too early to tell how much of an effect.” ownstream.
Water tests conducted about five miles south of Fort Edward in Washington County, where most of the dredging is under way, showed that levels of the chemicals known as PCBs exceeded water quality standards. E.P.A. officials has asked General Electric, which is overseeing the cleanup, to find methods for confining the sediment disturbed by the dredging to each site and keep PCB levels down elsewhere in the river.
The agency said that “enhanced engineering controls” would be incorporated at each dredge location to keep water from spilling out of the dredge buckets and back into the river.
The dredging operation, which began in May along a six-mile segment south of Fort Edward, is the first phase of a cleanup expected to last through 2015. (The current phase is expected to continue well into the fall.)
Two General Electric factories discharged PCBs for three decades beginning in the 1940s before PCBs were banned in 1977 as a health threat to people and wildlife. That led to the federal designation of nearly 200 miles of the river, from Hudson Falls, N.Y., to the southern tip of Manhattan, as a contaminated Superfund site.
Under the legislation that created the Superfund program, the responsible party, G.E., is required to supervise and pay for the cleanup. The company periodically posts updates on the operation at www.hudsondredging.com.
Another 34 miles of river, running to Troy, N.Y., are to be dredged in the project’s second phase.
Ms. Skopeck said the temporary shutdown was not expected to significantly delay the cleanup. Mark Behan, a spokesman for General Electric, said that heavy rains this summer had swelled the river’s flow and caused intermittent suspensions of some dredging already.
"It will have an effect in productivity,” he said of the shutdown. "But it’s too early to tell how much of an effect.” ownstream.
Stowaway insects imperil Darwin's finches
The famous Galapagos finches could be among the first casualties of mosquitoes that are stowing away on aircraft, potentially bringing fatal viruses to the islands.
Live mosquitoes captured in the holds of aircraft arriving on the Galapagos from mainland Ecuador were found to survive and breed on the islands. Although none of the captured mosquitoes carried lethal viruses such as the West Nile virus (WNV) – which decimated bird populations in the US after arriving in New York in 1999 – they have the potential to do so.
WNV has been reported in Colombia and Argentina, and could have reached Ecuador, says Simon Goodman of the University of Leeds, who co-led the research team. It is not only the finches that are at risk. "West Nile virus also affects reptiles and mammals, and so could impact other iconic Galapagos species such as marine iguanas and sea lions," Goodman says.
Wildlife threat
Goodman and his colleagues found 74 live insects after searching the holds of 93 aircraft landing on Baltra Island in the Galapagos. Of these, six were Culex quinquefasciatus mosquitoes, which transmit WNV and the parasite that causes bird malaria. Two more were caught in aircraft that landed on nearby San Cristobal.
"The consequences for wildlife could be severe," says Marm Kilpatrick of the University of California, Santa Cruz. The findings are probably an underestimate of the true numbers of mosquitoes arriving, he says.
By comparing genes from mosquitoes caught on the mainland with those on the Galapagos, the researchers were able to show that arrivals from Ecuador survive and breed with Galapagos mosquitoes.
Live mosquitoes captured in the holds of aircraft arriving on the Galapagos from mainland Ecuador were found to survive and breed on the islands. Although none of the captured mosquitoes carried lethal viruses such as the West Nile virus (WNV) – which decimated bird populations in the US after arriving in New York in 1999 – they have the potential to do so.
WNV has been reported in Colombia and Argentina, and could have reached Ecuador, says Simon Goodman of the University of Leeds, who co-led the research team. It is not only the finches that are at risk. "West Nile virus also affects reptiles and mammals, and so could impact other iconic Galapagos species such as marine iguanas and sea lions," Goodman says.
Wildlife threat
Goodman and his colleagues found 74 live insects after searching the holds of 93 aircraft landing on Baltra Island in the Galapagos. Of these, six were Culex quinquefasciatus mosquitoes, which transmit WNV and the parasite that causes bird malaria. Two more were caught in aircraft that landed on nearby San Cristobal.
"The consequences for wildlife could be severe," says Marm Kilpatrick of the University of California, Santa Cruz. The findings are probably an underestimate of the true numbers of mosquitoes arriving, he says.
By comparing genes from mosquitoes caught on the mainland with those on the Galapagos, the researchers were able to show that arrivals from Ecuador survive and breed with Galapagos mosquitoes.
Galapagos face ecological disaster due to tourism: study
Mosquitoes brought into the Galapagos on tourist planes and boats threaten to wreak "ecological disaster" in the islands, central to Darwin's theory of evolution, a study said Wednesday.
The insects can spread potentially lethal diseases in the archipelago off Ecuador's Pacific coast, used by Charles Darwin as the basis of his seminal work "On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection".
"Few tourists realise the irony that their trip to Galapagos may actually increase the risk of an ecological disaster," said Simon Goodman of Leeds University, one of the study's co-authors.
"That we haven't already seen serious disease impacts in Galapagos is probably just a matter of luck."
The study found that the southern house mosquito, Culex quinquefasciatus, was regularly hitching rides on planes from the South American mainland, and island-hopping on tourist boats between the different islands.
Species threatened by diseases such as avian malaria or West Nile include the islands' best-known residents, its giant tortoises, as well as marine iguanas, sea lions and finches.
Arnaud Bataille, another researcher on the eight-page study, said: "On average the number of mosquitoes per aeroplane is low, but many aircraft arrive each day from the mainland in order to service the tourist industry."
Worse, "the mosquitoes seem able to survive and breed once they leave the plane," he added.
Goodman noted that Ecuador recently introduced a requirement for all aircraft flying to the Galapagos to have insecticide treatment, but said similar moves are needed for ships, and the impact needs to be evaluated.
"With tourism growing so rapidly, the future of Galapagos hangs on the ability of the Ecuadorian government to maintain stringent biosecurity protection for the islands," he said.
The study, co-authored by Leeds University, the Zoological Society of London, the University of Guayaquil, the Galapagos National Park and the Charles Darwin Foundation, was published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society, Britain's de-facto academy of sciences.
Some 10,000 people, mostly fishermen, live on the volcanic Galapagos archipelago, which rose from the Pacific seabed 10 million years ago and became famous when Darwin visited to conduct research in 1835.
The insects can spread potentially lethal diseases in the archipelago off Ecuador's Pacific coast, used by Charles Darwin as the basis of his seminal work "On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection".
"Few tourists realise the irony that their trip to Galapagos may actually increase the risk of an ecological disaster," said Simon Goodman of Leeds University, one of the study's co-authors.
"That we haven't already seen serious disease impacts in Galapagos is probably just a matter of luck."
The study found that the southern house mosquito, Culex quinquefasciatus, was regularly hitching rides on planes from the South American mainland, and island-hopping on tourist boats between the different islands.
Species threatened by diseases such as avian malaria or West Nile include the islands' best-known residents, its giant tortoises, as well as marine iguanas, sea lions and finches.
Arnaud Bataille, another researcher on the eight-page study, said: "On average the number of mosquitoes per aeroplane is low, but many aircraft arrive each day from the mainland in order to service the tourist industry."
Worse, "the mosquitoes seem able to survive and breed once they leave the plane," he added.
Goodman noted that Ecuador recently introduced a requirement for all aircraft flying to the Galapagos to have insecticide treatment, but said similar moves are needed for ships, and the impact needs to be evaluated.
"With tourism growing so rapidly, the future of Galapagos hangs on the ability of the Ecuadorian government to maintain stringent biosecurity protection for the islands," he said.
The study, co-authored by Leeds University, the Zoological Society of London, the University of Guayaquil, the Galapagos National Park and the Charles Darwin Foundation, was published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society, Britain's de-facto academy of sciences.
Some 10,000 people, mostly fishermen, live on the volcanic Galapagos archipelago, which rose from the Pacific seabed 10 million years ago and became famous when Darwin visited to conduct research in 1835.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Vilsack at CU: Climate-change innovations create opportunity
U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack praised those at a biochar conference Monday at the University of Colorado, calling them innovators who potentially could help fight climate change and even create new economic opportunities for farmers.
Vilsack gave the keynote address at the conference, which is the first major biochar gathering in the United States. Biochar, created when organic materials are burned in a low-oxygen environment, is touted as an environmentally friendly way to turn infertile soils into nutrient-rich dirt.
"These are the kinds of innovations I think we're going to see all over the country," Vilsack said.
He talked about his support for a "cap-and-trade" system to reduce carbon emissions, making companies that produce more carbon emissions than allowed under a cap buy carbon permits through a government auction. The profits could pay for new energy research.
Companies also could buy "carbon offsets" at a lower cost from farms, forests and other sources. It's those offsets that could create an economic opportunity for farmers and ranchers, Vilsack said, and biochar is an offset candidate.
He said other income-generating possibilities for farmers include biomass and biofuels.
"We're seeing more interest in renewable energy on the farms," he said.
Revitalizing rural America -- and making it possible to earn a good living through farming -- is a priority for his department, he said.
A recent survey showed that mid-sized family farms have declined in the last five years, he said, though there are about 100,000 more small vegetable, fruit and specialty product farms. One of his department's initiatives is a program to help create local supply chains for small farmers.
He also told the audience that, while the agriculture department's 2010 budget is light on money for research, there's a greater research emphasis in the 2011 budget.
Jim Amonette, a biochar conference attendee who works at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, said he was impressed by Vilsack's address.
"It's nice to have a secretary of agriculture who knows what biochar is and understands the role agriculture can play in energy," he said.
Deborah Martin, a Boulder research hydrologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, said she liked that Vilsack talked about the need for a worldwide approach to sustainability.
"He was terrific," she said. "He was well-educated and well-informed."
Vilsack gave the keynote address at the conference, which is the first major biochar gathering in the United States. Biochar, created when organic materials are burned in a low-oxygen environment, is touted as an environmentally friendly way to turn infertile soils into nutrient-rich dirt.
"These are the kinds of innovations I think we're going to see all over the country," Vilsack said.
He talked about his support for a "cap-and-trade" system to reduce carbon emissions, making companies that produce more carbon emissions than allowed under a cap buy carbon permits through a government auction. The profits could pay for new energy research.
Companies also could buy "carbon offsets" at a lower cost from farms, forests and other sources. It's those offsets that could create an economic opportunity for farmers and ranchers, Vilsack said, and biochar is an offset candidate.
He said other income-generating possibilities for farmers include biomass and biofuels.
"We're seeing more interest in renewable energy on the farms," he said.
Revitalizing rural America -- and making it possible to earn a good living through farming -- is a priority for his department, he said.
A recent survey showed that mid-sized family farms have declined in the last five years, he said, though there are about 100,000 more small vegetable, fruit and specialty product farms. One of his department's initiatives is a program to help create local supply chains for small farmers.
He also told the audience that, while the agriculture department's 2010 budget is light on money for research, there's a greater research emphasis in the 2011 budget.
Jim Amonette, a biochar conference attendee who works at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, said he was impressed by Vilsack's address.
"It's nice to have a secretary of agriculture who knows what biochar is and understands the role agriculture can play in energy," he said.
Deborah Martin, a Boulder research hydrologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, said she liked that Vilsack talked about the need for a worldwide approach to sustainability.
"He was terrific," she said. "He was well-educated and well-informed."
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