6 August, 2013

Incense sticks come with health risk

Incense sticks could come with a health risk -- new research has shown that burning these generate indoor air pollutants, which may lead to inflammation in human lung cells.

A new study, carried out by researchers in the Gillings School of Global Public Health at theUniversity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the US, says burning incense releases pollutants, including carbon monoxide.

The report of the findings, titled "Hazard assessment of United Arab Emirates (UAE) incense smoke" appears in the August 2013 issue of Science of the Total Environment.

The World Health Organisation estimates that more than one million people a year die from chronic obstructive respiratory disease (COPD), primarily a result of exposure to pollutants from stoves and open hearths.

Burning incense releases similar pollutants, including carbon monoxide, reports the study, in which the authors identified and measured the particles and gases emitted from two kinds of incense typically used in UAE homes.

The testing was done over three hours, the typical time-frame during which incense is burned, in a specially designed indoor environmental chamber with a concentration of smoke that might be present in a typical UAE living room.

Source: www.timesofindia.com

06.08.2013

Hundreds die in India for lack of organs

Neera Yadav (name changed), a 20-year old college student suffering from an end-stage renal disease, was in desperate need of a kidney transplant. 

Though her parents went from pillar to post, they could not find a donor for her in Delhi and she died last month.

Experts say this is not an isolated case. Hundreds of people in need of organ transplants cannot be saved every year because of lack of donors.

According to M. C. Misra, chief of the Jai Prakash Narayan Apex Trauma Centre at the All India Institute ofMedical Sciences (AIIMS), the donor scene in India is still very "dismal" despite amendments to a law which the government passed in 2008. The amendments to the Transplantation of Human Organs Act (Thoa), 1994, were passed following the unearthing of a thriving kidney donation racket in northern India.

While in western countries around 70-80 percent of people pledge their organs, in India only about 0.01 percent do so, Misra stated.

Sanjiv Gulati, director of nephrology at Fortis Hospital in Vasant Kunj, said: "There has been almost no improvement in the organ donation situation. Things have not changed at all. People are not ready to part with organs of their loved ones even after death."

While most donors in India are women, many don't come forward to pledge organ donation because of religious or superstitious reasons, the expert said.

Another major problem is that in India brain death itself is not recognised by many people. "People think till the heart is beating the person has to be alive. Which makes it difficult for us to harvest organs," Misra explained.

Source: www.timesofindia.com

06.08.2013

It is very simple to be happy but it is very difficult to be simple

Rabindranath Tagore