Laying out a road map for a comprehensive and sustained relief and rehabilitation package, the two-day national workshop on endosulfan ended here on Sunday pledging to ensure individual, social, and economic uplift of hundreds of affected victims and their families and to rejuvenate the environmental and ecological aspects, degraded by over exposure to the “killer” pesticide.

The workshop, — CONCORD-12 (Consultative Workshop on Comprehensive Rehabilitation of Endosulfan Victims and Rejuvenation of Ecosystem in Kasaragod district) underscored the urgent need to speed up the ongoing relief and rehabilitation initiatives to mitigate the complex issues faced by the victims.

Sunita Narain, the director of the Centre for Science and Environment, said here on Saturday that the endosulfan victims in the district should be provided with more facilities. She was in the district to attend the National workshop CONCORD 2012.

Though appreciated the state government for giving the rightful recognition to the endosulfan issue in the district, Narian reminded the government that there were more to be done.

Equating the serious health hazards wrecked in the district due to the indiscriminate exposure of endosulfan pesticide for over two decades with that of the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy, acclaimed environmental activist Sunita Narain has said that the major task before the administration was to bring hopes and cheers back to the life of the hapless victims of the “killer” pesticide spraying.

“Assuaging the hurt feelings of the hundreds of victims of aerial spraying of the endosulfan pesticide in the state owned cashew estates in the district is the most important task before the administration and the State government and the local Member of Parliament had played critical role in partially assuaging the hurt feeling of the ill-fated victims and their families”, the Padmashree award winning environmentalist said.

Yeosu, South Korea: The massive oil spill in ’95 that caused destruction of sea life in the waters of Yeosu, is a thing of the past.

New Delhi, 6 JULY: The Supreme Court today directed the Centre to ban imports of all substances identified and declared to be hazardous or toxic wastes under the Basel Convention and its protocols.

The Cellular Operators’ Association of India (COAI) on Wednesday said the exposure limit of radiation due to mobile phone towers in the city is safely below permissible limits as per international

New Delhi: The Delhi government has decided to increase vigilance at wholesale fruit markets to check use of hazardous chemicals for ripening fruits.

The use of diesel in gensets has a serious health implication, too. A WHO report released recently certified diesel fumes as a carcinogen. “The toxicity of diesel fumes has been confirmed beyond doubt after this report. It has been established now that diesel fumes cause cancer, especially lung cancer,” says CSE’s Roychowdhury. There have been no large-scale studies on how much the fumes generated by DG sets contribute to air pollution but a recent Bangalore-based study by TERI has found such sets to be the largest source of toxic gases after the transport segment. “The study reveals that in Bangalore, diesel gensets have been the biggest source of nitrogen dioxide emissions after vehicles,” says Sharma.

The operators of commercial spaces such as malls, shops and other such establishments in Uttar Pradesh have won their supposed fight for customers’ right to shop and spend leisure time in a comfort

An indefinite relay hunger strike by mothers of the endosulfan victims entered the third day on Wednesday.

Protesters sought speedy implementation of the National Human Rights Commission suggested relief and rehabilitation package for the families of victims. The agitation, spearheaded by the Endosulfan Satyagraha Samithi, began on Monday to put pressure on the administration to take swift measures to implement the rehabilitation package, samithi convener Ambalathara Kunhikrishnan said. The samithi was on an indefinite relay strike from April 20.