Thai water privatisation plans attract Suez Lyonnaise
French utilities group Suez Lyonnaise Des Eaux is looking for a piece of the action in Thailand's looming water privatisation, a group company executive said. Thailand's waterworks are now run by the public sector through the Metropolitan Water works Authority (MWA) and the Provincial Waterworks Authority(PWA).Privatisation could start from the …
Major drive to restore Dal Lake glory
Alarmed by scientific findings that the world-famous Dal Lake may cease to exist in 100 years from now, Government and other agencies have launched a major drive to desilt and deweed the lake, and free it from encroachments.
Controversy delays U.S.-Chinese research project on aging
An American backed research project aimed at probing the secrets of long life has turned into a battlefield between Chinese scientists pursuing cooperation with the West and others who are raising fears of a new type of scientific imperilism. The project on aging involves researchers from the Bethesda based National …
Community health pioneer to receive IOM's Lienhard award
The Institute of Medicine (IOM) will present the Gustav O. Lienhard award for the advancement of personal health services to H. Jack Geiger, emeritus professor at the City University of New York Medical School, on Oct 12, at IOM's annual meeting. Geiger is being honored for creating a highly successful …
Gastroenteritis rampant in city
After Adilabad district in Hyderabad, where the administration failed to check the spread of gastroenteritis, it is now the turn of the twin cities to suffer the frightening proportions and consequences of the dreaded disease. Till Monday, about 120 people from various parts of the twin cities and adjoining municipalities …
Computer-chip plants safety may be lacking, some say
At the Inverclyde Advice and Employment Rights Center in Greenock, Scotland, two dozen women meet. They recite a litany of medical problems:cancers, birth defects, multiple miscarriages. The women blame the toll on one thing : They say that for years, while they made computer chips at National Semiconductor Corp.'s plant …
World's search for elusive pill to fight obesity opens new doors
At least 45 companies around the world are trying to develop anti-obesity drugs, seeking magic bullets that could help people control their weight. One such drug, Xenical, recently went on sale in Europe and Asia, and it could be licensed in the United States within months. In a world where …
Bacteria's enzyme helps collect useful acid
The Sagami Chemical Research Center in Japan said it has used an enzyme from a marine microorganism to concentrate docosaphexaenoic acid (DHA), a substance extracted from fish oil that is said to have variety of health benefits, including the ability to help protect against hardening of the arteries. The same …
UK offers pill for 'chronic shyness'
A pill to conquer chronic shyness is to be launched on the British market this week. Developed by scientists at Bristol and Southampton universities, and marketed by SmithKline Beecham, the pill, called Seroxat, could help more than three million people in Britain.
Taking malaria seriously
One-third of the world's population lives where the malaria parasite and its carrier mosquitoes thrive, and malaria, it seems, is gaining ground annually as control efforts become more and more costly and cumbersome. Worldwide there are 300 million to 500 million cases of malaria and 2 million to 3 milion …
AIDS panel meets today
The fifth meeting of the National AIDS Committee will be held in the Capital on Monday to discuss national AIDS prevention and control policy and national blood policy.
WHO to set norms on mustard oil testing
The World health Organisation (WHO) is in the process of laying down standards for testing of mustard oil to prevent the occurrences of dropsy which is caused due to adulteration in the oil, disclosed Dr Uton Muchtar Rafei, Regional Director, WHO, South East Asia Region.
Transplant tribulation
The U.S. government wants a new system for doling out donated organs and it's causing a ruckus. The idea of the new system is that the most gravely ill should be first in line for scarce medical resources. Yet the new organ-allocation system has ignited one of the most bitter …
9,349 polluting vehicles sent off city roads
The Delhi transport department has sent over 9,000 20-year old commercial vehicles off the Delhi's roads as per the Supreme Court order banning the plying of these polluting vehicles.
President warns of water crisis
President K.R. Narayanan on Saturday said India is facing an "acute water crisis" with some estimates showing that almost the entire economic growth may be wiped out by the health costs of water pollution. Inaugurating a three-day national conference on "The Potential of Water Harvesting" organised by the Centre for …
Comfortably Numb
New technique to kill pain: The department of anaesthesiology at Ganga Ram Hospital has developed a new system for relieving post-operative pain. "We have used a new system of pain relief on 125 patients with continuous pumping of pain killers into the vein as well as adopting a system by …
Alzheimer's cases in India will double by 2020
By 2020, the number of patients suffering from Alzheimer's disease will double in India to 3.7 million with one out of every 11 Indians over the age of 60 suffering from the disease, observed a symposium on "Alzheimer's and Neurocognitive Disorders".
Vehicular pollution
Miles to go after unleadead fuel, phaseout :With all commercial vehicles over 20 years being phased out completely starting today, a major deadline regarding vehicular pollution has been met. However, there is a whole set of deadlines recommended by a committee set up under the chairmanship of Bhure Lal to …
How green is unleaded fuel anyway, say environmentalists
A month after leaded petrol was phased out in the city in accordance with the Supreme Court's directives in an attempt to "make the fourth most polluted city in the world cleaner and greener", environmentalists have charged that the 'no lead no worries' campaign is "misleading and half-baked". One of …
Straining belief
Mad-cow disease and its cousins in other animals-including people-still puzzle researchers. A new test has made the picture a little clearer : a report.
