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Recycle the bulb
- India consumes a few hundred million energy-efficient compact fluorescent lamps every year and the volumes are growing.
- Yet this also presents a waste management challenge. The problem with fluorescent lamps is that they contain small amounts of mercury.
- Moreover, the trend is towards dosing CFLs made in India with levels of mercury that exceed the international norm, apparently to improve their performance.
- The issue was acknowledged by the Central Pollution Control Board three years ago. Since disused CFL and mercury-laden lamps, and fluorescent tubes, are generally dumped in municipal waste or sold to unorganised recyclers, there is harmful release of mercury into the soil, water, and air.
- Mercury can cause serious, well-recognised health effects when there is chronic exposure. Permanent damage to skin, eyes, and respiratory tract and other symptoms are caused upon skin contact, inhalation of vapour, or ingestion.
- The onus is on the State Pollution Control Boards, which are responsible for the handling and management of hazardous waste
- The way forward would be to provide a financial incentive to consumers for turning in old mercury lamps of all types, particularly conventional fluorescent tube lights and CFLs, and to ensure their scientific disposal through a network of authorised recyclers.
Why crop holiday in AP
- Farmers' distress has been “official” for at least ten years now, with no sign of let-up. Low prices, shortage and high cost of inputs such as seeds, fertilisers and power continue
- When people usually go on a holiday it means they are a happy lot; but when paddy belt farmers in AP declared a crop holiday it was full of pathos: short of committing suicide, they went on strike; they downed their tools, blocked the irrigation channels and declared ‘enough is enough; we cannot afford any more losses; we will not cultivate this season'.
- Dryland farming of millets, pulses and oilseeds are being given up, because of uncertainty of rains, yields as well as prices. Paddy is being given up because of uncertainty of water and power. Cultivation of vegetables for home/local consumption is being given up because there would be a net loss, unless you grow vegetables for the market year after year, so that losses in one season may be recovered in another season. Dairying is being given up because low yielders are a net loss.
- To make matters worse, the government has, during the last few years, promoted massive plantation of mango trees in AP as part of NREGA, without giving any thought to forward and backward linkages, markets and prices. (The same applies to other seasonal fruit crops.)
- The factories which convert mangoes into pulp and juice cartelised and refused to raise the price, citing a sluggish export market and unsold stocks from last year. So the honeymoon with mangoes is now over.
- There was a subsidy for planting mango under the NREGA, so they all rushed there. Now there is a subsidy for growing maize, they are queuing up there.
- Today, when they are getting a better wage and when on the other hand the farmers are losing heavily, the farmers blame the NREGA for their problems.
- Crop holiday wasn't a joke. It covered more than 90,000 acres in the paddy belt and got the government worried. And what was the response of the government? Yet another committee!
Manufacturing policy makes eco, water audits mandatory
- The recently approved National Manufacturing Policy has stringent norms to ensure ‘green manufacturing'.
- These include mandatory environmental and water audit for all industrial and institutional units in the National Investment and Manufacturing Zones (NIMZs).
- establishment of NIMZs is a key instrument to catalyse the growth of manufacturing.
- The policy has also made activities such as wastewater treatment and rain water harvesting compulsory
- The policy states that the panel as approved by the Green Manufacturing Committee (GMAC) will be maintained by a special purpose vehicle (SPV).
- There is also rebate on water cess to industries setting up waste-water recycling facilities.
Conquering malaria
- World Health Organisation published its revised guidelines for malaria treatment in March 2010
- There has been a 20 per cent drop in the number of malarial deaths during the last decade
- About a third of the 108 countries where the disease is endemic may be able to eradicate it in a decade if all targets continue to be met.
- The data collection is poor and is mainly confined to the nine States that are highly endemic — Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura, Orissa, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, and West Bengal.
- The battle against mosquitoes can be won when an efficacious vaccine becomes available.
- Fifty-five per cent protection was seen in children belonging to the older age group. However, efficacy declined with time, and adverse events like meningitis and seizures were observed in the vaccinated children. Although complete results will be available only by 2014
- In the absence of a vaccine, insecticide-treated mosquito nets and indoor spraying will continue to be the two potent preventive weapons.
