Irrigating vegetables with wastewater in African cities may spread disease

Urban farmers growing vegetables to feed millions of people in Africa's ever-growing cities could unwittingly be helping to spread disease by irrigating crops with wastewater.Experts discovered that wastewater collected from canals used for urban agriculture in Burkina Faso was rich in virulent human pathogens which cause gastroenteritis and diarrhoea, a major cause of death in low and middle-income countries.

Researchers at the University of Birmingham led an international team from Burkina Faso, Cameroon and Germany in studying wastewater samples from three canals in the capital Ouagadougou, a city of 2.2 million inhabitants.After identifying a wide range of antibiotic resistance genes in the water, they concluded that using wastewater for urban agriculture in the city posed a high risk of spreading bacteria and antimicrobial resistance among humans and animals.

Parijat offers farmers alternate to hazardous crop burning

      Parijat industries had been conducting training for farmers in different parts of northern India, aiming at fostering best agricultural practices and to provide training farmers against  agriculture residue burning.

     Parijat industries recently conducted a session for farmers at Hisar,Haryana. The main focus of the campaign was to create awareness among farmers about proper management of crops residue and the impact of stubble burning after harvesting.The farmers procured the machines from co-operatives to aggregate the stubble and convert it into fertiliser, which can then be used back in the field.

      The problem of agriculture waste burning has been intensifying over the years, with Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh being the major burning hotspots.

UK scientists say eating less meat can save planet

               A study conducted by UK scientist titled "Options for keeping the food system within environmental limits" says that reducing the consumption of meat and adopting a "flexitarian" diet is one of the key steps towards the sustainable future.

               A "flexitarian" diet means average world citizen needs to eats 75%less beef, 90%less pork and half the number of eggs, while tripling the consumption of beans, pulses and nuts and seeds.

               This would reduce the emission from the livestock and better management of manure.The study also says that if we follow a "flexitarian" diet ,the green house emission from agriculture will be reduced to  more than half.

The research says that there is need to change the farming practices which involves increasing the yield from the existing cropland,improving water management and restricting and recycling the fertilizer use.

South Delhi Mayor calls for intensifying clean-up activities

       The South Delhi Mayor has asked the department of environment management services to  intensify the cleaning activities, in order to manage the waste disposal and pollution during this festive season.

       The department is instructed to  arrange special sanitation drives at religious places and markets in order to tackle higher quantities of garbage,the civic body to clean garbage bins twice a day and to conduct night sweeping.Also,more water tankers to reduce for dust pollution.

EPA Announces It Will Discontinue Science Panel That Reviews Air Pollution Safety

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has decided it will end a scientific review panel that advises the agency on safety and health standards surrounding certain kinds of air pollution.

Made up of doctors, researchers, and other experts, the 20-person Particulate Matter Review Panel works to provide guidelines on particulate matter (PM) tiny solid particles found in the air, such as soot  known to cause respiratory and other health issues.

 The panel will be replaced by the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee , a seven-member group established in 1977 under the Clean Air Act to address “research related to air quality, sources of air pollution, and the strategies to attain and maintain air quality standards.” CASAC will be legally required to advise the EPA administrator on quality standards beginning in 2019.

Coca Cola, Pepsi, Nestle Top Ocean Polluters: Report On Plastic Pollution

• Coca-Cola, Pepsi and Nestle are among the companies that contribute most to ocean pollution with single-use plastics, according to a study by the "Break Free from Plastic" initiative.
• The environmental movement, launched in 2016, has helped clear the coasts of 42 countries around the world of discarded plastics.
• Between September 9 and 15, over 10,000 volunteers carried out 239 plastic cleaning actions on coasts and other natural environments in 42 countries
• They collected more than 187,000 pieces of plastic, of which more than 65 per cent were from products by Coca-Cola, Pepsi and Nestle. But companies such as Danone, Mondelez, Procter & Gamble, and Unilever, among others, were also mentioned in the report.
• Around 100,000 pieces of plastic collected were made of materials like polystyrene, PVC (polyvinyl chloride), PET (polyethylene terephthalate) or the film of single-use plastic that were not biodegradable, the report said.
• Plastic production has reached 320 million metric tonnes per year and is expected to grow by 40 per cent over the next decade, which will exponentially increase the release of greenhouse gases. Ninety per cent of plastics are produced from fossil fuels and pollutants.
• The study said that these large corporations must take responsibility for polluting the environment, as production of plastics exposes harmful substances to communities living near factories and pollutes foods and products contained in plastic wraps.

Constant exposure to ozone may backfire on health

A new study has utilized a novel method to estimate long-term ozone exposure to quantify the health burden from long-term ozone exposure in three major regions of the world. 

For the study, the researchers used 2015 data from ground-based monitoring networks in the USA, Europe, and China to estimate long-term O3 exposure. They then calculated premature mortalities using exposure-response relationships from two American Cancer Society (ACS) cancer prevention studies.

First, health impacts attributable to long-term O3 exposure are higher when using the newest ACS CPS-II cohort analysis. Plus, the impacts are expanded further if the association between long-term O3 exposure and cardiovascular mortality is indeed shown to be causal and included in the total health burden estimates. 

Second, results from the newest ACS CPS-II cohort analysis suggest that O3 exposure should be considered year-round. This is particularly relevant for the three regions included in this analysis, where the seasonal cycle and regional distributions of O3 have shifted over the last few decades." 

Finally, these results also highlighted the importance of accurately estimating O3 exposure and the consequences of high exposure bias in estimating impacts for health assessments.