By: Monica Gupta,
on 5/12/2016
Odd Even Delhi aur mann ki baat ऑड ईवन दिल्ली और मेरे मन की बात Odd Even Delhi aur mann ki baat बधाई अरविंद केजरीवाल जी… !! ऑड ईवन की सबसे ईवन बात … अब दिल्ली सबसे प्रदूषित शहर नही रही और सबसे ऑड बात यह कि मीडिया ने इस खबर को कोई प्रमुखता नही […]
The post ऑड ईवन दिल्ली और मेरे मन की बात appeared first on Monica Gupta.
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By: Lauren,
on 6/28/2011
Mengxi Village, in Zhejiang province, in eastern coastal China, is an obscure rural hamlet not far geographically but far removed socially from the beauty, history, and glory of Hangzhou, the capital. Now it is the unlikely center of a an environmental health awakening in which citizens took direct action by storming the gates of a lead battery recycling plant that has caused lead poisoning among both children and adults in the village. Sharon Lafranierre reported the story on 15 June 2011 in the New York Times.
What was unusual about the incident was not that the community was heavily polluted and that the health of children in the village has been harmed but that local residents, 200 of them, took violent action, smashing property in the plant, and seem not to have been punished for it. The incident opens a window on the rapid change in attitudes in China toward industrialization, pollution, and authority.
Like many rural settlements, Mengxi responded to the opening of the Chinese economy by creating small-scale business to make money and to raise local residents out of poverty. Compared to earlier local “township enterprises,” this plant came late to Mengxi; it was only opened in 2005. But it caught a wave of increased business demand and now employs a reported 1000 workers, making it an important economic support for rural Deqing County. Historically, these township enterprises have been a peculiar and often corrupt blend of local government and local entrepreneurship. They have been grossly undercapitalized and essentially unregulated: the Mengxi battery plant had apparently been knowingly operating for at least six years in violation of environmental emissions standards. The central Government has been cracking down in recent years and making examples in some egregious cases but local authorities are stronger in rural areas.
Local officials, having a deep and usually personal stake in these enterprises, often try harder to protect them than to protect the local people for whom they are responsible. Mengxi illustrates the problem of local officials refusing to act, denying that the problem exists, and suppressing efforts to find out by journalists or by public health experts. Part of this may be greed but once the damage is done fear probably takes over as the main motivation for concealing the truth. Already, eight company officials have been arrested and all must be very aware of the two senior executive and the dairy boss who were executed in China this year for allowing contamination of milk.
Battery plants on this small scale are particularly hazardous and in the absence of effective regulation can be very dangerous to local residents, especially children, who are more vulnerable than adults to lead poisoning. Lead exposure in this situation may occur from airborne dust containing lead, contact with dirt contaminated from larger particles of lead that drop out of the air from fumes, food grown in contaminated soil, dust brought home on the clothes of adults who work in the plants, and even in homes, where some families actually smelt small quantities of lead as a cottage industry. Lead exerts its major toxic effects on the nervous system. In children, it can cause a spectrum of disorders ranging from severe lead poisoning and brain damage (“toxic encephalopathy”) at levels seen in some children in the village to more subtle toxicity that causes a reduction in potential intelligence (difficult to measure in an individual child but demonstrable in a population) and loss of impulse control, which can be seen at levels that are now common throughout China and used to be common in the United States dec
NOTE TO SELF: Watch out for the bad toys!
Chances are consumers are heavy into shopping in search of those perfect gifts for family and friends bit there's trouble in toyland this holiday season. In as far as the kids are concerned, toys are always welcome but it's getting more and more difficult to differentiate between the bad and the safe one's.
More toys tainted with extremely high levels of lead were found on the shelves at major U.S. retailers, according to an advocacy group's survey released Tuesday.
The U.S. Public Interest Research Group, which released the "2007 Trouble in Toyland" report, highlighted hazards that included lead, dangerous small magnets, and toys that pose choking and strangulation hazards.
"While we have seen progress after more than two decades of advocacy on behalf of America's littlest consumers, U.S. PIRG's researchers still found trouble in toyland on store shelves this fall," said Ed Mierzwinski, the consumer program director at the U.S. PIRG.
Toys tested by the Consumer Product Safety Commission [CPSC] are banned if they contain lead at 600 parts per million - the legal lead standard. The U.S. PIRG went to different retailers and tested a number of different toys which had high amounts of lead.
Read the full story here:
http://money.cnn.com/2007/11/20/news/companies/toys_lead/index.htm
It would be interesting to know if consumers have changed their shopping habits due to all the reports of toys containing lead and what, if any, impact it will have on the holiday Christmas sale. Perhaps the only solution is to bring along the lists of safe toys to ensure that those selected are tested and acceptable.
Isn't it sad that shopping for toys has come down to this? It also leaves one to wonder about all those toys purchased over the years. The lead content must have been present and there must have been some exposure to lead. Or perhaps the current lead in toys is a recent occurence? Go know!
Ho-ho-ho and Happy Chanukah to you, too!
By: Julie Fortenberry,
on 2/14/2007
That’s what I told my daughter (age 13) today, when she received a beautiful heart-shaped locket (with picture of her dog inside). I noticed that the locket made grayish marks against the inside of its cardboard box. I spent an hour online, looking up product recall lists, and information on lead in jewelry.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission and the Sierra Club are taking steps toward banning lead in kids' jewelry. In the meantime, avoid buying silver-colored jewelry that's not real silver.
