Heavily chipped
A study led by Eric Williams and his team at the United Nations University in Tokyo has found that a 2 gramme microchip is equivalent to 1.6 kilogrammes of fossil fuel, 72 grammes of chemicals and 32 kilogrammes of water. Looking into all the chemicals including coal, which are involved in turning raw quartz into a 32 MB RAM microchip, the team found the chip manufacturing required more fuels and solvents because of its tiny size and the need to keep it free from dirt and dust. Making a typical car required only about twice its weight in fossil fuels. According to Eric Williams, "In order to produce one memory chip that weighs two grams, the total amount of materials and fossil fuels required to make that chip is 1,400 grams. That’s 700 times the weight of the original chip." The environmental costs of manufacturing a chip thus far outweigh that of even making a car. With new advances in technology and changing of computers every two years, the environmental impact of owning a computer increases drastically.The focus now has to shift from making chips that run on less power to manufacturing those that require less energy than it does at the present.

Mercurial tempers
Each mercury fever thermometer when broken or thrown away is a threat to health. The one-gram of mercury found in one thermometer is enough to pollute a 20-acre lake, says Michael Bender, Director of the Mercury Policy Project, USA.

Mercury is used in lamps, batteries and electrical equipment, as well as in thermometers and dental fillings. Concern over its presence in the atmosphere arises since mercury is known to cause permanent damage to the brain, nervous system and kidneys. Almost indestructible, mercury when put along with other waste into landfill sites, can easily seep through the groundwater and from there into rivers, lakes and the sea. It can also evaporate into the air, especially if the waste is incinerated.

Though mercury is produced naturally in rocks, soil and volcanoes, industrialisation has boosted up the production of this heavy metal almost three times. Almost 50 to 70 per cent of the 5,000 to 10,000 tonnes of mercury found in the atmosphere is due to human activities. In its evaporated form, mercury can travel for thousands of miles. Since it is know to accumulate in cold places high contamination levels of mercury are to be found in Arctic regions, and especially among fish and animals there. In water, mercury transforms naturally into methyl mercury, a highly toxic compound that gets absorbed by humans and animals. Because it then accumulates up the food chain sea fishes can accumulate large quantities of mercury in their tissue. Pregnant mothers and their fetuses are particularly sensitive to the effects of mercury. According to the Centres for Disease Control (CDC), Atlanta, USA, one-in-ten women of childbearing age have mercury levels in their bodies above what is considered protective for a developing fetus.

Threatened children
A study conducted by Joseph Laquatra, associate professor of design and environmental analysis in the New York State College of Human Ecology at Cornell, in the US, has found children belonging to lower socio-economic status more prone to threats from indoor air pollutants. Their houses have higher levels of radon, lead and mould than those occupied by higher income households. If these children then spend the rest of the day exposed to the same pollutants in a childcare facility, they are at a significantly higher risk for falling sick due to lead poisoning, cancer, asthma attacks and allergies. Studying 328 houses and 75 childcare facilities in six nonmetropolitan counties of New York State, homes of lower income residents were also found to contain higher levels of carbon monoxide. Lack of an effective ventilation fan further aggravates the pollutant level. These houses also had asbestos problems and presence of basement mould. Mould is a known trigger for allergies and asthma. Exposure to lead, asbestos, radon and carbon monoxide can lead to early death.

Cancer clusters
Factors like where a woman lives at birth and puberty may have an impact on her risk of developing breast cancer later. A study conducted by Jo Freudenheim, professor in the department of social and preventive medicine in the University of Buffalo’s school of medicine and biomedical sciences, USA, finds that women who developed breast cancer were more likely to have lived closer together at birth and at their first menstruation than women who did not develop breast cancer. This suggests a possible linkage between breast cancer and early environmental exposure to potential carcinogens.

Although less than five cases of thyroid cancer in children were reported between 1986 and 1989, the number increased to 29 in 1990, 51 cases in 1991 and 62 in 1992. No such clear evidence has however been found in the case of leukaemia. A new disease in the form of ‘Chernobyl AIDS’ has made its appearance wherein the radiation leads to the breakdown of the immune system, loss of hearing and the build up of fluid in children’s heads.

Smoggy California
California is one of the smoggiest states of the USA. Tonnes of toxic emissions get released each year in California. These emissions include a cocktail of industrial and chemical solvents. This hazardous mixture can cause cancer, reproductive harm and neurological damage. Children are most vulnerable. With the amount of pollutants present in the air, a 18 year adolescent inhales enough contaminations to exceed the acceptable exposure level by almost hundred times.

Children being more active inhale relatively more air than adults. Since their immune system is also yet to be developed, their cells are more vulnerable to attack by carcinogens. In Los Angeles alone, toxic air contaminants cause 720 cancer cases per million people annually. The recent report of the EPA clearly shows that diesel exhaust can cause cancer. The diesel health impact assessment report recently released recommends reduction of tailpipe emissions by requiring cleaner-burning engines and replacing diesel fuel with ultra-low sulphur content diesel. ``Overall, the evidence for a potential cancer hazard to humans resulting from chronic inhalation exposure to (diesel emissions) is persuasive,’’ says the health impact report released by the EPA.

Heart risks
The September issue of Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association reports on how polluted air is more harmful for those suffering from heart diseases. According to Juha Pekkanen, senior researcher at the National Public Health Institute, Unit of Environmental Epidemiology in Kuopio, Finland, people with heart disease are about three times more likely to have ischemia (decreased oxygen supply to heart muscle) during exercise testing after being exposed to high level air pollution. The main culprit was particulate matter having diameter less than 2.5 micrometers and even ultra-fine particulate matter, having a diameter less than 0.1 micrometers.

Monitoring the electrocardiogram (ECG) of 41 residents of Helsinki,the study found that 23 patients experienced exercise associated symptoms when air pollution was high two days before a clinic visit. Avoiding outdoor exercise on hazy days could be one way of staying off the risk of ischemia.

Plumbing matters
The corrosion of metallic plumbing materials carrying drinking water produces environmental problems. Corrosion has an effect on the water quality, it changes the taste of water and gives rise to unpleasant odour. It is the growth of microbes or leaching of contaminants from the metallic, plastic or concrete plumbing that is a cause of concern. Holes caused in water pipes due to corrosion allow the influx of contaminants into drinking water systems.

Capital air
Delhi can now breathe easy. Stars can be seen in the sky. A 25 per cent reduction has been noticed in pollution levels of the capital. According to Dilip Biswas, chairman of the Central Pollution Control Board, average particulate matter in the air dropped to 347 microgrammes per cubic metre in 2001 as compared to 405 microgrammes in 2000. Sulphur dioxide levels have come down to 14 microgrammes from 18 microgrammes and nitrogen dioxide levels now stand at 34 microgrammes as against 36 microgrammes in 2000.

Killer weed
A recent study published in Environmental Health Perspectives talks of how a cocktail of common herbicides may result in reduced fertility and cause miscarriages.The cocktail, a mixture of 2,4-D, dicamba and mecoprop has been in the market after World War II. The mixture is generally available as over the counter product. Studies done on crop workers of Europe and Kansas show that farmers who work with 2,4-D have a higher rate of non-Hodgkins lymphoma. The pesticide industry in the US has already spent more than 30$ million on 2,4-D toxicity trials. Studies conducted in wheat, sugar beet and potato farming regions of USA have found twice the rate of birth defects among children of crop workers who conceived the children during the months when the pesticide 2,4-D was sprayed.

Four cities study
The Chinese government and the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently conducted an epidemiologic study of children’s and adults’ respiratory health in relation to their exposure to both ambient as well as indoor air pollution in urban and suburban districts of China.

Called the Four Chinese Cities Study, 7,621 school going children residing in eight districts of Lanzhou, Chongqing, Wuhan and Guangzhou were covered. It measured the ambient particulate matter present in these cities and also took into consideration various risk factors like home environment, parental smoking, history of parental asthma, having been breast-fed and gender.The prevalence rate for wheeze, asthma, bronchitis,hospitalisation due to respiratory diseases, persistent cough, and persistent phlegm was calculated.

Positive associations have been found between morbidity prevalence and ambient levels of coarse particulate matter (PM) which range in the size of PM10-2.5. The evidence of association between levels of nitrogen dioxide and sulphur dioxide and children’s respiratory symptoms though present, is weaker than that of PM.

Immunological exposures
The greatest risk of exposure to various petroleum derivatives is experienced by the petrol filling station workers. Long term exposure to such derivatives is known to bring out immunological changes in the workers. A two year period study was done on 89 male petrol filling workers of Hyderabad and Secunderabad, belonging to the age group of 20-45 years and working for a period of 2-18 years.

The study measured the activity of serum adenosine deaminase (ADA), which is an enzyme important for developing cell immunity. ADA activity increases during the body’s imunnological responses. The research has been inspired by an earlier study on the role of serum ADA activity in tobacco factory workers who were occupationally exposed to tobacco dust and were found to have increased ADA activity as compared to control group. A marginal increase in serum ADA activity of petrol filling stations workers has been reported in this study but the research calls for further insights to substantiate the findings.

Tylenol blues
Tylenol, the most popular non-prescription drug of the US has been found to have an important role to play in causing liver damage. Study conducted over a period of 25 years by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory panel shows that acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol causes liver disease. More than 50 million Americans use Tylenol every year. How much of it is safe and can small doses also be toxic is the question now being asked. Says Kate Trunk of the FDA, " You cannot allow more innocent men, women and children to suffer." Her own son died from liver disease after taking acetaminophen drug on injuring his wrist.

The drug manufactured by Johnson & Johnson (J & J) carries no reference about its potential side effects on its packaging. On the contrary, its campaign once boasted of "nothing's safer" but the reality now is something different.

Over dose of acetaminophen in itself is responsible for more than 56,000 emergency room visits every year in the USA, with more than 100 being fatal. According to William Lee of the university of Texas Southwestern Medical Centre, acetaminophen is the leading cause of liver failure. Treatment of tylenol related cases is rarely successful. After a while, J & J included a warning with each adult Tylenol package noting that the liver damage could be due to the mixing of the drug with alcohol and the drug by itself was safe.

For the warning to become mandatory, the FDA has to formally adopt the recommendation.

Poisoned fragrance
Lead is added to candle wicks to stiffen them and to let them burn for longer time. Burning a leaded-wick candle raises the level of particulate matter not just near the candle but also throughout the room and even the house. The study conducted by Shirley Wasson and her team and reported in the June issue of New Scientist suggests that just four hours of burning of one average leaded-wick candle will raise the lead levels to 6.2 microgrammes per cubic metre (µg/m3) in the room with the candle and to 2 µg/m3 throughout the rest of the house. The US National Air Quality Standard for lead set by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is 1.5 µg/m3. Since 1992, US import of lead candles has risen by 800 per cent. More than 3 million lead wick candles are sold every year in the US alone. A safer though expensive alternative would be that of using zinc instead of lead in wicks.

Asthma research
Concerned over the increase in the number of children with asthma, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the American Lung Association have launched the Asthma Research Strategy, which would discuss future research efforts and address specific issues.

The research would be used to devise appropriate strategies to control environmental factors that exacerbate asthma. According to the EPA, the year 2001 saw around 3.8 million children being affected by asthma attack. Most of these attacks were triggered by environmental contaminants like particulate matter, smoke, air pollution, and pollen.