Manila: Earth Day Prescription: Segregate Waste
Health Care Without Harm South East Asia – "What are you doing for Earth Day?" Health Care Without Harm-Southeast Asia poses this question while appealing to the public to start waste segregation today as a gift to Mother Earth this Earth Day and beyond. They further warned that not all hazardous wastes come in big packages citing batteries, fluorescent lamps and broken thermometers as “small but terribly hazardous wastes”.  more

Costa Rica: The Minister of Health Bans the Use of Bisphenol A in Infant Feeding Implements
Salud Sin Daño – Health authorities from Costa Rica issued an Executive Order (EO) banning the use of bisphenol A in bottles and other containers dedicated to feeding children. According to the EO, all feeding implements should be taken off the market in a period of 3 months. This regulation stems from the proposal of the National Breastfeeding Committee. more (in Spanish)

US: Hospitals Celebrate Earth Day with Events Highlighting Environmental Sustainability Efforts
Health Care Without Harm US – Hospitals around the nation are celebrating the 40th anniversary of Earth Day by holding events to highlight the changes they are making in their operations to protect the environment.  more

India: Poor Bio-Medical Waste Management
The Times of India – Hospitals and nursing homes across India have not yet learnt that discarded medicines go into black plastic bags, body parts into yellow and laboratory waste into red bags. As a result, bio-medical waste management is poor in India, says Ravi Agarwal from Toxics Link, a New Delhi-based NGO that has been working on sensitising municipalities and the medical fraternity to this issue for over a decade.  more

West Bengal: Hospitals Served With Closure Notice on Waste Disposal
Press Trust of India – A premier private hospital and three state-run ones have been served closure notices by the West Bengal Pollution Control Board for violating the Bio-Medical Waste (Management and Handling) Rules.  more

India: Study, 50% of Bio-medical Waste Dumped With Municipal Garbage
The Hindu – Half the bio-medical waste generated in the country's hospitals is just dumped with municipal garbage, without any special treatment, according to a recent study evaluating the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB). In fact, almost 15,000 hospitals have been served show cause notices as defaulters for not following waste management rules.  more

China: Pearl River Under Threat due to Heavy Metals, Organic pollutants and Chemicals
CNN.com – A Greenpeace's recent report indicates that the contents of pipes from five different factories contained excessive amounts of heavy metals, organic pollutants and chemicals. According to Dr. Tony Lu, Chief Medical Officer at Guangzhou's International SOS Clinic, these kind of toxins can be seriously hazardous to human health.  more

Mexico: Pilot Study, Biomonitoring of Metal in Children
Science Direct – Accumulation of metals in soil represents a health risk for individuals living near mining areas, especially for children who have a higher susceptibility to metal related diseases. The aim of this pilot study was to evaluate metal exposure (lead, urine arsenic, urinary mercury, cadmium, etc.) on children aged 6–11 years living in and around the Taxco mine tailings zone.  more

South Africa: India, China, Brazil, South Africa Ministers Call for Binding Accord in Cancun
moef.nic.in – The third meeting of BASIC Ministers on climate change took place in Cape Town from 25 to 26 April 2010. During their deliberations, Ministers elaborated areas in which progress could be made in the run-up to Cancún. They emphasised their determination to continue to show leadership in acting on climate change and different approaches to do this.  more

Bolivia: A New Climate Movement
The Nation – According to Evo Morales wealthy countries are pushing through a plan that at its best would raise average global temperatures 2 degrees Celsius. With the Cochabamba summit, Bolivia is trying to take what it has accomplished at the national level and globalize it, inviting the world to participate in drafting a joint climate agenda ahead of the next UN climate gathering, in Cancun.  more

India: Scrap Metal Radiation Raises Concerns
The New York Times – The squalor of Mayapuri bear tons of discarded metals from Europe, Russia, Japan, United States, as well as from India. These pieces of metal are blamed for an alarming radiation that hospitalized seven people. Some experts declared it one of the most troubling cases of radiation exposure in recent years.  more

Notice: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for research and educational purposes. As all these articles are public, some links might expire after some days after their release date.