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FBIS3-22124_0 | European Cogeneration Technology Association Established | Language: English Article Type:BFN [Unattributed article: "Environment - Six Member States Set up Cogen Europe (Association for promotion of cogeneration technology (CHP) throughout Europe)"; as released by Brussels Textline database] [Text] The Cogen Europe association has been set up to promote the implementation throughout Europe of cogeneration schemes, a technology of certain ecological interest and allowing major savings of primary energy, which is also known as CHP (combined heat and power). It was launched this month with the support of six member states (UK, Netherlands, Spain, Germany, France and Greece) and with the financial aid of the Energy Directorate of the European Commission. Its first chairman is Ton van der Does, director of the Dutch CHP office. Cogen Europe, with its main office in London, will have the task of: (a) identifying the regulatory and institutional barriers to cogeneration development in Europe and acting to reduce them at the policy level; (b) collaborating on relevant issues with other key European energy associations and industries; (c) quantifying the potential for cogeneration in Europe. Speaking at the launch, Mr. van der Does said that the association will work toward better cooperation between key actors in the European energy scene in order to "establish a clear and positive policy framework for cogeneration." "The Brussels institutions now have a professional and focused organization with which they can work to resolve the many challenges facing cogeneration in the 1990s," he continued. The creation of this association, he feels, reflects the absence of clear recognition by EU and many national policy makers of the significant benefits of cogeneration schemes, whether industrial, small-scale or city- wide. While conventional power generation is often only 35 percent efficient (up to 65 percent of the energy potential being released as waste heat), cogeneration technology stops this by using the heat for industry, commerce and home heating. Cogeneration therefore increases the overall efficiency of energy use - up to 85 percent and beyond - giving primary energy savings of about one third. |
FBIS3-22133_0 | Paper Conducts, Reports Pollution Investigation Threat to Health | Language: English Article Type:CSO [Article by Tony Dawe: "A TIMES Investigation Into Pollution and the Health of a Nation: Millions Face Air of Despair"] [Text] The threat to the nation's health from increasing air pollution has prompted charities, research scientists, doctors and MPs to launch a concerted campaign for tighter controls on air quality. They estimate that 10 million Britons, almost one in five of the population, are at risk from polluted air, including the elderly, pregnant women, children under two and those with respiratory illnesses. Asthma is increasing at an alarming rate: there are three million recorded sufferers and it is estimated that one in seven children is affected. It is the only treatable chronic illness that is becoming more prevalent in the western world, and 2,000 Britons die from it every year. Four in five deaths are avoidable. A total of 7 million working days are lost because of asthma, at an annual cost of £400 million to commerce and industry,£70 million in sickness benefit and almost £500 million to the NHS. Research, much of it funded by charities, has yet to establish that air pollution is a primary cause of asthma but, as Professor Robert Davies, consultant physician and reader in respiratory medicine at St Bartholomew's Hospital, central London, told The Times: "The current position which would be agreed by most people is that episodes of air pollution are a trigger to asthma." Government research has shown that 19 million Britons a year are exposed to air pollution levels in excess of international guidelines. The pollutants include: --Carbon monoxide, which deprives the body of oxygen by reacting with haemoglobin, causing drowsiness and headaches, slowing thought and reflexes and increasing pressure on the heart. --Nitrogen oxides, which increase susceptibility to viral illnesses, irritate lung tissue and increase the risk of bronchitis and pneumonia. --Ozone, which aggravates asthma and bronchitis but also affects normally healthy adults, causing coughing, eye, nose and throat irritation and headaches. Figures gathered by Friends of the Earth show that in 1992, ozone levels exceeded World Health Organisation guidelines on 269 days at 21 monitoring sites. These disturbing statistics have been gathered despite Britain's poor record in monitoring air pollution, with only seven sites designed in compliance with European directives to measure nitrogen dioxide, compared with 200 in Germany. The call for better monitoring of air pollution is one of the main themes of the |
FBIS3-22135_1 | Ozone Level Over Britain Reported at Record Low | thins, environmentalists and medical researchers fear that the levels of skin cancer will rise. The UN has predicted that a 10 per cent decrease in the ozone layer will lead to 300,000 more skin cancers a year and 1.75 million cataracts. Dr John Pyle of Cambridge University, chairman of the ozone review group, said this was unlikely, particularly if people took sensible protective measures such as wearing a hat and sun cream. The fifth report of the group, which was set up in 1985 by the Department of the Environment and the Meteorological Office, assesses the results from satellite measurements, aircraft and field work. It finds that between May 1992 and May 1993 the average global thickness of ozone fell by between 2 and 3 per cent. Over northern Europe, however, winter levels of ozone slumped by around 25 per cent between 1991 and 1993. The scientists said the sharp decline was partly due to unusual weather conditions, in particular a strong and persistent anticyclone over the area, and the eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines in June 1991. They also said the destruction was triggered by a build-up of chlorine chemicals. Such chemicals, released from products such as aerosols, refrigerants and fire extinguishers, have been shown to be causing the hole over Antarctica, but these are the first firm findings showing they are also damaging ozone over the northern hemisphere. The scientists said that measures under the Montreal Protocol to phase out CFCs and some other ozone-depleting chemicals by 1996 were working, with concentrations beginning to tail off. Nevertheless, build-ups of breakdown chemicals, the actual ozone killers, will persist into the next century, peaking between 2000 and 2005. This is likely to trigger a 20 to 25 per cent average thinning over Britain and northern Europe since records began in 1979. Dr Pyle said the hole over Antarctica was unlikely to disappear until 2080. The scientists also called on the Government to save Snoopy, the C130 Herculese aircraft operated by the Meteorological Research Flight at Farnham, Hampshire. Last week The Times reported that the plane, which is involved in crucial atmospheric research, was on a Ministry of Defence hit list. While America and Germany are building new research aircraft, Britain will have none if Snoopy goes. Dr Pyle said the aircraft was not only vital for research, but secured Britain a presence in scientific projects of international importance. |
FBIS3-22136_1 | UK Ratifies Basel Convention On Hazardous Waste | on 8 May. The EC will also become a Party on 8 May.'' "The Convention provides a framework for states to control shipments of hazardous waste. Where these do occur, the onus is on the exporting state to ensure environmentally sound management of the wastes. Shipments are not allowed between Parties and non- Parties without specific agreements. Parties may ban imports of waste.'' "The Waste Shipments Regulation (259/93/EEC), which incorporates the obligations of the Basel Convention will apply on 6 May. The Regulation will enable the UK to control more effectively waste imports and exports. The Regulation covers shipments destined for the recovery operations, as well as those going for final disposal.'' "The UK is firmly committed to the objectives of the Basel Convention. We have been making voluntary financial contributions to the running of the Convention each year since 1990." Notes To Editors The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal provides a framework for states to control movements of hazardous waste. Where shipments do occur, the Convention provides for a global system of environmental controls in which the onus is on the exporting state to ensure environmentally sound management of the wastes. Shipments are not allowed between Parties and non-Parties without specific agreements. Parties to the Convention may ban imports of waste. The UK ratified the Convention on 7 February, the same date as the EC. Both the UK and the EC will become Parties on 8 May (the Convention provides for a 90 day period between the date of depositing the instrument of ratification and becoming a Party). The EC Waste Shipments Regulation (259/93/EEC), which implements the obligations of the Basel Convention in the Community, will apply on 6 May. The new Regulation, which supersedes the existing Transfrontier Shipment of Hazardous Waste Regulations 1988 (implementing EC Directive 84/631/EEC, as amended), will enable the UK to exercise strict controls over imports and exports of waste. For waste exports, responsibility will lie with the UK as the exporter to ensure that the waste will be handled in an environmentally sound manner in the country of destination. The Basel Convention is administered by a Secretariat based in Geneva. The Secretariat is financed by contributions from Parties and other signatories, including the UK. Press Enquiries: 071 276 0929; (Out of Hours: 071 873 1966); Public Enquiries Unit:071 276 0900 |
FBIS3-22145_0 | Report Questions Ban on Phosphate Detergents | Language: English Article Type:BFN [Daniel Green article: "Errors In the Name of Ecology"] [Text] Could two decades of environmental policy have been mistaken? Have the US, Germany, Switzerland and many other countries unnecessarily forced changes on their industries and consumers in the name of ecology? Yes, according to the Phosphate Report [note] published today by Landbank, an environmental consultancy. The report is a life-cycle study which examines the environmental impact of two kinds of detergents, phosphate-based and zeolite-based. Such studies try to take into account every aspect of the production and use of a product from raw material extraction to waste disposal. Phosphates have been blamed for high levels of nutrients in rivers and lakes that lead to the dominance of algae over other life forms. Many countries have banned detergent phosphates as a result and encouraged a switch to zeolites. But the report concludes that there is virtually no difference between the environmental effect of the two types of detergent, if all aspects of production and consumption are taken into account. It is a conclusion that might have been expected, given that the report was sponsored by UK phosphate manufacturer Albright and Wilson, owned by the Tenneco industrial group of the U.S. But the two authors insist that they have been independent and objective. Their credentials help: one is Bryn Jones, once director of lobby group Greenpeace, the other is Bob Wilson, formerly a senior lecturer in statistics. They also claim that their report breaks new ground in thc controversial area of life-cycle analysis, a technique notorious for producing disagreements among experts. They pin their hopes on the Delphi Technique to iron out these differences. This method requires a panel of experts to give their views by completing an anonymous questionnaire. The results are summarised and fed back to the panel. The panel members are invited to reconsider their position, or give arguments about why they are right. These arguments are then distributed to the panel again. The process remains anonymous and can be repeated until a consensus is achieved or irreconcilable positions established. For the Phosphate Report, the panel assessed the environmental impact of 39 products generated by the likes of phosphate mining, road transport of materials and electricity generation for manufacturing plants. Each expert gave a score for the environmental impact of each pollutant generated during the life cycle of the two types of detergent. When the |
FBIS3-22145_1 | Report Questions Ban on Phosphate Detergents | of the U.S. But the two authors insist that they have been independent and objective. Their credentials help: one is Bryn Jones, once director of lobby group Greenpeace, the other is Bob Wilson, formerly a senior lecturer in statistics. They also claim that their report breaks new ground in thc controversial area of life-cycle analysis, a technique notorious for producing disagreements among experts. They pin their hopes on the Delphi Technique to iron out these differences. This method requires a panel of experts to give their views by completing an anonymous questionnaire. The results are summarised and fed back to the panel. The panel members are invited to reconsider their position, or give arguments about why they are right. These arguments are then distributed to the panel again. The process remains anonymous and can be repeated until a consensus is achieved or irreconcilable positions established. For the Phosphate Report, the panel assessed the environmental impact of 39 products generated by the likes of phosphate mining, road transport of materials and electricity generation for manufacturing plants. Each expert gave a score for the environmental impact of each pollutant generated during the life cycle of the two types of detergent. When the scores were added up, phosphate detergents scored 107 environmental impact points, and zeolite detergents 110 points. Jones gives the error as 10 per cent. This alone should bolster the case against banning phosphates but the report is not finished yet. In its final section, the authors argue that it is much easier to take phosphates than zeolites out of waste water. Sweden already strips phosphates out of waste water and has banned advertisements that claim that zeolites are greener. There are signs of a rethink in Switzerland, where detergent phosphates were banned in 1986 and phosphate-stripping plants built to protect lakes. The report quotes Ulrich Zimmerman, head of water quality for the Zurich Water Authority, calling for the ban on detergent phosphates to be revoked on the grounds that it has failed to improve water quality. The report concludes with several recommendations ranging from a call for zeolite detergent manufacturers to abandon eco-friendly labels to a suggestion that wind power be used to supplement electricity supplies at Albright and Wilson's phosphate plant on the Cumbrian coast. Of at least as much interest to consumers is the finding that phosphates are better cleansers: almost 1.5 times as much zeolite detergent is |
FBIS3-22148_1 | Environment Secretary on Improving Air Quality But Let Me Outline Now What I Believe Should Be the Key Elements. | measures mean that we have seen a progressive improvement in the quality of our air which should continue over the next decade. But new concerns are emerging. As increasing evidence becomes available of possible links between air pollution and respiratory disease, we need to continue to question whether enough is being done and then to identify areas where further improvements can be made. To set out the way forward I shall shortly publish a consultation paper as the basis for a strategy to be published in the Autumn. But Let Me Outline Now What I Believe Should Be the Key Elements. First, Air Quality Standards We must move quickly to get a comprehensive set of health-related air quality standards in place. In some areas, it may be some years before ambitious targets can be achieved. But what is important is that we must know where sustainability lies. We must know what acceptable air quality is so that we can plan accordingly. There are some standards already in place and we should build upon those. I recognise also that the European Community is likely to bring forward proposals over the next year or two. But I do not believe we can wait. We must move ahead and link with our European partners in due course. We have already made some progress, notably with work on benzene and ozone this year. More will follow rapidly over the coming months. Second, Local Air Quality Management In our paper we shall review the national policies, particularly emission controls and economic instruments, which should help us move progressively toward national targets. But air is inevitably also a local matter, on which there must be local action. In areas where air quality is particularly at risk, we need to be able to coordinate our controls over domestic, industrial and vehicle emissions to secure the most cost effective improvements. Local authorities, the new Environment Agency and other bodies will have a part to play here. We need to draw on the strengths of our local planning system. When air pollution episodes arise we need to be sure people can be informed, not only so that they can take defensive action where necessary, but also so that they can act in a sensible way in their use of vehicles and other sources of pollution. In short, we must get to grips with the need locally to manage our |
FBIS3-22150_0 | Survey Blames Township Enterprises for Pollution Problem | Language: English Article Type:BFN [``CD News'' report: ``Rural Firms to Blame for Nation's Polluation''] [Text] Township industries are seriously polluting the air and water in Tianjin, Shanghai and Beijing, according to the National Environmental Protection Agency. Rural enterprises are also pumping out massive amounts of industrial waste water and sulphur dioxide fumes in the provinces of Hebei, Shandong, Henan, Shanxi, Jiangsu, Sichuan and Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. The agency's nationwide survey of the environmental hazards caused by township enterprises is the first of its kind. The aim is to help central and local governments improve pollution control by identifying the worst offenders. The discharge of industrial waste water around the three major cities and in the worst hit provinces accounted for almost 60 percent of the China's total township water pollution, according to the agency. Places facing grave air pollution problems are listed as Shanghai Jiangsu, Henan, Shandong, Beijing, Shanxi, Tianjin, Zhejiang and Sichuan. The rural industries in these areas produced 57.2 percent of the pollutants piped into the air by rural firms around the country. These areas were also to blame for 60 percent of township-produced sulphur dioxide, 63 percent of the smoke and 55.8 percent of the industrial dust of the country's total, according to the agency's investigation. The survey, which was started in 1989, covered 570,000 enterprises in almost every county in the country. Only the Tibetan Autonomous Region and Taiwan were left out. Fourteen types of factories were named as major polluters. They included industries involved in asbestos, coke, cement, chemicals, paper-making, leather processing, dyeing and brewing. Many of the small industries had out-of-date production technology and a high rate of waste discharge. To date less than one-fifth of rural industry reaches State standards for waste water disposal. The investigation also revealed that for every five rural firms there was only one environmental protection officer. This clearly showed that factory managers in these areas still cared little about their environment says the survey. Industrial waste and gas were found to be the major causes of rural pollution. The Farmers' Daily [NONGMIN RIBAO] has said that pollution-control technologies must be introduced into rural enterprises and the construction of dirty factories and mills must be limited. The best way of controlling pollution is to adopt advanced waste disposal technology, according to the newspaper. |
FBIS3-22151_0 | Increased Industrial Efficiency Helps Reduce Pollution | Language: English Article Type:BFN [Unattributed report: ``Efficiency Helps Cut Pollution''] [Text] To prevent environmental degradation while still striving for economic growth, China should raise industrial efficiency and reform industrial structures, said Qu Geping, the country's top environmental legislator. Heavy financial input and raw material consumption have helped maintain China's high economic growth as well as giving rise to heavy pollution, said Qu, head of the Environment Committee of the National People's Congress, in Environment Protection [HUANJING BAOHU] magazine. Despite significant progress, China's industrial efficiency in recent years still lags behind that of developed countries. To produce the same amount of industrial products, China uses five to 10 times more water than developed nations, Qu said. Authorities have not fully recognized the importance of environmental protection in drafting economic plans. Priority has been given to increasing the input of raw materials and energy, while encouraging low energy consumption and low pollution has been largely ignored. China can no longer afford this model, Qu said. First, resource reserves are limited. China's per capita water availability is only a quarter of the world average; per capita land area is only one-third of the global level; and per capita mineral resources only account for half the world average. With population growth and economic development, the shortage of resources will only become more acute. If measures are not taken to raise efficiency, production costs will rise and industrial development will be handicapped, Qu said. The environment has become an important concern in the world. Pollution control and environmental protection regulations have been included in many international trade laws, with possible sanctions against nations with poor environmental performances. And China, increasingly dependent upon foreign trade, must abide by international laws. Qu suggested that China speed up its industrial, structural reshuffle and technological renovation to reduce pollution. One method would be to increase the number of nonpolluting industries, such as the service sector. Another method would be to reduce the consumption of energy and raw materials. Pollutants should be recycled, treated or stored to create a more efficient consumption. Qu also called for increased government funding to fight pollution because environmental protection has become very costly. The government should try to allocate 1 to 1.5 percent of its GNP to protecting the environment. Presently the figure is only 0.7 percent. And environmental investment is very profitable. For every 100 yuan of investment, 600 yuan of profit could |
FBIS3-22152_0 | China Bans Sea Dumping of Radioactive Waste | Language: English Article Type:BFN [Text] Beijing, Feb 18 (XINHUA) -- Beginning Sunday, China will ban dumping of all kinds of radioactive wastes and disposal of industrial waste and incineration of industrial waste and sewage sludge in its sea waters, a Chinese official said here today. According to Yang Wenhe, deputy-director of the State Bureau of Oceanography, the Chinese Government has accepted the terms of three international resolutions concerning disposal at sea of radioactive wastes and other radioactive matter and the phasing out of sea disposal of industrial waste and incineration at sea. The resolutions were approved by member nations of the convention on the prevention of marine pollution by dumping wastes and other matter in London last November and will take effect on 20 February 1994. ``The approval and implementation of the three resolutions means a stricter global control of dumping of wastes at sea,'' Yang told XINHUA. ``China will strictly comply with the resolutions and implement them in letter and spirit,'' he said. ``China will ban the dumping of waste matters which do not conform to the standards set by the resolutions,'' he added. ``disposing of wastes without license or dumping irresponsibly at sea will be punished severely according to law.'' With special permission, disposal of low-level radioactive waste at sea is allowed, according to China's present ``rules of controlling dumping at sea.'' Controlled low-level toxic or nontoxic industrial waste is also allowed to be dumped at sea with permission. But incineration at sea has never taken place in China. ``China will make necessary revisions of the rules and regulations concerned,'' Yang said. According to the Chinese official, the dumping of wastes at sea has been under strict management and control in China, according to a system which includes application, examination, approval and issuing of permits. The State Council has approved 38 dumping regions in China's sea waters. The major dumping material has been castoff from dredging, according to Yang. ``In recent years, no pollution accidents caused by dumping of waste in Chinese seas have occurred. Close monitoring also indicates that the water quality around the dumping regions remains fine,'' he said. |
FBIS3-22161_0 | Ministry Reports Drop in Volume of Nonindustrial Waste | Language: English Article Type:BFN [Text] Tokyo, Feb 22 KYODO -- The average amount of nonindustrial waste per capita in Japan decreased marginally in fiscal 1991 for the first time in eight years in what the Health and Welfare Ministry said Tuesday [22 February] could be the start of a new trend. The ministry said the average person threw out 1,118 grams of garbage per day during the year, two grams per day less than in the previous year. The 1991 fiscal year ran from 1 April 1991 to 31 March 1992. The ministry said that although the economy was still booming at the time, the very slight decrease may represent the beginning of a change in consumption habits with more people becoming aware of the need to create less garbage. But despite the decline in the per person average, the overall amount of nonindustrial garbage actually increased. Nonindustrial garbage thrown out during the year weighed a record of about 50.77 million tons. This was some 0.6 percent more than the previous year. The cost of disposing of the garbage, including collection, transport and disposal, amounted to 1,998.6 billion yen, an increase of about 14 percent over the previous year. It was the 10th consecutive increase in the annual cost of dealing with the nation's garbage. The cost per person was about 12,800 yen, up from 11,200 yen the previous year. About 17 percent of the garbage was buried in landfill and about 73 percent was incinerated. Data on industrial waste is released separately, but in fiscal 1990, industrial waste amounted to about eight times the weight of nonindustrial waste. |
FBIS3-22167_0 | Paper Decries Plan To Dam Salween River | Language: English Article Type:BFN [Text] The Karen are Thailand's ecological conscience. And if Thailand's ambitious plans to build dams on border rivers are seen through, the Karen could soon weigh heavily on Thailand's humanitarian conscience. Living among the river valleys on the border between Thailand and Burma, they -- like the Penans in Malaysia -- depend on having a healthy forest to maintain their way of life. They have suffered heavily from the intensive logging carried out by Thai firms in Burmese forests. Unlike the Penan, of course, the Karen having been fighting a war of self-determination against Burma's military regime for the last 40 years. This has placed them in a vulnerable position vis-a-vis Thailand, a fact which the government has exploited to demand timber concessions. In need of arms and Thailand's favour, the Karen have been forced to accept the logging. But now Thailand wants to construct dams on their territory. Out of its entire winding course from the Tibetan Plateau down to the Gulf of Martaban, the Salween River only touches the Thai border for roughly 100 kilometres. Less than six percent of the river's catchment area lies within Thailand. Yet the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (Egat) is planning to build two major dams on this major river. The biggest, the Upper Salween Dam, will be located 76 kms upstream from the confluence of the Moei and Salween Rivers. The 166-metre high dam would probably flood more than 1,000 square kms of land, almost entirely in Karenni and Shan States in Burma. But the electricity and the water would go to Thailand. The dam would have an installed electricity generating capacity of 4,540 megawatts, nearly five times more than Thailand's largest dam making it possibly the biggest dam in Southeast Asia (Malaysia is planning a 16,000-MW dam in Sarawak State). Thailand and Burma are planning seven other joint dam projects, including the Lower Salween Dam, three on the Moei River which divides Thailand from Burma further south, and one dam apiece on the Mae Sai, Mae Nam Kok and Klong Kra Buri. Plans have been drawn up to pump water from the proposed Moei and Salween reservoirs over the mountains and into the severely depleted Phumiphon Reservoir. Feasibility studies for seven of these projects have already been carried out at the request of the Thai and Burmese governments by the secretive, Japan-based Electric Power Development Corp, |
FBIS3-22167_3 | Paper Decries Plan To Dam Salween River | development aid institutions. The Upper and Lower Salween Dams are expected to cost around Bt100 million. With the World Bank turning away from other large-scale hydro projects such as the Narmada in India, it's not at all clear where the money will come from. More to the point, it's not at all clear where the Karen living along the Salween and Moei River valleys are going to go. The dams will destroy not only their homes but their way of life, turning them into refugees. The Karen will be forced into making a terrible choice, between living in Slorc [State Law and Order Restoration Council] concentration camps or Thai refugee camps. Under outside pressure, the Thai government has quietly tolerated the presence of Karen refugees, but always with reluctance and irritation. If a military force were to move in and kick the Karen off their land at gunpoint, it would be condemned as naked aggression. So why should flooding them off their land be judged any differently? Thailand seems to be embarking on dam warfare, a serious matter since the people to be displaced are well-armed. The Karen are also well aware that electricity for Thailand means power for Slorc, the military junta now ruling Burma. ``Thailand will get the energy, Slorc will get the money, and we will be left to deal with the impacts of the dam,'' one Karen leader has noted. Nor is the international community likely to accept this matter lying down. The U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee has recently recommended by unanimous vote that the Clinton administration take a much closer look at the human rights situation in Burma. According to the London-based human rights organization Amnesty International, a climate fear is still prevalent in the country, despite cosmetic changes by the ruling military junta. While damming the border rivers may at first glance seem to be an easy way to generate cheap electricity and -- by filling up the Phumiphon Reservoir -- to show that dams can work as a replacement for watershed forests, the hidden costs of these schemes are overwhelmingly large. Dams have long been decried as a crime against nature. These projects on the border rivers, however, are also a crime against the Karen. And since they are to be imposed on a minority people for the benefit of a foreign power, they are nothing less than a crime against humanity. |
FBIS3-22168_0 | Yala Province Mines Blamed for Pattani River Pollution | Language: English Article Type:BFN [Text] The Pattani River has been found to be highly contaminated by such toxic heavy metals as cadmium and arsenic, which come from mining activities in Yala Province. Research conducted by a team of lecturers at the Prince of Songkla University since 1992 has indicated that the amount of such dangerous substances is higher than the acceptable standards set by the World Health Organisation. This is especially so for arsenic which was recorded at 0.13 milligrammes per litre against the standard of 0.05 mg/l. The amount of cadmium in the river was measured at 0.04 milligrammes per litre against 0.01 mg/l while lead contaminatlon was found at 0.02 mg/l. The contamination is believed to be caused by mining activities at the Thalu Cave area in Yala's Bannang Sata District as miners dumped a huge amount of contaminated earth and sand into natural waterways. Prof. Dr. Prawet Wasi, president of the National Sub-committee on Epidemiology, provided more funds to the team of researchers, led by Prince of Songkla Engineering Rector Suraphon Arikun. Arsenic from tin-mining has long been the cause of a disease in Ron Phibun District in Nakhon Si Thammarat. |
FBIS3-22171_0 | Memorandum on Water Management Signed With Australia | Language: English Article Type:BFN [Text] Thailand and Australia yesterday signed a memorandum of understanding [MoU] to exchange information and experience on water resources management for Thailand to adapt for the future use of the Mekong River, according to the Science and Technology Ministry's Department of National Energy Administration. ``Australia will share experiences with Thailand of their dam constructions and management of main rivers in the four states -- Queensland, NSW [New South Wales], Victoria and South Australia,'' said the press statement. The MoU, inked by department director-general Prathet Sutabut and New South Wales Water Resources Department director-general Peter Millington, would cover long-term bilateral cooperation in terms of economics, engineering, science and environmental control and development. Australia will also share information on soil condition development of NSW state, which used to have a problem with salty soil, for prevention and resolution of salty soil problems that may arise in Thailand's Kong-Chee-Mool project. |
FBIS3-22180_1 | Capital Lacks Water Treatment Plant | even possess a sewage treatment system, and the population is forced to use water contaminated by feces and industrial wastes, without any sign that the government is seeking ways to resolve this health problem. The foregoing is part of the presentation on contamination of the environment offered yesterday [7 Nov 1993] by Luis Munguia, the director of the Center for the Study and Control of Contaminants (CESCCO) of the Ministry of Health. The official basically attributed this problem to industrial wastes and feces deposited in the water and on the ground, from which they are carried by the air to food consumed by the public. Munguia confirmed what had already been published by LA PRENSA, that 80 percent of the water used by the public is contaminated by human waste, except for Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula, where water is treated before reaching the consumer. As an example, the CESCCO researcher indicated that, of 36 industrial firms in this city, only one has anything approaching a system for treating industrial waste. This suggests, he said, that the remainder of the industries contribute to environmental contamination by discarding their refuse anywhere. He said that in San Pedro Sula there is a tannery whose highly toxic waste is contaminating the Chamelecon River. He described similar situations in innumerable municipalities throughout the country, where Public Health and municipal inspectors do nothing while contamination becomes worse. Obsolete drainage systems, systems of ``floating'' sewage in the streets, and inadequate drainage systems in industrial enterprises stimulate the increase in environmental contamination. This will continue as long as the necessary measures are not taken, Munguia said. With unusual frankness for an official, Munguia said that there are agencies that have no reason to exist. Some agencies are afraid to enforce the law with companies that contaminate the environment, and others authorize unrestrained urban construction without any regulation. The timidity shown by the authorities in applying the law to those companies without sewage treatment systems is related to political commitments they have made with business during campaigns. ``Something must be done today, not tomorrow or the day after.'' With that remark, Munguia launched an appeal to society to join the fight to protect the environment from pollution. CESCCO expert Guillermo Espinoza also took part in the cycle of lectures and outlined the actions that the organization carries out in its role as investigative agency for problems of contamination. |
FBIS3-22181_1 | Contamination of San Pedro Sula's Rivers Described | treatment plants for residual waters. Based on a preliminary study conducted by DIMA, in 1991 the municipality of San Pedro Sula passed an ordinance that requested businessmen whose firms discarded wastes into the Bermejo, Blanco, and Sauce Rivers to seek ways to treat those wastes in order not to contaminate the rivers. DIMA's technical manager, engineer Jose Tulio Gomez, said that in addition to industrial wastes, the rivers are also contaminated by human waste, and diesel and petroleum residues discarded by a number of factories. Businessmen have indicated that investment in treatment plants involves high costs, and for this reason the directors of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Cortes (CCIC) have met with citizens and with Mayor Hector Guillen, to seek a coordinated solution to the problem. In addition, Gomez said that according to the results of the study that includes a plan for inspection of residual waters, the new mayor will have to define the measures to be implemented, taking into account that the new law on the environment is more specific on the subject, as is the sanitary code. Gomez said that the current study on the protection and management of water resources will be completed in January 1994. The study is being conducted by the firms Hazen and Sawyer-Saibe and Associates, at a cost of $2.5 million financed by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). Gomez said that 20 kinds of industry (dairy, plastics, tanning, paint, etc.) typically discard their industrial wastes into rivers. He explained that at the moment the study does not propose solutions because it is not completed, and what exists so far is a preliminary report. In past years DIMA has produced other studies of liquid industrial wastes, one at a cost of $30,000 and another for 100,000 lempiras. These studies indicate that industrial discharges into the Blanco, Sauce, and Bermejo Rivers have a very high organic content, as well as metals and acids. The master plan for potable water, still under preparation, provides for the construction of a residual water treatment plant for the city, but industry must meet certain standards so that the plant does not incur higher costs and, as a result, cause higher fees for users. According to DIMA, the plant is expected to begin operation in the year 2000, and a study is now being completed that will be presented to the IDB with a loan request. |
FBIS3-22190_0 | Central Asian States Revive Interest in Siberian River Diversion | Language: Russian Article Type:CSO [Article by Khasan Iskandarov: ``Ecology: Will Tashkent Become Port City? Idea of Diverting Siberian Rivers Seems To Have Captured Masses' Imagination Again''] [Text] The intensive contacts among the presidents of the former Central Asian republics that have characterized the start of the year, for all the seeming diversity of the problems raised and proposed for solutions, have one common thread. Every meeting has discussed the question of saving the Aral Sea. It is a truly important question and one that requires a prompt and effective solution. The ecological disaster zone that the Aral region has been declared is inhabited by people, and life is hard for them. But the remarkable thing is this: All the presidents want to solve the water supply problem not using their own funds and resources, but by diverting northern rivers to Central Asia. No one is talking about this openly, but just such an option is continually being implied. But why now, in winter? The time is not far off when it will be necessary to begin irrigating crops, a sizable place among which is held by cotton, and the meager water resources will start being divided. This year, judging from specialists' forecasts, will be just as dry as previous ones. And water has always been valued especially highly in the East: It has caused conflicts and strife, and things have often reached the point of using force. The Tajiks have fought with the Uzbeks and the Uzbeks have fought with the Kirgiz; this is true of not only ancient times, but also the very recent past. Today the new states of Central Asia are to some extent being saved by the continuing war in Afghanistan. It's terrible to say, but true. If the war were to stop and the Afghan tribes to begin raising crops, a very difficult situation would ensue. Four countries would immediately find themselves on dry rations. This is what accounts for the flurry of activity. One would think that the insane idea of diverting part of the flow of Siberian rivers to Central Asia had been buried once and for all. But this is not the case, and increasingly persistent efforts are being in Uzbekistan to sway public opinion in favor of a positive resolution of the erstwhile ``project of the century.'' It is being actively suggested to the people who are suffering from a water |
FBIS3-22192_0 | Association Uses Unique Method To Process Nuclear Waste | Language: Russian Article Type:BFN (Video report by correspondent Sergey Sergeyev, identified by caption, from the ``Novosti'' newscast] [Text] Sergeyev: [Video shows people working with various types of machinery and containers, a storage area, a room with control panels and computer screens] This is a section that turns the atomic industry's radioactive waste into glass. Three years ago, the Mayak Production Association in the South Urals increased its use of a furnace that was, and is unique. Russian atomic industry workers were the first to master, on an industrial scale, the technology for turning waste into a glass-like material that is then poured into these steel containers, made airtight, and then placed in storage cells. Encased in solid concrete, the nuclear genie cannot get out. One hundred and fifty million curies of radioactivity have been rendered safe so far. By way of comparison: This represents three Chernobyls. No one in the world has ever placed such a quantity of radioactive waste in storage. Colleagues from France, Britain, the United States, and Japan have taken an interest in the experience of the Mayak atomic workers. Similar facilities are being built there now. However, there is a problem. Another two or three more glass-making installations need to be built for all of the waste that was accumulated during the 40 or more years of Mayak's work for the defense industry to be processed quickly. But this important ecological program is not being fully financed, and the Urals atomic industry workers will not be able to deal with this problem on their own, without the state's help. |
FBIS3-22194_1 | Environment Minister Sees `No Improvement' in Russia's Ecology | current environmental situation in Russia with 1992, one unfortunately find that it is not improving and remains very acute,'' stated Viktor Danilov-Danilyan, minister of environmental protection and natural resources, who held a conference with selected regional representatives at year's end. Incidentally, it was noted that the drop in production also has its positive aspects: there was a 12-percent decrease in comparison to 1992 in pollutant emissions into the atmosphere from ``stationary sources.'' Virtually all other pollution indices increased last year, though only slightly. There was an increase in pollutant emissions resulting from the use of low-quality types of gasoline. For example, a Russian-made passenger car produces almost as much pollution as seven U.S.-made automobiles (roughly 21 grams/kilometer per car, as opposed to 3 grams/kilometer for an American car). More than 4,000 tonnes of lead-containing compounds were released into the atmosphere. Direct environmental damage as a result of these emissions is estimated at more than R3.0 billion [rubles] annually. The results of observations by experts carried out in the atmosphere around Russia's cities and industrial centers indicates an increase in concentrations of carbon monoxide, carbon disulfide, phenol and nitrogen oxides. During the first half of 1993 a total of 207 cases of maximum permissible pollutant levels being exceeded by factors of 10 or more were reported in 44 cities around the country. There were 88 reported incidents of massive one-time air pollution. According to environmental protection agencies, the damage done by air pollution alone was R280 million in the first six months of 1993. According to the minister the condition of fauna has also worsened. Populations of many valuable animal species have dropped to dangerously low levels, and fish catches are down as well. The reason is habitat exhaustion, as well as a marked upsurge in poaching. Another equally important problem for ecologists is emergencies caused by natural disasters and manmade accidents. 1993 witnessed many such incidents. One need only recall the accident at Tomsk-7 in April, the flooding in the Urals, and the numerous explosions in transportation systems and at a number of mines. A lack of funding and a wide range of other reasons do not permit the minister of environmental protection to hope that the situation will begin to improve in the near future. In Viktor Danilov-Danilyan's opinion, the task for 1994 will be ``at the first stage, at least to halt the worsening of the environmental situation.'' |
FBIS3-22199_0 | Environment Ministry Denies Danger From Industrial Waste | Language: English Article Type:BFN [By ITAR-TASS correspondent Veronika Romanenkova] [Text] Moscow, Feb 1 TASS -- Reports claiming Russia has turned into ``grounds for dumping dangerous industrial waste from Western nations are unjustified,'' says a statement of the Russian Environment Ministry's press service circulated here today in response to a document of the Russian Greenpeace division ``Russia: Dumping Grounds for Western Waste.'' The ministry admitted a tendency of dangerous waste imports but said it prepares measures to prevent the threat. According to the Greenpeace report, there have been 96 attempts to bring to Russia 34 million tones of waste within six years. Specialists believe these were mere intentions. In the words of the ministry, the Russian procedure of industrial waste imports and exports ``prevents imports of large batches of dangerous waste to Russia.'' The Russian Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations issues licenses and the Russian state customs committee controls the waste imports. A license is issued on coordination with the environment ministry; the latter provide for a corresponding examination. The procedure is obligatory for all, and its violation entails administrative and criminal responsibility. According to the ministry, territorial environmental bodies have rejected the overwhelming majority of proposals of Western firms and their Russian mediators on the basis of expert conclusions. In 1992-1993 they coordinated licenses on imports of small batches of industrial waste, as a rule, for research purposes. In order to prevent illegal attempts of dangerous waste imports, the ministry works in close contact with the law-enforcement and environment bodies of several states. |
FBIS3-22213_5 | Academicians' Claims Regarding History of River Diversion Project Disputed | VODNYYE RESURSY magazine (No. 3, pp 4-6): ``It is proposed to carry out the water supply of the southern rayons at the expense of the more complete use of local resources and the bringing in of the runoff of the country's northern slope (drainage areas of the Kara, White, and Barents seas), that is, at the expense of territorial redistribution on a large scale.'' He emphasized that ``the unity of water management ties on a countrywide scale is becoming especially obvious in the version of runoff redistribution that was developed by the USSR Academy of Sciences Institute of Water Problems.'' We have been sent a Xerox copy of the book by G. V. Voropayev and A. A. Bostandzhoglo, ``Problema izyatiya, perebroski i raspredeleniya chasti stoka sibirskikh rek dlya rayonov Zapadnoy Sibiri, Urala, Sredney Azii i Kazakhstana'' [Problem of Withdrawing, Diverting, and Distributing Part of the Runoff of Siberian Rivers For Rayons of West Siberia, the Urals, Central Asia, and Kazakhstan]. The publisher is USSR Academy of Sciences Institute of Water Problems, 1984 (For Official Use Only). In these ``closed'' works we read on page 40, ``The development of the national economy determines the desirability of constructing a system among drainage areas for diverting the runoff of the Danube River into the Dniepr drainage area; the carrying out of a series of operations to divert part of the runoff of the northern rivers into the Volga drainage area; and the construction of the Volga-Urals and Volga-Don canals to use the diverted runoff in the Northern Caucasus for irrigation. Scientific research and feasibility studies that have been conducted have substantiated the desirability of diverting part of the runoff of the Siberian rivers to Central Asia and Kazakhstan in the volume of the first phase (27.2 cubic kilometers).'' The chapter entitled ``Conclusion'' states even more decisively: ``Computations have demonstrated the economic effectiveness of the measures being considered for diverting part of the runoff of Siberian rivers and the profitability of the complex within the normative limits.'' The authorship of the diversion project also does not cause any doubts. The statement is made that ``the approval of the TEO of the Asian diversion and the scientific research on the problem has become a stage that has summed up the results of many years of scientific-research and surveying-design work that was carried out by the USSR Academy of Sciences Institute of Water Problems and Soyuzgiprovodkhoz |
FBIS3-22214_11 | Historical Causes of Russia's Present Ecological Crisis Examined | their private owners, including the Romanov dynasty, and become truly the people's property. That was precisely how Soviet slogans and decrees framed the issue. And what happened? What happened was that all that wealth wound up in the hands of the party elite, which not only had complete control of the country's entire natural environment, but also arbitrarily experimented with nature, plundered it and crippled it with gigantic construction projects. In our country privatization is like a giveaway. It would seem that a giveaway is not acquisition, so the matter should be much simpler. In fact, it is much more complex than a direct requisition of the socialist type. Why is that so? Because both those who are doing the giving (the state apparatus, the state bureaucracy) and those who are receiving (the ``new capitalists'') have virtually the same opportunities for personal enrichment. Neither group wants to miss those opportunities. Neither group currently has the slightest interest in ecology or any concern over how to preserve forests, soils, mineral resources, rivers and a clean atmosphere. All current programs in this regard are not worth the paper they are printed on, if only because they are in no way connected with the theoretical principles, much less the practical application, of privatization. That practical application, in turn, should be based on new principles of ownership, from which it would be clear who would have the right to possess what, in what amount and on what terms. Until we establish those principles of ownership there can be no civilized privatization, nor any point in discussing ecology -- it will just be pushed aside. An oblast boss calls a rayon boss: ``Petr Ivanovich! Sell this guy a piece of land! With a little garden plot! Do it!'' That is all that has to be said. The ``guy'' is not just anybody, he is a restaurant owner! And so Russia's forests, minerals resources and water are being exploited (and plundered and polluted) at an unprecedentedly frenzied rate. It is impossible to say where privatization will lead under the current system (i.e. disorder and chaos). Politics without well-founded projection is nothing more than adventurism. And so the richest country in the world is going around the world with its hand outstretched. Not Under Public Scrutiny The problem is also with our level of ecological awareness. Each of us could make various suggestions to the government. For |
FBIS3-22216_0 | Detonation Suggested as Nuclear Waste Disposal Method | Language: Russian Article Type:BFN [Yuriy Lvov report: ``Nuclear Waste Will Be Destroyed by Explosions''] [Text] This news is not for those of a nervous disposition: It is possible that in the foreseeable future all Russia's radioactive waste and chemical weapons will be destroyed...by nuclear explosion. By several explosions, to be precise, which will be detonated deep within the permafrost of Russia's only nuclear test site on the island of Novaya Zemlya. This program has been expounded by Major General Vladimir Loborev, academician and chief of the Ministry of Defense Central Physics and Technical Institute, and Aleksandr Chernyshev, deputy director of the Federal Nuclear Center (Arzamas-16), in reports to a closed scientific seminar held at the ``Uran'' Science and Production Association, which your KOMSOMOLSKAYA PRAVDA correspondent managed to attend. Representatives from our most important organizations in this field attended the seminar: the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Atomic Power Engineering and Industry, the Federal Inspectorate for Nuclear and Radiation Safety, the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, the Russian Academy of Sciences, and the Academy of Natural Sciences. There are several ways of recycling radioactive waste. The idea of sending waste into space is the most utopian of these schemes, according to Vladimir Loborev. However, the most practical method is plunging the fatal waste into glass and burying it in ``deep geological formations.'' The largest vitrification plant is located in France. It cost $500 million to build. According to Loborev, to destroy all of Russia's waste would require 20 such plants, each of which would have to operate continuously for 10 years. The Russian economy would be unable to bear costs of this magnitude. But the problem is becoming increasingly acute -- obsolete ships with nuclear reactors that can neither be used nor scuttled are piling up at the piers of Severodvinsk and other ports.... A nuclear explosion would be far less costly. And the authors of the plan claim that after the explosion the waste would be buried in accordance with all the regulations -- the extremely high temperature would turn the rock and the radioactive waste housed in underground passageways into an large vitreous mass which would be covered by a thick layer of compacted soil and rubble. Thus embedded, the waste would never be able to ``surface''; besides, all around there is permafrost which, according to the specialists, would present no threat for many centuries, even if |
FBIS3-22219_7 | Radioactive Waste Dumping in World's Seas by Russia, Other Countries Detailed | which will be practiced in this region until the end of next year, will also not pose a hazard. We may even not consider this waste as being radioactive.'' Nevertheless, according to Kutsenko himself, an ecological threat really does hang over the Far East. But the reason for it, as it turns out, is not the radioactive waste which has been dumped into the sea, but that which is being stored in special tankers of the Pacific Fleet. This problem is confirmed also by specialists at the VMF Glavkomat [Naval High Command]. In the opinion of one of them, Captain 1st rank Yevgeniy Romanov, the TNT-5 and TNT-27 industrial tankers loaded with liquid radioactive waste are in such a poor technical state that they may sink at any time. Then the huge concentration--several hundred cubic meters--of radioactive waste would really cause a catastrophe. In order to avoid this, the decision was adopted to begin dumping in the water basin of the Sea of Japan. The dumping, I repeat, is caused by technical necessity. And even if under the pressure of the world community we will have to discontinue such actions in neutral waters, the specialists at the VMF Glavkomat will insist on at least one-time dumping within the limits of Russian territorial waters. Of course, the dumping of radioactive waste in the World Ocean cannot continue for long. Yet today, practically in the entire world, the technology of processing radioactive waste lags behind the demands. Here in Russia, one other problem is added to this. Despite the fact that we possess sufficient scientific and technical potential to create the necessary conditions for processing liquid RAO into solid and for its subsequent disposal, we cannot take serious steps forward due to the shortage of finances. And a significant amount of these will be required. According to preliminary estimates, around 10 billion rubles (R) would be needed to solve the problem of radioactive waste in the Pacific Fleet. In the Northern Fleet--approximately half that amount would be needed. For a full resolution of the problem in the country--several hundred billion rubles would be needed, and with application of Western technologies--several hundred million dollars. However, it is erroneous to think that this problem is Russia's alone. The World Ocean is the cradle of life on the planet, and all countries which consider themselves civilized must apply their efforts to keep from destroying it. |
FBIS3-22226_0 | Treaty Signed With Poland To Control Toxic Waste Shipments | Language: Russian Article Type:BFN [Report by Oles Buzyna: ``Henceforth, Ukraine and Poland Are Allies''] [Text] The Ukrainian and Polish ministers of environmental protection signed an agreement in Warsaw on cooperation in controlling shipments of hazardous waste. Poland faced this problem a couple of years before Ukraine. Its lengthy border with Germany -- the world's largest manufacturer of these ``products'' -- facilitated the immoral activities of companies involved in selling toxic waste. However, the Polish side adopted a strict law on shipping waste across the border. According to Greenpeace Ukraine, this is one of the best laws of its kind in the world. Ukraine still has no legal footing for controlling this sector. A resolution adopted by the Supreme Soviet in November 1993 was not implemented because the Council of Ministers has been lingering in compiling the list of toxic substances. The problem of German waste shipped to Rivne, Nikolayev, and Ochakov has not been resolved, regardless of the investigation conducted by competent organs and negotiations with Germany on returning the waste ``to its native land.'' The treaty with Poland is important for Ukraine first of all, because it includes a clause on prevention of transit of hazardous waste via the two states' territories. Thus, our ecological border has moved farther to the west. |
FBIS3-22247_0 | More Effective Waste Water Treatment With Biogas Reactor | Language: German Article Type:CSO [Article by JB: ``More Effective Waste Water Treatment With the Biogas Tower Reactor''] [Text] Anaerobic biotechnical waste water treatment in bioreactors is today already being used by the food industry, pulp production and paper manufacturing companies. The field of bioprocessing technology at the Hamburg-Harburg Technical University (Professor Herbert Maerkl, Denickestrasse 15, 21071, Hamburg) has now, in cooperation with Preussag Noell Wassertechnik GmbH, developed a new type of bioreactor concept for increasing the decomposition effects. As reported by Maerkl, anaerobic biotechnical cleaning methods are generally held to be less effective than aerobic ones. This is due to the slow rate of growth of the anaerobic microorganisms. However, the decomposition effects per gram of biomass are comparable to those of aerobic microbes. For that reason, if it is possible to increase the biomass in the reactor, anaerobic methods are also very effective. This increase has been achieved with the biogas tower reactor from Hamburg by using the sludge bed process. Another problem with anaerobic bioreactors is transferring the generated biogas to the outside. Gas production can be so high that disposal is impossible to deal with or would lead to a loss of biomass through flotation. This problem is also solved by the tower reactor. Gas suction equipment has been built into the reactor container at various heights. This makes it possible to dispose of gas even at low levels. Technically, the suction equipment works by adding pockets in the form of sloping metal sheets in the reactor volume. They partition the reactor into several compartments connected with each other and catch the rising biogas. The gas bubble formed under the sheet can be drawn off through a vent placed there. By regulating the gas extraction at the various heights, it is possible to regulate the gas content so as to be uniform throughout the reactor. But the gas bubble under the pockets has other advantages as well. By means of the free surfaces formed on the liquid, floating biomass particles are also kept down. Therefore, the gas extraction is possible without loss of biomass. The pockets can also help when mixing the reactor content. It is important for the decomposition effect that the microorganisms and the added waste water are as evenly distributed as possible. Since some microbes live in the form of symbiotic agglomerates, this blending must have as little gravitational force as possible. This problem |
FBIS3-22248_1 | Technical, Economic Improvements in Wind Energy Projects | these sites wind energy plants could be functioning even without state funding within 5 to 7 years at most and be ``commercially successful.'' That is why more and more professional investors are getting involved with wind power along with the communes and associations of environmentalist citizens. Even banks have discovered wind generators as investment possibilities. The move to larger plants is amazing in view of the fact that at the very beginning a large-scale project which foundered took the wind out of the sails of the wind power movement. The socalled ``Large Wind Energy Plant,'' popularly known as ``Growian,'' was shut down in 1987 after a four-year test run because of technical flaws. After the failure of the three-megawatt generator and the dropping of the project by the disappointed major companies the industry went for small, simple plants, ``away from technical development at one fell swoop and towards progress in small steps,'' as Keuper says. Such steps have brought about the development of wind technology from plants under 100 kW to today's size. Thus energy utilization per rotor surface has doubled over the last 10 years; wind current has gradually become about 30 percent cheaper since 1988. This was also helped by manufacturers' lowering of prices, which was made possible in part by increased productivity in serial production and was partly forced upon them by increasingly strong competition in the marketplace. Volker Friedrichsen, managing director of the company Vestas Deutschland GmbH in Husum, says, ``Technical improvements were achieved with the jump to each new size level because of increased experience.'' The Danish parent company is the largest international producer of wind energy plants. Their robust construction methods, rooted in agricultural technology, and gradually enhanced by modern technology, is very successful in the marketplace; the proof is the 4,300 wind wheels they have installed all over the world. This has not prevented other manufacturers from looking for success with innovative and technically demanding ideas. These include wind wheels with electronically regulated rotor blade installation for optimal wind utilization, with a variable rotation rate instead of a fixed one, and most recently also with a driveless generator, as offered by the company Heidelberg Motor GmbH in Starnberg or Enercon GmbH in Aurich. Technology pioneers are particularly hoping for greater economy based on higher efficiency from these new developments. However, this advantage has not yet appeared. So far, in Keuper's professional opinion, there |
FBIS3-22248_2 | Technical, Economic Improvements in Wind Energy Projects | out of the sails of the wind power movement. The socalled ``Large Wind Energy Plant,'' popularly known as ``Growian,'' was shut down in 1987 after a four-year test run because of technical flaws. After the failure of the three-megawatt generator and the dropping of the project by the disappointed major companies the industry went for small, simple plants, ``away from technical development at one fell swoop and towards progress in small steps,'' as Keuper says. Such steps have brought about the development of wind technology from plants under 100 kW to today's size. Thus energy utilization per rotor surface has doubled over the last 10 years; wind current has gradually become about 30 percent cheaper since 1988. This was also helped by manufacturers' lowering of prices, which was made possible in part by increased productivity in serial production and was partly forced upon them by increasingly strong competition in the marketplace. Volker Friedrichsen, managing director of the company Vestas Deutschland GmbH in Husum, says, ``Technical improvements were achieved with the jump to each new size level because of increased experience.'' The Danish parent company is the largest international producer of wind energy plants. Their robust construction methods, rooted in agricultural technology, and gradually enhanced by modern technology, is very successful in the marketplace; the proof is the 4,300 wind wheels they have installed all over the world. This has not prevented other manufacturers from looking for success with innovative and technically demanding ideas. These include wind wheels with electronically regulated rotor blade installation for optimal wind utilization, with a variable rotation rate instead of a fixed one, and most recently also with a driveless generator, as offered by the company Heidelberg Motor GmbH in Starnberg or Enercon GmbH in Aurich. Technology pioneers are particularly hoping for greater economy based on higher efficiency from these new developments. However, this advantage has not yet appeared. So far, in Keuper's professional opinion, there are ``hardly any differences'' between the plant concepts available on the market in price per kilowatt hour. Other experts point out that for enduring market success the plants have to establish themselves not only in Germany, but also on the world market. Here the traditional plants are considered to be proven, reliable technology. This reputation, which encourages business with the developing and emerging nations as well as with the Eastern European states, still has to be earned by high-tech windmills. |
FBIS3-22249_0 | Arguments for Toxic Waste Incinerator Cited | Article Type:CSO [Article: ``Pollution -- the Burning Question''] [Text] It is an uncomfortable fact that industry's upside of creating jobs has a necessary downside of polluting the environment. Because of that discomfort, the issue of how effectively to deal with hazardous toxic waste produced by industry has been fudged by successive governments over the years. Quietly, thousands of tonnes of toxic waste have been dumped or exported both legally and illegally in the absence of comprehensive regulations. For years there has been talk about a national toxic waste incinerator for Ireland, and in the present decade that talk has become a shouting match. Few issues can evoke such emotion as former Environment Minister Padraig Flynn discovered when he asked DuPont to float a proposal for a 32-county incinerator to be based at Derry. The resulting uproar and mobilisation of protest in the town scared DuPont off the idea and it was shelved. But the national toxic waste incinerator is back. The current minister, Michael Smith, is known to be four-square behind the idea, mooting it on several occasions before he devoted a three-day conference at Trinity College, entitled Hazardous Wastes: Options for Management, to the subject. Mr. Smith has declared that the incinerator is a nettle which has to be grasped, but that he wants a public debate on the subject before a decision is reached. His main argument is that the dumping of hazardous waste throughout the country in landfill sites is creating ``little time bombs'' and that incineration is the preferred option in other countries. But environmental groups like Greenpeace claim such facilities could cause cancer and other health complications among people living nearby. The problem with this particular debate is the dearth of reliable figures which the department itself has admitted. The most up to date statistics produced by the Government show that there are at least 27 hazardous substances produced in this country by industry and services. They contain variously 14 different properties which make them hazardous, whether they are, for example, explosive, toxic or carcinogenic. The departmental figures also show that 66,000 tonnes of toxic waste was produced. These figures are, however, six years old. More recent figures are supplied by the Environmental Research Unit. Trouble is, their 1991 estimates put the amount of waste produced at only 36,400 tonnes. During one of last week's sessions, the minister agreed, following a hasty and frank meeting |
FBIS3-22250_3 | Biological Degradability of Polymers | standardization bodies such as the European CEN [European Committee for Standardization], and the Dutch Standardization Institute, NNI. These efforts have led to a number of standardization tests for four different features: anaerobic or aerobic, wet or dry. ATO has in the meantime made these tests commercially available, and according to Tournois there is great interest, not surprisingly. Following the problems that occurred with the first so-called `biodegradable' blends, it is now of vital importance that the term should be given real meaning. Using a standardized test, business, industry, and materials developers will be able to work out how their new product can be broken down by micro organisms, even under which circumstances and within what time scale. A breakthrough, Tournois feels. Outstrip The perception of the relationships between structure and properties, and the development of a standardized biological breakdown test, have brought the introduction of more and improved bioplastics closer. That means, however, that research into polymers is still moving rapidly. In fact the biopolymer technicians are rapidly overtaking the petrochemical polymer technology. Whereas the conventional plastics industry can rely on more than 40 years' experience, the bioplastics industry is still at the crawling stage. However, the catching up is taking place very fast indeed, not in the least because much of the groundwork has already been covered by the petrochemical industry. Meanwhile, various bioplastics have been developed, such as [polyhydroxyalkanoaten] polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA's), of which polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) is the most well known. They are produced by micro organisms which store the polymers in the shape of little balls within the cell. By adapting the process and by choosing a specialized breeding ground, it appears to be possible to let bacteria produce certain PHA's more or less `on measure'. These so-called fermentation polymers are still very expensive, despite the fact that the price per kilo has dropped over the last few years from about 60 Dutch guilders to around 10 guilders. Another category covers polylactids or polylactic acids. Initially this advanced degradable plastic seemed to be far too expensive, and it was used primarily for medical applications, such as surgical stitching thread. It now seems possible to produce it at a much cheaper price, by withdrawing the lactic acid raw material not from sugar, but for instance to prepare it from potato waste or from whey. A further cost reduction appears possible as a result of increasing the production capacity. In |
FBIS3-22257_0 | Expert Criticizes Environmental Record | Language: English Article Type:CSO [Article by Charles Clover, environment editor: ``Government's `Green' Record Is Attacked by Its Own Expert''] [Text] The Government's ``green'' economics guru broke ranks yesterday to attack its environmental record, criticising the £23 billion road-building programme and failure to control traffic growth. The attack by Prof. David Pearce, proposer of the Government's ``green'' taxes on fuel, will cause embarrassment on the eve of the Prime Minister's launch tomorrow of environmental strategy for the next 20 years. Prof. Pearce will publish research this week showing that the £15 billion raised from road taxes each year is dwarfed by £25 billion in ``social costs'' of road use -- noise, pollution, wear and tear on roads, congestion and accidents to pedestrians. If the motorist was to pay the real cost of using a car, he said, road taxes would need to be nearly £10 billion more, nearly double what they are now. Prof. Pearce, adviser to former Environment Secretaries Patten and Heseltine, says his research demolishes the argument of lobby groups such as the AA and RAC that motorists get ``a rough deal'' because he pays £15 billion a year in tax and only £6 billion is spent on road building. ``We have done something that the Department of Transport should have done. If they did their sums properly we wouldn't have such a rosy picture of the benefits we get from the roads programme,'' said Prof. Pearce, head of environmental economics at University College London. ``If you were to start to charge for using the road, you would need to charge the motorist for the pedestrians killed each year and the fact that he causes congestion to someone else.'' ``Similarly, no one currently charges the motorist for the social cost of the nitrogen oxides and the carbon dioxide that his car emits.'' Prof. Pearce, who sits on two Government advisory committees, says the Government's proposals for motorway charging, aimed at raising money to spend on roads, do not go far enough to stop escalating traffic growth. He said: ``I'm highly sensitive to the argument that giving a higher priority to protecting the environment would cost industry money. But the Government has done no work on how much it would cost, or how it could be paid. It has simply dropped the idea.'' ``I believe that this change can be engineered to be good for the individual, good for the |
FBIS3-22272_1 | Work Conference Announces Environmental Cleanup Plan | respected by the plan. The measures for cleaning up an ever more polluted China are part of a National Environmental Protection Agency (Nepa) programme which will run up to 1998. The World Bank, the Asia Development Bank and global environmental foundations will be asked to help finance domestic waste control projects. And legislation for the control of waste transfer across borders will be introduced. Nature reserves will be expanded to cover 8 percent of China's total land area under Nepa plans to protect biological diversity. About 80 percent of the country's industrial waste water will be treated by 1998. At the moment only about 68 percent is being treated. And five year targets have been set for the treatment of industrial waste gas and solid refuse. Nearly 88 percent of gas will be treated, compared to the current 79 percent. And 45 percent of solid waste will be processed by 1998, compared to 1993's figure of just under 40 percent. A pilot project to develop environment-friendly agriculture in 50 counties will be run by Nepa in coordination with seven State departments. Local governments will use a carrot and stick approach to tighten up on the treatment of industrial pollutants. Waste discharge licences will be necessary, and ``environmental symbols'' will be awarded to pollution-free products. The country's environment has become a lot worse over the last few years, especially in the mushrooming cities, according to the Nepa report. It is hoped that implementation of the programme will prevent further environmental deterioration and lead to a clean, beautiful and pollution-free China. Environmental pollution and ecological damage have impeded China's reforms and hindered its foreign relations. Products and facilities that consume excessive energy or poison the environment will be banned. Nepa will regularly update the public on the environment. And 10 model ecology projects will be built. The central government also plans to launch a ``Green China'' programme to crack down on industrial and urban pollution. China's environment has suffered from the economic boom. In some places, energy and raw material have been consumed with complete disregard for environmental damage. And there is widespread ignorance of State laws and regulations on environmental protection. Some local governments just don't have the clout to enforce the current safeguards, according to Nepa. Nepa warned that the coming five ears are crucial for the country if it is to establish adequate environmental protection for the 21st century. |
FBIS3-22273_0 | Environment Official Yang Interviewed on Coal Use | Language: English Article Type:BFN [By Robert J. Saiget] [Text] Beijing, Feb 17 KYODO -- China's growing coal consumption poses a huge threat to the environment, a leading Chinese official said recently, and things are bound to get worse as the country struggles to generate enough energy to fuel its booming economy. ``Our biggest environmental problem is coal. You cannot deny that in the next 20 to 30 years coal use will continue to grow,'' Yang Jike, vice chairman of the environmental protection committee of China's National People's Congress (NPC) said in an interview with KYODO NEWS SERVICE. ``We have lots of coal...To generate electricity it's the cheapest,'' he said. ``Coal is easy to get, you only have to dig.'' China used between 1.1 and 1.2 billion tons of coal in 1993, mostly for heating and generating electricity. Industry sources predict China will consume as much as 1.5 to 1.6 billion tons by the year 2000. Coal burning emits several harmful air pollutants including carbon dioxide (Co2), a major contributor to the global warming or ``greenhouse effect,'' and sulfur dioxide (So2), the main cause of acid rain, which destroys the nutritional value of soil and pollutes rivers and lakes. ``As far as I'm concerned, laws are the only way to restrict the rapid development of the coal industry. We can also use laws and regulations to encourage development of renewable energy sources such as hydroelectric power, wind, tidal, geothermal power and biogas, as well as nuclear power plants,'' Yang said. The threat of excessive dependence on coal is of such a serious nature that Yang sees the construction of nuclear power plants and the environmentally controversial Three Gorges dam -- set to be the world's largest -- as necessary projects to limit coal use in China. Despite nearly universal ignorance of environmental concerns among the general masses, Yang stressed the Chinese Government's commitment to environmental protection, citing its signing of the UN-sponsored framework convention on climate change and the convention on biological diversity at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. The 1993 establishment of the NPC Environmental Protection Committee places priority on environmental legislation aimed at controlling pollution and protecting natural resources, he said. New construction projects in China now must first have an environmental impact statement approved, he said, while several draft laws will lay down standards for solid waste disposal, air and water pollution as well as |
FBIS3-22273_1 | Environment Official Yang Interviewed on Coal Use | a major contributor to the global warming or ``greenhouse effect,'' and sulfur dioxide (So2), the main cause of acid rain, which destroys the nutritional value of soil and pollutes rivers and lakes. ``As far as I'm concerned, laws are the only way to restrict the rapid development of the coal industry. We can also use laws and regulations to encourage development of renewable energy sources such as hydroelectric power, wind, tidal, geothermal power and biogas, as well as nuclear power plants,'' Yang said. The threat of excessive dependence on coal is of such a serious nature that Yang sees the construction of nuclear power plants and the environmentally controversial Three Gorges dam -- set to be the world's largest -- as necessary projects to limit coal use in China. Despite nearly universal ignorance of environmental concerns among the general masses, Yang stressed the Chinese Government's commitment to environmental protection, citing its signing of the UN-sponsored framework convention on climate change and the convention on biological diversity at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. The 1993 establishment of the NPC Environmental Protection Committee places priority on environmental legislation aimed at controlling pollution and protecting natural resources, he said. New construction projects in China now must first have an environmental impact statement approved, he said, while several draft laws will lay down standards for solid waste disposal, air and water pollution as well as standards for resource exploitation. China's environmental protection is an uphill battle against not only the demands of rapid economic development and growing energy use, but subject to the tremendous pressures of a massive, largely uneducated agrarian population which feeds the nation on only 7 percent of the world's arable land. Chemical fertilizers, deforestation and indiscriminate strip-mining are leading to rapid soil erosion, while new highly-productive seed varieties are diminishing genetic variety while increasing the susceptibility of entire crops to a number of destructive plant viruses. Although Yang is careful to support the party's official policy of fast, healthy and stable economic growth, ``my own opinion is that we don't want to develop too fast,'' he says. ``Ten percent growth is too fast. I hope we can control growth to keep it below that level, ideally in the range of 6 percent.'' ``We are faced with a very critical environmental situation,'' Yang said. ``Our challenge is to do our best to overcome this serious situation,'' he said. |
FBIS3-22274_4 | Environmental Report Roundup 24 Jan-12 Feb | and foreign companies, they said. The delegates added that most rivers in the region have been shown to be polluted with mercury and lead. "There is abundant evidence that the disease pattern of the Urhobo population has changed from the traditional malaria and pneumonia to diseases of the respiratory tract, central nervous system as well as blood system", one community leader stated. High temperatures associated with gas flaring have killed local vegetation and rendered land unproductive for crops, they claimed. The communities have already complained about the unfair distribution of oil revenues, which contribute more than 90 percent of Nigeria's annual income, the independent newspaper said. The government team includes Don Etiebet, Alex Ibru and Melford Okilo, respectively ministers of petroleum resources, internal affairs and commerce, who are all from oil-producing southern states. In protest at what they consider as political marginalisation, environmental damage and economic strangulation some residents of Delta State and neighbouring Rivers State have stopped some oil companies from operating and destroyed schools, hospitals and other buildings, a spokesman for one foreign oil company told AFP. Dakar PANA in English at 1515 GMT on 7 February in a Lagos-datelined item reports an international workshop on the environment and sustainable development opened here on 7 February with participants urging an integrated solution to the global problem. In a keynote address, Rasheed Saba, of Nigeria's Federal Environmental Protection Agency (FEPA), said that poverty, debt burden, and other problems facing the developing countries must be addressed for environmental protection to be meaningful. "Where a people are hungry, homeless and hopeless, you do not expect them to protect the environment," said Saba. He called for a "multi-disciplinary process on education and environmental awareness at all levels", capacity-building in the developing nations, and a "bottom-up and participatory approach". The environmental expert warned that sustainable development should not be left at the mercy of economic indicators. He urged the industrialised north to abandon their "wasteful consumption pattern." According to him, "25 percent of the world's rich consume close to 85 percent of the resources and produce some 90 percent of the waste". He said that "southern governments and their elites are their peoples worst enemies." Maurice Sheridan of the U.K.-based Foundation for International Environmental Law and Development, FIELD, said the global endorsement of the Rio Declaration and other treaties should be backed by concrete action. The week-long workshop is being sponsored by the |
FBIS3-22289_0 | Efforts To Recycle Used, Waste Materials Increased | Language: English Article Type:BFN [Text] Wuhan, Mar 5 (XINHUA) -- China has stepped up efforts to recycle used and waste materials so as to stem the worsening resources shortage and environmental pollution. According to information from the Ministry of Internal Trade, a comprehensive waste-recycling system has taken shape across the country, generating considerable profit. In certain departments, such as metallurgy and light industry, more than 70 percent of waste has been reused, say officials in charge of waste-recycling. China, the most populated country in the world, is also a large waste producer. It is estimated that each year, China discharges at least 800 million tons of industrial waste, ore tailings and garbage, most of which can be reclaimed. Getting useful materials from waste has long been placed high on the government's agenda. To date, some 4,700 large waste-recycling companies and over 120,000 collection points spread across the country have been established, recovering annually 35 million tons of waste materials, saving up to 20 billion yuan (2.3 billion U.S. dollars) a year. The recycling rate has seen remarkable growth in big consumers of materials and energy. In the country's major iron and steel companies in Beijing, Shanghai, Anshan and Tangshan, 90 percent of their effluents has been recycled. The Chengdu Seamless Steel Tubing Mill in southwest China's Sichuan Province has recycled all its waste water, leaving virtually no harmful discharge. Sixteen companies in the country have started to recycle coal gas and residues discharged from their boilers. In addition, according to inspection of more than 130 firms in the trades of papermaking, consumer chemicals, sugar producing and so on, measures have been taken to reuse their waste. The sugarcane chemical works in Jiangmen, Guangdong Province, has taken the lead in making paper from the residue of sugarcane while producing alcohol, yeast, aldehyde and fertilizer with waste generated during the process of papermaking. Chinese scientists have also successfully recovered silver from used films. Techniques to recycle waste rubber and iron scrap have also been worked out. |
FBIS3-22300_1 | Statement Rejects South Dumping Nuclear Waste | that the South Korean puppets dumped into the sea, will bring to the ecosystem and the frightening catastrophes it will inflict on the South Korean people, in addition to fellow countrymen and mankind in general. As is well known, if nuclear waste materials are dumped into the sea, they will contaminate or kill fish, shells, laver, brown seaweed, and other maritime resources and, thus, inflict fatal damage on the existence of the maritime ecosystem and people. Therefore, the London Convention bans the maritime dumping of high-intensity [kojunwi] nuclear waste materials. It also stipulates that dumping of low-intensity [chojunwi] nuclear waste materials in maritime areas must be over 200 miles away from continental shores [taeryuk yonan], where fish live, and over 4,000 km deep, where there are no volcanic activities and where man will not enter even in the distant future. It also stipulates that dumping in those areas is prohibited without notifying the International Atomic Energy Agency. A decision was adopted in 1993 on completely banning maritime dumping of nuclear waste materials. The South Korean puppets' random dumping of nuclear waste materials into the sea is an unforgivable grave crime of flagrantly violating international law on respecting the natural environment and protecting maritime resources. Because of the uncouth ruling bunch, which ignores the law and destroys the environment at random, the South Korean sea is turning into a sea of death where all maritime resources are on the verge of extinction and the ecosystem and the people's existence are gravely threatened. Because of the puppet clique's reckless dumping of nuclear waste materials in the South Korean sea, many sorts of fish have disappeared, fish are killed en masse, and seaweeds are dying. Moreover, in South Korea, women who ate fish contaminated by nuclear waste materials have given birth to premature or deformed babies, numerous people suffer from cancer and other incurable diseases and unidentified diseases, and fishermen's lives have become difficult because people will not buy contaminated fish. This is none other than a crime of devastating the land where our fellow countrymen live and threatening the existence of our fellow countrymen. Our country is called a 3,000-ri land of beautiful mountains and rivers because water is clear and because the scenery is beautiful, and it is all the better to live in because the land is fertile and because maritime resources are abundant for the land is surrounded by |
FBIS3-22301_0 | Government To Join Basel Convention on Waste Control | Language: English Article Type:BFN [Text] Seoul, Mar 1 (YONHAP) -- The South Korean Government sent an application to United Nations Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali Monday to join the Basel Convention, which controls trans-boundary movements and disposal of hazardous waste. South Korea will be regulated by the Convention from 29 May, 90 days after it sent the application, the Foreign Ministry said. Under the Convention, signatories cannot trade waste matters with nonparticipants. If they want to export waste, they should receive written approval first from the country which imports the waste. The Basel Convention specifies the kinds of waste matters to be controlled, and sets procedure of trans-boundary movements of the waste and ways to make a final disposal of the wastes in order to protect human health and environment. As of now, 52 countries joined the Convention. |
FBIS3-22311_0 | Prime Minister Issues Directive on Trash Disposal | Language: Vietnamese Article Type:BFN [Text] On 7 February, the Government Office issued Instruction 658-NC on measures dealing with illegal dumping of waste and garbage in Ho Chi Minh City. The prime minister has instructed the Ministry of Interior to coordinate with the Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment to urgently study and deal with this issue. The instruction urged these ministries to seriously deal with units, organizations, and individuals involving in the dumping of waste and garbage in the city. It said that efforts must be made to urgently prosecute those who trigger this act. The Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment must discuss with the Ministry of Trade, the agencies concerned, and the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee to formulate plans and measures to protect the environment. |
FBIS3-22312_2 | Southern Cone Environmental Issues | face the same difficulties: the delay in supplying funds, bureaucracy, small disagreements among groups, the lack of ongoing action, and fishing vessels. Meteorologist Rubens Junqueira Villela says that despite the difficulties Brazil "already has carried out a valuable task in the region, including geological research on oil reserves in Elefante Island, and atmospheric and biological research, among others." (Sao Paulo O ESTADO DE SAO PAULO in Portuguese 13 Feb 94 pp D1-3) About 250 residents from Cubatao, Sao Paulo State, who have been exposed to toxic waste dumped there until 1984, are at risk since they still are exposed to highly toxic products like benzine hexachloride and sodium pentachlorophenate. They have been monitored by physicians, who were greatly concerned by laboratory tests that showed that 60 residents who were examined are contaminated with benzine hexachloride and may develop cancer, immunity problems, liver conditions, or problems in the nervous system. (Rio de Janeiro Rede Globo Television in Portuguese 2200 GMT 15 Feb 94) Mercury from power energy converters deactivated at the Federal Railway Network in Barra do Pirai may have contaminated the Paraiba do Sul River two days ago. Fifteen-year-old Julio Cesar Santiago Fernandes left the product 50 meters off the river bank, where at least 1 kg was reportedly spilled into the river by some youths. At least 800 people in the Cantao neighborhood might be contaminated by mercury. (Rio de Janeiro O GLOBO in Portuguese 17 Feb 94 p 16) CHILE The National Committee for the Preservation of Wildlife claimed that the recently approved environmental law does not have appropriate institutional support and hinders court action aimed at identifying those responsible for environmental damage. (Santiago Radio Cooperativa Network in Spanish 1000 GMT 3 Feb 94) The Chilean Air Force President Frei Antarctic Base has become the coordinating center in charge of preventing environmental disasters, especially oil spills in Antarctica. The Chilean Marine and the Brazilian Comandante Ferraz bases will cooperate in the task. (Madrid EFE in Spanish 1458 GMT 13 Feb 94) URUGUAY Carrasco Councilman Alberto Sanchez said serious pollution detected in the Carrasco stream is affecting more than 200,000 people in the area. Approximately 60 industrial plants are dumping their waste in the stream. According to a study by the Humanities and Science College, the level of contamination is 100,000 times higher than that permitted by the WHO. (Montevideo LA MANANA in Spanish 11 Feb 94 p 13) |
FBIS3-22317_0 | Oil Spills Endanger Indian Maritime Zone | Language: English Article Type:CSO [Text] Off the Malabar coast, Jan 21--The Indian maritime zone has become highly suspectible to ecological and environmental degradation with the increase in the movement of oil tankers often resulting in oil spills. About 2,000 super tankers carry oil from overseas sources to India with an average of 18 tankers entering and leaving the country's ports daily. Besides this, the entire oil cargo from Gulf to the Fareast, Australia and Japan passes through India's Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) as it lies astride one of the major oil tanker routes of the world. The responsibility of combating the potential threat of an off-shore environment disaster lies with the Indian Coastal Guards which patrol the country 7,000 km coastline in the eastern and western seaboards. The Coast Guard undertook five oil spill combat operations during the past one year alone and one of its officers told that visiting media persons that "the force has earned recently acclaim for its successful operation in the Andaman sea by tackling the fire and a 40,000 zone spill. The Coast Guard officials claimed that they had also contained the 6,000 tonne oil spill at Bombay high recently which was caused by the burst of a pipeline. Coast Guard Director General, Vice Admiral K.K. Kohli, said that because of the successful anti-spill operations, the Government had designated his force as the "central co-ordinating authority" for combating the maritime spill around the country. The Coast Guard has destroyer skimmers and chemical dispersants like Helo TC-3 to tackle oil slicks in the sea. For containing oil spills, boats are lowered from off-shore patrol vessels. These boats put up oil booms which are inflatable tubes used in the containment of oil. The bombs also limit the movement of the oil and facilitate recovery. As the Coast Guard demonstrated the operation, destroyer skimmers swung into action. This equipment is used to suck oil from oil water interface. Thus the recovered oil is sent to the refinery for re-processing. In another operation, oil-absorbing plastic garline like rope is used top mop up the oil and recover it. When oil cannot be recovered by this process, it can be chemically dispersed by aerial spray by Helo TCS, fixed wing dornier aircraft and surface ship, using spill spray. |
FBIS3-22333_0 | Government Options for Radioactive Waste Disposal Viewed | Language: English Article Type:BFN [By ITAR-TASS correspondent Veronika Romanenkova] [Text] Moscow Feb 24 TASS--If facilities for recycling liquid radioactive waste is not built in Russia's Far East within the next two months, Russia will possibly have to dump this waste in the Sea of Japan again in order to avert an ecological disaster. A choice whether to build the appropriate recycling facilities estimated at about $10 million or to dump the waste in the sea is to be made by the Russian Government, according to Viktor Kutsenko, head of the Russian Ministry for Environmental Protection and Natural Resources' Department for Ecological Safety. He also said the government was presently considering a request from the ministry to immediately solve the issue of waste disposal. Taking into account the current financial difficulties and therefore uncertainty over the recycling facilities project, Russia did not join the London convention on a complete ban on dumping radioactive and industrial wastes in the seas, which took effect from 21 February. Not acceding to the convention, Russia is losing politically, believes Valeriy Chelyukanov, a senior official at the Russian Federal Service for Hydrometeorology and Environment Monitoring. However, from the point of view of ecological safety, this decision was fully justified. If something happens to the tanker overloaded with liquid radioactive waste, which is now at moorage in the Zolotoy Rog bay near Vladivostok, the environment and people's health will be heavily damaged. Waste dumping in the sea does not threaten a catastrophe. A high-speed tanker dumps its load in the open sea, and the wastes are instantly dissolved in the water. Taking into consideration the present radioactive contamination of the Sea of Japan, "Russia's supplement" will be negligible and not cause any damage for the environment. |
FBIS3-22339_5 | Serious Consequences Foreseen in Possible Disbandment of State Committee | their actual value. For example, it would never occur to anyone that to send children to vacation in Australia--at the expense of their hosts, of course--would mean to give them at least another annual dose which they would receive during the flight. Incidentally, it would be naive to think that transoceanic voyages and foreign diagnosis are available to all residents of the contaminated territories. Near the rayon center of Novozybkovo there is a village called Zlynka. It is a rayon center too, although, according to testimony from people who have visited there, one gets the impression that the distance between it and Novozybkovo, which is visited by foreigners, is not 20 km but at least a half century. And our achievements if not at cleaning up then, as the physicians express it, in coping with the consequences of the disaster suffer from such contrasts as well. On the one hand there is our fairly successful policy of resettlement which, in the opinion of specialists in any case, surpasses similar actions taken in Belarus and Ukraine in terms of many parameters, and on the other--there is the absence for seven years in a row of reliable information on the doses received by the population. We still have not conducted an individual study of the residents. Of course, this is difficult work, but the majority of medical experts have no doubt about the need for it: It has repeatedly happened that on fairly clean territories there have been random people who have received a considerable dose of radiation. The prospects look fairly grim. It seems that only psychiatrists and psychologists have clearly formulated their ideas about them and, being specialists, in spite of the well-known Prutkov aphorism, they do not want to be one-sided like a gumboil and are hoping for cooperation from their colleagues. For example, endocrinologists, since increased pathology in this area is inevitable. It is too soon to close the question of the effects of small doses of radiation as well--thus for a long time allopathists have closed their eyes to the homeopathy but it still has not ceased to exist. So far medical experts have been engaged in organizing a kind of assistance for which there was an obvious need. Some 70 percent of the residents of the contaminated territories were in favor of organizing a sociopsychological service there. The first and, from all appearances, last center will |
FBIS3-22344_1 | New Year's Pipeline `Disaster' Result of `Irresponsibility' | Article Type:BFN [Report by Iryna Andriychuk and Oleksandr Havrosh: "New Year 'Oil Presents' From Santa Claus"] [Excerpts] Who said that Ukraine lacks oil? At least, on New Year's Eve, our state literally poured diesel fuel to Slovakia. However, it was not our fault. An accident on the oil pipeline close to Polyana in Svalylavskiy Rayon became a real ecological disaster and caused a fuss around the world. [passage omitted] Some time ago, this pipeline secretly met the requirements of the defense industry of the Council for Mutual Economic Cooperation. Its headquarters is still located in Samara [in Russia], while its Transcarpathia Department is situated in Rovno [in Ukraine]. This department has two oil reservoirs -- in Dubrinichi village (Perechinskiy Rayon) and Rososhi village (Svalyavskiy Rayon). At 1500 on 30 December 1993, Samara began pumping oil under very high pressure. It is clear that a handmade pipe collar broke and diesel fuel made its way to Europe by way of the river. Unfortunately, the accident took place on 31 December, on New Year's Eve, when all the personnel were deep in thought sitting around the table. The State Department for Environmental Protection did everything possible to mobilize as many people as possible into action. [passage omitted] An enormous oil spill spread for kilometers and eventually crossed the state border. People who saw the Latoritsa River at that time, witnessed a terrible sight. The entire river was covered with foam and a layer of oil. Though the State Department for Environmental Protection phoned everyone, everywhere, the officials in Chop were not quick enough in closing the water-intake valves from the river. This was how diesel fuel got into the city water system, making the water unfit to drink. Even on 9 January, the Latoritsa River near Chop was still covered with oil. The environment has been irreversibly damaged. The safety measures cost a lot of money. However, this is just the beginning, because we cannot avoid international responsibility for the contamination of the river. The Slovaks promised to hold back, but this oil slick continued on to Hungary, so when Budapest makes out a bill to Bratislava for damages, we will have to pay it. [passage omitted] The Prosecutors' Office should put an end to such irresponsibility. Oil and gas pipelines should be properly guarded. This is an axiom. Otherwise, we will have not a flourishing Transcarpathia but a new Chernobyl monster. |
FBIS3-22347_1 | Environment Minister Gives Qualified Support to Nuclear Power | of the United States, where the majority of nuclear stations belong to private companies. It shows that the cost of the electricity produced by nuclear power stations is approximately one and a half times higher than that produced by stations which use gas or coal. And this is in addition to the fact that in the United States the equipment is much more advanced than here. In speaking about the ecological aspect, it is true that if the station functions normally, it ejects into the atmosphere few harmful substances, compared with other energy producers. Nuclear power stations are ecologically cleaner, and their operation does not cause air pollution. This is a plus. But the minus side also cannot be forgotten. Accidents at nuclear stations can lead to disastrous consequences. The Chernobyl tragedy and events at other stations show this. Yuriy Kostenko emphasized that nuclear energy has to exist, but to act on different principles. That is, to be economically effective and ecologically secure. First of all, a closed nuclear cycle has to be created, which can guarantee a lower level of ecological danger. Another way is the development of less powerful but more effective reactors. In fact, this program is now being studied in the United States. In this approach, new types of reactors can be brought to such a degree of security that, in any sort of accident, ejections of radioactive substances do not go beyond the boundary of the thermal shell. If we choose this way, the development of nuclear energy in Ukraine will proceed successfully. All the more so because we have the industrial base for it, and personnel, and experience. But with all this, we still lack a clear, and well reasoned and calculated concept of its development. Speaking about the aspects of nuclear energy characteristic of the past year, Yuriy Kostenko pointed out that countries using nuclear power stations have encountered a series of complex problems. One of these is the security of the fuel. Previously, the government took care of this completely, allotting a great deal of money from the budget. Thus, the cost of fuel did not have an effect on the price of electrical energy. But now, when the majority of so called imposed expenses are imposed onto the stations, the price of electrical energy will grow. Another complex problem is connected with the exhausted fuel. It proved to be an especially |
FBIS3-22349_0 | Country's Industrial Waste Said To Occupy 130,000 Hectares | Language: Ukrainian Article Type:BFN [Unattributed report published under the rubric "Fact"] [Text] As reported by Vilyam Zadorskyy, head of chair of chemical and ecological technology at the Chemical and Technological University and president of the Dnieper Region Ecological Fund, Ukraine occupies a leading place in the world in the volume of accumulated waste. It annually processes about 1.5 billion tonnes of natural resources, and two-thirds of them turn into solid waste. Altogether at least 15 billion tonnes of waste occupying a territory greater than 130,000 hectares have accumulated. |
FBIS3-22350_1 | European Consortium Engaged in Chemical Recycling | be recycled into lean materials which usually end up as flower pots or roadside poles. The market for such products is small and is nearly saturated. A not yet socially acceptable alternative for materials recycling is the recovery of its energy content by combustion. Smaller Pieces "Back to feedstock" (or chemical recycling) is a third option. The aim of the technique involved is to disintegrate the polymer material into smaller pieces, in some cases even back to the original chemical ingredients. "Back to feedstock" methods are currently being researched all over the world. The process which BP and DSM are examining turns the plastic waste into an oleaginous product, from which low hydrocarbons can be produced through petrochemical techniques. It produces a wax-like product which can be used as a starting material for naphtha crackers. The base material for the BP/DSM process is waste synthetics from household garbage. Before the process can begin, the plastic fragments must be separated from the rest of the household waste. The isolated plastic fragments are then ground into pieces of two centimeter. This granulate is the base material for the cracking process that comes next. The disintegration, in which the original long polymer chains are broken into pieces, takes place in an fluidized bed incinerator, which is partially filled with sand. When a current of hot air is blown in, the actual fluidized bed comes into being. The waste plastic is thermally crushed at a temperature of between 400 and 600 degrees Celsius, and produces a steam mixture of hydrocarbons. Ninety percent of these gases finally condense into a low molecule wax. The remaining 10 percent are used as fuel which meets the energy requirements of the installation. The remains of additives in the original plastic -- such as fillings and pigments -- are left behind in the sand. Hydrochloric acids resulting from the crushing of PVC are removed separately. In general, DSM regards "back to feedstock" techniques as a promising option which, it is true, does not promise a complete solution for the problem of synthetic waste, but which is a valuable partial solution, next to alternative processing methods such as combustion (energy recovery) or material recycling. In 1990 the Netherlands produced 850,000 tonnes of synthetic waste, of which 150,000 was recycled. According to the environmental policy plan, that last quota will have to reach 450,000 tonnes by the turn of the century. |
FBIS3-22351_0 | European Consortium Perfects Plastic Waste Sorting System | Language: English Article Type:BFN [Unattributed article: "High-Speed Sorter for Plastic Parts"] [Text] A consortium of European companies and research organisations has won a research contract worth nearly Ecu 1.5m from the Commission of the European Communities (CEC) to develop a system for the identification and separation of plastics in mixed waste. The consortium's proposal -- submitted under the CEC's Brite-Euram Industrial and Materials Technologies Programme -- was awarded an A1 (outstanding) assessment in competition with over 1,250 proposals. The proposed system has major implications for the efficiency and cost effectiveness of recycling plastics by detecting specially developed 'tracers' added in minute quantities to the various plastics used by the packaging, automotive and other industries. The tracers will be detected by an advanced device using the latest fluorosensor technology. One benefit of the system is that it is able not only to detect different generic plastics but also to segregate different grades of the same material. The potential for identifying and separating a wide range of different plastics types and grades is virtually unlimited. The system is unique in being able to identify plastics containing black and other strongly absorbing colours. It is also able to operate with materials which are surface contaminated, the system will also be able to identify and reject specific unwanted materials. A product of the contract will be a pilot sorting machine; this will be capable of making at least 100 identifications and of sorting plastics at speeds of at least 10 articles/s. Proving trials will take place at a waste management site. The consortium comprises: Pira International, UK -- lead contractor and project co-ordinator; Bayer AG, Germany -- will develop fluorescent tracers under its own patent; Cranfield University (RMCS), UK -- will develop a sensitive detection system using fluorosensor technology; Newell Engineering, UK -- will create handling systems for high speed segregation of plastics articles and construct a pilot sorting machine; APME, Technical and Environment Centre (formerly PWMI), Belgium -- responsible for proving the processability of the tracers and the conversion of plastic containing them into three dimensional articles; and Laboratoire National d'Essais France -- responsible for checking the stability of the tracer/polymer systems. |
FBIS3-22368_1 | Roundup of Environmental Reports 3 February - 17 March | as well as the Kentikrono, Wewe, Susan, and Aboabo Rivers. Mrs. Esi Awuah, environmental biologist at the university, says the oxygen levels in these rivers are depleting to such an extent that they are "gradually losing their ability to contain higher forms of life." Mrs. Awuah stated most industries near Atonsu, where the rivers join together in a valley, "do not have waste treatment plants and poison control units" and therefore discharge "untreated chemicals of a toxic nature" into the confluence. The communities along the river have long practiced the "dumping of night soil" and some have even constructed "places of convenience" directly over the water. Her research has shown that the Subin could restore itself in 32 days "if proper environmental and sanitary measures are adopted." Accra Ghana Broadcasting Corporation Radio Network in English at 1300 GMT on 3 March reports that the program officer of the Environmental Protection Council, Mr. K. O. Omare, has cautioned that if proper controls and incentive mechanisms are not put in place for industrial development in Ghana, "environmental pollution would assume alarming proportions in the near future." He said efforts so far made toward control or prevention of the adverse effects of industry have been "largely inadequate." Mr. Omare gave the warning at a symposium organized to mark Environmental Day at the Buy Ghana-Export Ghana '94 Fair in Accra. Our reporter, who was present at the symposium, adds that there is a "growing concern in the country about industrial waste and pollution, health and safety hazards to workers, and public health problems due to adverse environmental changes and the misapplication of hazardous chemicals." A UN Industrial Development Organization study carried out in 1984 on industrial pollution reported that for the zone between Cote d'Ivoire and Benin, including Ghana, industrial pollutants are produced mainly by the textile industry, whose waste contains 30 percent of four polluting substances. Manufacturers of food products contribute 25 percent, while petroleum refining and handling produce 20 percent of industrial waste. Mineral exploitation and processing are also responsible for about 10 percent of the waste. Guinea Conakry Radiodiffusion Nationale de la Republique de Guinea in French at 0645 GMT on 17 March reports that at its recent session the Council of Ministers decided to stop deforestation and stressed "the need to preserve forest resources as well as state land reserves." It adds that at a time when environmental protection organizations |
FBIS3-22369_2 | Northeast of Country Works To Protect Water Resources | from northeast China's provinces and one autonomous region and 12 ministries and commissions under the central government, and its jurisdiction was enlarged to cover both the Songhua and the Liaohe Rivers. Years of practice have proven such a trans-regional leading organization is effective in cleaning up and controlling pollution and protecting the water resources. A survey shows that the group has ordered 173 enterprises in the Songhua and Liaohe River valley to clean up and control pollution, involving a sum of 560 million yuan. By the end of last year, these enterprises had completed 200 projects. These projects are able to treat 309 million tons of waste water and reduce the discharge of 650,000 tons of pollutants a year into river. They earn 130 million yuan a year through recycling and re- using treated water. While helping enterprises in the Songhua and Liaoning [as received] River valley to upgrade their technology to cut the discharge of mercury into the rivers, the central government and Heilongjiang and Jilin Provincial governments have allocated special funds to make an epidemiological investigation before working out related regulations and measures to protect the rivers. According to the regulations, any organization or enterprise that violates the set limit for discharging waste water into the rivers will be fined. In addition, cities are encouraged to improve their environment and make recycled use of treated waste water. Liaoning, China's key industrial province, has launched a "water cleaning project" to protect the water resources, improve the water environment and save industrial-use water. Governments of Heilongjiang, Liaoning and Jilin Provinces and the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region are taking joint efforts to monitor the water quality of the Songhua and Liaohe Rivers in winter, when water quality tends to deteriorate. They also are carrying out international cooperation and exchange in this field. Officials and experts in environmental protection of northeast China have paid a visit to Japan to learn from the latest achievement and technology in the study and treatment of mercury, and extended cooperation with the United States in treating organic pollution. They are also striving to gain international cooperation and donations for environmental protection. Yan Keqiang, deputy minister of water resources, has encouraged people in northeast China to continue their efforts to protect the water resources by saying, "we are determined to harness and protect the Songhua and Liaohe River system and all other major river systems in China." |
FBIS3-22380_1 | National Program for Water and Soil Conservation Approved | to go by in carrying out the work. Soil erosion in China, which is enormous in magnitude and covers vast tracks of territory, has inflicted great harm on the country. It has brought about long-term low yields and poverty to localities, and even is endangering the subsistence of the masses of people in some localities. Moreover, the running down of silt in large quantities has caused floods and waterlogging along the lower reachers of rivers. To work out this national program for water and soil conservation, the Ministry of Water Resources organized national forces to conduct large amounts of investigation and study, scientific experiments, and observation analyses. In its reply, the State Council stressed: To do a good job in water and soil conservation has a bearing on economic and social development and on ecological environmental improvement, and helps China shake off poverty and gain prosperity. It also has a bearing on the development and harnessing of rivers and lakes, as well as on the state's construction in the energy, railway, communications, and mining industries, and other areas of endeavor. It is a basic national policy that will yield success in our time and will bring benefits throughout the ages. Therefore, we should uphold it for a long time. The reply pointed out: Water and soil conservation is a systems engineering undertaking. It must adhere to the principle of "prevention as the key factor, overall planning, comprehensive prevention and control, suiting measures to local conditions, and stressing better management and efficiency." Effective efforts should be made to ensure the prevention, protection, and supervision of soil erosion, and to ensure law enforcement work. The policy should be implemented whereby those who harness rivers and lakes and those who manage and protect them will reap the benefits therefrom. While devoting our primary efforts toward bringing the Huang He and the Chang Jiang under control, we also should pay close attention to checking soil erosion in other rivers and to the water and soil conservation work in the key soil erosion prevention and protection areas, supervision areas, and control areas at all levels. The "National Program for Water and Soil Conservation" puts forward two propositions on soil erosion control, of which the second one suggests a more rapid pace of control. The State Council's reply agreed in principle to carry out the water and soil conservation work in accordance with the second proposition. |
FBIS3-22391_0 | Government Launches Manila Bay Rehabilitation Program | Language: English Article Type:BFN [Report by Elena L. Aben] [Text] The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), and the Metro Manila Authority (MMA) yesterday launched a program aimed at rehabilitating the diminishing marine resources of the Manila Bay, once considered among the richest fishing grounds in the world. DENR Secretary Angel Alcala, Quezon City Mayor and MMA Chairman Ismael Mathay Jr., and Las Pinas Mayor Gabriel Casimiro led national and local officials in signing a covenant to support the Coastal Environment Program (CEP). The project, which cover the 24-kilometer coast from Las Pinas to Navotas was launched at the Santo Nino [Holy Child] Island off the Coastal Road. The covenant noted the degradation of the natural resources at the Manila Bay, covering an area of about 180,000 hectares bounded by several coastal towns. The area was also covered with lush vegetation of mangrove species, including the "nilad," where the City of Manila derived its name. The covenant, however, stated that all major rivers leading to the Manila Bay, as well as its tributaries, are now heavily polluted and considered biologically dead. Among the major rivers leading to the bay are the Pasig River, Tullahan-Tenejeros River, and Paranaque-Zapote River. It also noted that garbage and refuse dumped by residents along these waterways and careless disposal of industrial wastes; and poor sewage treatment of industries contribute to water pollution in the area. The covenant likewise stated that the water pollution is aggravated by oil spills from gas stations, oil depots, barges, tankers, and several ships which also discharge their wastes into the bay. The DENR-National Capital Region (NCR), in an effort to put a stop to the further degradation of the bay, will extend assistance and other resources needed to the effective carrying out of activities that will protect and enhance the coastal environment of the Manila Bay. Alcala said that talisay, dapdap, agoho [local plant species], coconut and other trees will be planted to add to the biodiversity of the area surrounding the Manila Bay. "We will ring the coastline with mangroves," Alcala, an environmentalist and marine biologist, said. Mathay, for his part, said that the program has to be sustained because of the rapid development not only in Metro Manila but also in nearby regions that bound Manila Bay. Carlos C. Tomboc, DENR-NCR executive director said the program will aim to plant trees that will attract wildlife resources like |
FBIS3-22391_1 | Government Launches Manila Bay Rehabilitation Program | Mathay Jr., and Las Pinas Mayor Gabriel Casimiro led national and local officials in signing a covenant to support the Coastal Environment Program (CEP). The project, which cover the 24-kilometer coast from Las Pinas to Navotas was launched at the Santo Nino [Holy Child] Island off the Coastal Road. The covenant noted the degradation of the natural resources at the Manila Bay, covering an area of about 180,000 hectares bounded by several coastal towns. The area was also covered with lush vegetation of mangrove species, including the "nilad," where the City of Manila derived its name. The covenant, however, stated that all major rivers leading to the Manila Bay, as well as its tributaries, are now heavily polluted and considered biologically dead. Among the major rivers leading to the bay are the Pasig River, Tullahan-Tenejeros River, and Paranaque-Zapote River. It also noted that garbage and refuse dumped by residents along these waterways and careless disposal of industrial wastes; and poor sewage treatment of industries contribute to water pollution in the area. The covenant likewise stated that the water pollution is aggravated by oil spills from gas stations, oil depots, barges, tankers, and several ships which also discharge their wastes into the bay. The DENR-National Capital Region (NCR), in an effort to put a stop to the further degradation of the bay, will extend assistance and other resources needed to the effective carrying out of activities that will protect and enhance the coastal environment of the Manila Bay. Alcala said that talisay, dapdap, agoho [local plant species], coconut and other trees will be planted to add to the biodiversity of the area surrounding the Manila Bay. "We will ring the coastline with mangroves," Alcala, an environmentalist and marine biologist, said. Mathay, for his part, said that the program has to be sustained because of the rapid development not only in Metro Manila but also in nearby regions that bound Manila Bay. Carlos C. Tomboc, DENR-NCR executive director said the program will aim to plant trees that will attract wildlife resources like bats, birds, and butterflies. Several Metro Manila residents, according to Mathay, do not recognize or have not yet seen the species of trees that they will plant. He said the long term goal of the program will be to establish a mangrove seashore park where wildlife species can survive and which will be called the "bio-diversity center" of Metro Manila. |
FBIS3-22400_0 | Proposed Natural Gas Pipeline Said To Raise Concerns | Language: English Article Type:BFN ["NATION report" by James Fahn] [Text] The companies planning to build a pipeline to transport natural gas from an offshore field in Burma to Thailand have for the first time revealed the route the pipeline will take. Human rights and environmental groups fear that its construction will lead to extensive deforestation and the displacement of villagers and refugees in order to secure the route. Several refugee camps in the area have already been burnt down and their inhabitants ordered out, although no explanation was given by the Thai authorities. North of the route, Mon rebel leaders are coming under increasing pressure to sign a ceasefire with the Burmese government. Mon troops are at present skirmishing with Burmese soldiers. Assuming that the national oil companies of Burma and Thailand -- the Myanmar [Burma] Oil & Gas Enterprise (MOGE) and the Petroleum Authority of Thailand (PTT) -- can come to an agreement on the price Thailand will pay for the gas, the pipeline will come ashore between the towns of Ye and Tavoy in Burma and follow the Tavoy and Zinba river valleys up toward the border of Thailand. It will then cross highlands of dense virgin forest to enter Thailand at Ban I-Tong (Nai Et Taung in Burma) in Kanchanaburi Province. From Ban I-Tong, the pipeline will follow a road down to Thong Pha Phum and then head south to a new power plant to be built in Ratchaburi. Total, a French state-owned oil company which has signed a production-sharing agreement with the Burmese government for the offshore field in the Gulf of Martaban, will be responsible for constructing the pipeline in Burma while PTT will build it on the Thai side. The pipeline's chosen course was revealed in a letter dated Jan 12 from Joseph Daniel, Total's director of communications, to Yvette Pierpaoli, a French refugee worker. A copy of the letter has been obtained by THE NATION. The letter claims that by following the river valleys in Burma -- where there are only "scattered shrubs" -- and the existing road in Thailand, the pipeline's environmental impact would be minimized. "Only the very last (two to three) kilometres in Burma... will require cutting some trees," it says. "No population displacement is required on the Total pipeline course which follows a region which as far as we have seen is perfectly quiet," it adds. The letter claims |
FBIS3-22403_0 | Government Discusses Disposal of Radioactive Waste | Language: Slovak Article Type:BFN [TA SR report: "State of Radioactive Waste"] [Excerpts] Bratislava -- At its meeting yesterday, the Government of the Slovak Republic discussed, and took note of, the "Concept of Disposing of Radioactive Waste from Nuclear Power Generating Facilities and Other Workplaces With Sources of Ionizing Radiation." The document was submitted to the government session by the Ministry of Economy of the Slovak Republic. [passage omitted] Radioactive waste is currently being stored on the premises of individual nuclear power stations and the existing capacities are about 50 percent full. Spent fuel is being stored in storage pools of the wet type [skladovacie bazeny mokreho typu] and, in the best possible case, existing storage capacities will last until 1997. Dominant among solid waste are a large quantity of contaminated soil (1,900 cubic meters) and scrap metal (1,980 tonnes) stemming from the dismantling of some technical installations. According to the Ministry of Economy document, radioactive waste from nuclear power stations is being stored in various storage systems that represent a fairly big risk from the viewpoint of potential environmental impact. The devices needed to handle, pack, and transport radioactive waste to the storage site have been secured. The long-term safe storage of radioactive waste, however, including the storage and definitive depositing of spent fuel, has not been secured so far, the Ministry of Economy document states. |
FBIS3-22419_0 | Environment Ministry Terms Greenpeace Report `Disinformation' | Language: Russian Article Type:CSO [Text of Minprirody of Russia press service announcement "Greenpeace, To Put It Mildly, Is Wrong"; with commentary] [Text] In late 1993 the Russian branch of Greenpeace distributed a report entitled "Russia: "A Dump for Western Wastes." Following that articles with similar content appeared in the Russian mass information media. In connection with this, the press service of Minprirody [Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources] is authorized to announce that the allegation that Russia has already become a proving ground for disposing of dangerous industrial wastes from Western countries has no basis at all and is pure disinformation. The data cited in the Greenpeace report stating that in 6 years 96 attempts were made to import 34 million tonnes of waste to Russia illustrate only intentions and nothing more. Attempts made are not yet accomplished facts which constitute a real threat to Russia's ecological security. Commentary As experience accumulated has shown, the system for exporting and importing industrial waste which operates in our country does not do a reliable job of insuring us against the infiltration of large batches of dangerous waste into Russia's territory. According to the decree of the government, MBES [Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations] of Russia issues the licenses and the State Customs Committee monitors the import of waste. The basis for issuing a license is the agreement of Minprirody of Russia, which conducts the necessary expert ecological study in such cases. This system applies to all subjects of economic activity on Russia's territory, and the violation of it entails administrative and criminal responsibility. According to Minprirody data, the territorial nature protection organs have rejected the overwhelming majority of proposals of Western firms and Russian intermediary firms on the basis of the findings of expert ecological studies. In 1992-1993 they approved licenses to import only small batches of industrial waste, largely for research purposes (for example, 130 kilograms of polymer waste -- the Mikas AG Joint Stock Company, 800 kilograms of automobile scrap -- the Association of Engineering Research, and so forth). In addition, licenses to import about 50,000 tonnes of waste from Ukraine and Kazakhstan were permitted to be issued. But that is another subheading, as they say. These wastes (metallurgical tailings and granular slag) serve as raw material for Russia's cement enterprises and have been supplied to Russia within the framework of cooperation since the days of the former USSR |
FBIS3-22420_3 | Greenpeace Report Details Toxic Waste Imports From West | former Eastern Bloc, which are not considered developing countries. Such a choice, which makes it possible to turn a country such as Russia, which is undergoing a serious economic and ecological crisis, into a dump, is immoral. Russia has enough of its own ecological problems. Aggravating them with waste from the West means sacrificing Russia as an international dump. That, moreover, frees the West of the need to introduce clean production instead of toxic technologies which promote the production of harmful wastes. Political intervention is now needed to set up a ban on trade in wastes. Dirty Business Waste elimination has become an extremely profitable sector of the economy, and new regulations combined with the rapid reduction in capacities to eliminate waste merely promote higher prices. In order to avoid expenditures, a whole army of consultants, brokers, and waste-shipping companies has created a developed industry for handling waste which is called the "waste trade." This is the principle of its operation: the broker proposes to a company to remove dangerous waste at prices lower that existing ones for eliminating waste. Next the broker places the waste in a rented warehouse. Then he begins to look for somewhere to put the waste in another state whose government consents to it and where it can be done free of charge or at nominal cost. Very often officials receive bribes to do this. Frequently the middlemen try to sell the importing country equipment to eliminate the waste -- a garbage burning plant or facility for disposing of the waste which supposedly meets Western standards. Waste exporters prefer to do business with countries where the ecology movement is less influential, the laws less strict, and the leadership and executive branch of power have a shortage of resources as a result of lower development and sometimes even a crisis in the economy. Disposal Under a Different Name In the 1980's most waste dealers did not attempt to hide the main purpose of their operations -- to get rid of dangerous waste. Now, however, "processing" or "recycling" is almost always mentioned as a pretext for transporting waste from countries with a more developed economy to countries with a less developed economy. Greenpeace has been a witness to innumerable justifications for the waste trade done under the guise of "processing," "humanitarian aid," "energy reduction," and "transfer of technology." Many of those who are involved in "processing" receive |
FBIS3-22420_4 | Greenpeace Report Details Toxic Waste Imports From West | waste in another state whose government consents to it and where it can be done free of charge or at nominal cost. Very often officials receive bribes to do this. Frequently the middlemen try to sell the importing country equipment to eliminate the waste -- a garbage burning plant or facility for disposing of the waste which supposedly meets Western standards. Waste exporters prefer to do business with countries where the ecology movement is less influential, the laws less strict, and the leadership and executive branch of power have a shortage of resources as a result of lower development and sometimes even a crisis in the economy. Disposal Under a Different Name In the 1980's most waste dealers did not attempt to hide the main purpose of their operations -- to get rid of dangerous waste. Now, however, "processing" or "recycling" is almost always mentioned as a pretext for transporting waste from countries with a more developed economy to countries with a less developed economy. Greenpeace has been a witness to innumerable justifications for the waste trade done under the guise of "processing," "humanitarian aid," "energy reduction," and "transfer of technology." Many of those who are involved in "processing" receive most of the profits from the very act of accepting waste for its "removal." "Processing" specialists receive money for accepting waste, since it is well known that waste is dangerous. Inasmuch as it is prohibited to discharge or burn an ever-increasing number of types of waste, the processing procedures are considered a new means to get rid of waste in industry. Instead of preventing the production of dangerous waste, it is processed. When harmful waste is processed, it remains, damaging human health. First Africa, Then Eastern Europe In the 1980's the African continent became the first victim of the trade in toxins. In 1988 dozens of cases of such exports became known and appeared in the headlines of the world press. As a result, the African countries condemned the import of waste and imposed a ban on it. When it became clear to the waste dealers that Africa was under control, they left to seek other large areas in order to dispose of the waste. In Eastern Europe Poland became the first country to suffer: Poland was the first to open up her borders to the independent activity of Western firms. In 1989 the leaders of Solidarity adopted legislation which |
FBIS3-22421_8 | White Book Issued on Moscow Environmental Conditions | 6.9 1988 13.1 12.0 +1.1 5.3 5.5 1989 11.8 12.4 -0.6 3.9 4.0 1990 10.5 12.8 -2.3 2.2 2.3 1991 9.2 12.9 -3.7 0.7 0.6 Attention: Counterfeit! [by A. I. Leontyev] Not only money but even Karavayev therapeutic balms are being counterfeited. Almost 3 years ago the Public Fund To Promote Research and Initiatives of Citizens on Making Man and the Environment Healthy was set up in Moscow; it was named after V. V. Karavayev, the philosopher and scientist who formulated the integrated preventive-therapeutic system. A person can be healthy only when the three basic metabolic processes in his system occur normally, Karavayev asserted. They include a physiologically normal diet, breathing, and the exchange of mental information (thinking). Any deviation in these processes has an immediate effect on the acid-base equilibrium (ABE) in the blood. Each person can ascertain the ABE in his blood by the color of the conjunctiva (the inside surface of the lower eyelid). Normally it is bright pink. If there is a skew toward the alkaline, it is dark red to beet red. With a skew toward acidic, it is pale pink. For most of our fellow countrymen, the ABE of the blood is skewed toward acidic (acidosis). Karavayev balms, which affect the skin and mucous membranes, are one way to restore the balance. They are Vitaon, a butyric extract, Auron, a hydrous extract, and Somaton, a hydrous-butyric extract, from medicinal plants. There are from 9 to 13 medicinal herbs in them, including St. John's wort, yarrow, mint, calendula, licorice, thyme, and others. The therapeutic qualities of the balms are unique, and urologists, stomatologists, gynecologists, gastroenterologists, radiologists, and other specialists immediately started to use them. The Karavayev Fund developed the technology and organized industrial production of the balms. They immediately became popular among Muscovites and do not last long on pharmacy shelves. Unfortunately, slick operators have recently, at the peak of the balms' popularity, begun moving in: counterfeit Karavayev balms have appeared, poured into similar bottles and with Karavayev labels. But the counterfeits do not have the therapeutic effect inherent in the real Karavayev balms. One can distinguish the Karavayev balms from the counterfeits only by looking at the quality passport on the Karavayev balms. The seal and stamp of the Karavayev Fund should be there. So before you lay down your good money, ask the manager of the pharmacy to show you the appropriate documents. |
FBIS3-22423_0 | Ufa Inhabitants' Health Endangered by Dioxin | Language: Russian Article Type:BFN [Unattributed report under "Nature Conservation" rubric: "Ufa Remains a Place Dangerous to Life"] [Text] Research by scientists has shown that in individual parts of Ufa the maximum permissible concentrations of an extremely toxic substance -- dioxin -- in the air exceed the norm by tens of times. In the area where the "Khimprom" Production Association, which produces herbicides, is located this figure is equal to almost 20,000 times the maximum permissible concentration. Newborn babies take in up to 80 times the maximum permissible concentration of dioxin every day with their mother's milk. The republic's gene pool is perishing catastrophically. Mothers' milk and the blood and adipose tissue of the inhabitants of Bashkortostan are literally "larded" with toxic substances in quantities dangerous to life. This has been stated by Gennadiy Minin, the republic's chief state physician. Misfortune came to the land of Bashkortostan in April 1990. Unpurified waste and drainage water from Ufa's "Khimprom" flowed into the city water intake, poisoning thousands of cubic meters of drinking water with phenol. Knowing nothing, almost all the residents of the city with a population of 1 million used poisoned water for a long time. Then a large amount of dioxin was discovered in the water, the air, and the soil. Despite the city folk's protests, "Khimprom" is continuing to poison the environment or, rather, what is left of it. In addition, one more installation in Ufa has been discovered which is surreptitiously destroying nature and people with dioxin -- an experimental plant for the production of herbicides. Equipment to analyze the content of dioxin in the environment was purchased abroad at tremendous expense. But this is not the first year that it has been lying totally inactive. Taking advantage of the lack of control over it, the Bashkortostan State Committee for Ecology and Nature Use is squandering huge sums allocated to nature conservation. But a start has not been made on resolving the "dioxin problem" in the republic. |
FBIS3-22429_1 | Duma Ecology Committee Chairman Reviews Environmental Priorities | situation; essentially the indigenous peoples of Russia are dying out. The scientific research of prestigious scientists, in particular American and Japanese scientists, shows that 40 percent of the children born in recent times are already ill. What will happen to them later, in their adult lives? Generally two-thirds of all diseases today are linked to the bad state of the environment. This is more urgent for Russia than for the West. Above all it is environmental pollution in cities with a population of more than a million inhabitants which causes alarm. Here, as a rule, there is very bad water (and generally it is bad everywhere in our country) and food products contain pesticides, nitrates, and various biological additives. And what is interesting is that this applies less to domestically made products than to imported products. Propaganda, advertising, and pretty packaging do their work here; we are still susceptible to all this. The developed countries often sell us what there is no demand for in their countries. Incidentally, there are fairly strict nature protection laws in many countries of the Western world. In my opinion, that is where we must focus our activity, on improving the health of our people. That is the primary task. Yes, biological diversity and problems of protected territories are important, and that is good, but the most important thing is people's health. Mikhaylov: But to do all this capital is needed, and I would assume a considerable amount of it. Where is it supposed to come from, at the expense of what and at whose expense? After all, the only thing anyone talks about is the meager state treasury and the incredible state budget deficit. As a member of the State Duma, you are obliged to take into account the conditions of our reality. Are all these things you are so persuasively discussing realistic from a financial standpoint? Lemeshev: As an economist, I am simply depressed by the very widespread opinion that once the economy is in crisis, it is then impossible to work on economic problems. It is just when such a crisis arises that we supposedly take up ecology in earnest. And the saddest thing is that, in my opinion, this is simply a bad idea -- it finds a response in people's souls. That is certainly understandable: people are on the edge of survival and this is the point where it is |
FBIS3-22430_0 | Scientist Sees Radiation Danger in Areas Considered Safe by IAEA | Language: Russian Article Type:CSO [Article by Mikhail Dmitruk: "Surprises of the `Peaceful Atom': The Insidious Trail of Iodine-131"] [Text] Many people could be exposed to radiation in regions the IAEA [International Atomic Energy Authority] considers suitable for human habitation. This is the disturbing conclusion of Candidate of Technical Sciences Boris Karasev, senior scientific associate at the Hydrogeology and Engineering Geology Institute. Few people know about the independent study conducted by teams of experts from the Sociology Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the U.S. Center for Civic Initiative in Bryansk, Zhitomir, and Gomel oblasts in 1991 and 1992. They found that many people living in these regions displayed signs of acute radiation sickness, which can be caused by doses of 100-400 rad. Some of the victims had died. In others, the sickness had taken chronic forms: Their complaints included asthenia, headaches, xerostomia, enlarged lymph nodes, and tumors of the thyroid gland and other organs. Half of the children in zones of radioactive pollution measuring more than 40 c/km[.sup]2[/] are suffering from these chronic forms of illness. The independent commission's findings contradicted the IAEA reports that the radioactive pollution in the contaminated regions could not cause any particular damage. Then why did local inhabitants, contrary to the expectations of the nuclear scientists, suffer radiation injuries? The independent experts had no explanation. It was not until two years later than Boris Karasev found the reason. He went to the regions affected by the Chernobyl disaster each year to study the content and migration of regressive radionuclides. The experimental findings he accumulated are unique: They serve as the basis for fundamentally new theoretical conclusions. Boris Karasev frequently encountered paradoxical cases: Some of the people in regions where the average level of radiation did not exceed the allowable limit had been exposed to doses of radiation dozens of times as high as the hazard level set by the USSR Ministry of Health. People in these regions sometimes died of radiation sickness.... The researcher's observations were corroborated by the Russian-American commission of independent experts. After comparing its findings to his own, Boris Karasev was able to guess the secret of the radiation injuries these people had suffered. "According to official data," Boris Viktorovich explained, "the damaged power unit in Chernobyl discharged around 40 percent of the cesium-137 and almost all of the iodine-131 it contained at the time of the accident. These radioisotopes |
FBIS3-22430_1 | Scientist Sees Radiation Danger in Areas Considered Safe by IAEA | Then why did local inhabitants, contrary to the expectations of the nuclear scientists, suffer radiation injuries? The independent experts had no explanation. It was not until two years later than Boris Karasev found the reason. He went to the regions affected by the Chernobyl disaster each year to study the content and migration of regressive radionuclides. The experimental findings he accumulated are unique: They serve as the basis for fundamentally new theoretical conclusions. Boris Karasev frequently encountered paradoxical cases: Some of the people in regions where the average level of radiation did not exceed the allowable limit had been exposed to doses of radiation dozens of times as high as the hazard level set by the USSR Ministry of Health. People in these regions sometimes died of radiation sickness.... The researcher's observations were corroborated by the Russian-American commission of independent experts. After comparing its findings to his own, Boris Karasev was able to guess the secret of the radiation injuries these people had suffered. "According to official data," Boris Viktorovich explained, "the damaged power unit in Chernobyl discharged around 40 percent of the cesium-137 and almost all of the iodine-131 it contained at the time of the accident. These radioisotopes entered the environment in approximately the same quantities, but their effects were incomparable. The fact is that iodine-131 has an extremely short half-life -- eight days -- and is therefore highly radioactive. It is a thousand times more active than cesium-137, for example, with its half-life of 30 years. Iodine-131 is extremely volatile and can be carried thousands of kilometers in clouds of radioactive dust. It is also highly soluble, and it penetrates soil easily, where it is absorbed by plants and then enters the organism of animals and humans. These properties of iodine are the reason for the colossal damage it inflicted on the environment in the first days after the Chernobyl disaster. Radioactive background levels were three or four times as high even in Moscow at the end of April 1986, and in Kiev they were almost 8,000 times as high, reaching 5 milliroentgens per hour. The population of Novozybkovskiy Rayon in Bryansk Oblast was not advised to use powdered milk and to protect and decontaminate buildings until after May Day. The antitoxin for the radioactive iodine was distributed...three weeks after the accident, when this isotope had already decayed. Many people shared this experience: Almost all of us |
FBIS3-22432_0 | Waste Burning Facility Said Planned Near Gomel | Language: Russian Article Type:BFN [Report by RID correspondent Yuriy Leshkevich: "Fire Will Help"] [Text] As of today, Belarus has only two waste processing factories: in Minsk and Mogilev. However, their low capacity does not resolve the problem with the utilization of consumer waste which sounds extremely acute in the Republic of late. In Belarus, registered waste sites occupy some 700 hectares of land, while the area occupied by unregistered waste sites is even larger. Therefore, the only option is to build waste burning factories similar to ones which are "at service" in all civilized states. RID has learned that the construction of such a waste burning factory is being planned close to Gomel. According to experts, total costs of this construction project will stand at around 320 million German marks. The output of this factory will be 500 tonnes of waste per year. According to the plans, this factory will also burn silt which accumulates in our Republic at a rate of close to 1 million tonnes per year. |
FBIS3-22447_0 | Liability Fund for Hazardous Waste Exports Criticized | Language: German Article Type:BFN [Text] The proposed creation of a liability fund for illegal waste transportation to be financed by industry, now being debated in connection with the incorporation of the Basel Convention into German law, has met with considerable criticism among representatives of industry and the waste management sector. The convention contains provisions on the banning, supervision, and monitoring of exports and transportation. An Environment Committee hearing held behind closed doors on 2 February discussed issues relating to the export and disposal of hazardous waste and Federal Government bills on the subject. Bayer AG and the federal Hazardous Waste Management and German Disposal Industry associations raised constitutional objections to a "consumer-oriented [as published] liability fund at federal level" proposed by the Bundesrat and other bodies. A solidarity fund of this type would only make sense, the Hazardous Waste Management Association claimed, if all the economic sectors involved in export procedures were cited as potential culprits. The best method of avoiding illegal exports remained monitoring by the laender. The Disposal Industry Association maintained that before founding a "waste recovery solidarity fund," it should first be established whether a liability incumbent in principle on the state could be replaced by a fund financed by industry. According to the Basel Convention and the European regulation on transportation, "subsidiary state liability" applied to illegal exports. Such a fund would be conceivable only in the form of an organization under civil law that all waste transporters could join, like the "Motor Vehicle Accident Compensation Fund." It would have to be possible to sue illegal traders, but the fund should not have to pay for "exports determined at the political level." Bayer considered a fund arrangement "unfair," because legal waste conveyers would be accepting joint liability for illegal waste exporters, and it would contradict the principle embodied in the European waste directive whereby the culprit had to pay. North Rhine-Westphalia's Environment Ministry and the Greenpeace environmental organization, on the other hand, would welcome a culprit-oriented liability arrangement. The Environment Ministry spoke out in no uncertain terms against costs being borne out of public funds in accordance with the subsidiarity principle and in favor of risk distribution with costs shared by the waste management sector. This, it said, seemed reasonable, as it would enhance the waste disposal operators' sense of responsibility. Greenpeace basically welcomed the introduction of a fund, although a solution that obliged each of |
FBIS3-22451_0 | Britain To Review How it Disposes of Nuclear Waste | Language: English Article Type:BFN [Charles Clover report: "Nuclear Waste Review Likely To Delay Sell-off"] [Text] Plans for disposing of nuclear waste, much of it in temporary storage at sites around Britain, are to be reviewed, possibly delaying privatisation of the nuclear power industry. The plans were strongly criticised by the Government's chief safety adviser last year. Mr. Michael Heseltine, President of the Board of Trade, who has indicated that he wanted to see privatisation before the next election, has been pressing for what some officials call a "short and dirty" review. This would focus narrowly on the potential commercial viability of privatised Pressurised Water Reactors and would report by the summer. But Mr. John Gummer, Environment Secretary, is adamant that the review should cover both long-term liabilities from decommissioning nuclear plants -- costing an estimated 20 billion pounds -- and plans for disposing of nuclear power waste. A remit for the waste review, to be carried out by the Department of the Environment, has been long delayed but is now expected within weeks. The review would be expected to take until the end of the year. Yet some industry observers say Mr. Heseltine must take a decision this summer on the sell-off of Nuclear Electric and Scottish Nuclear if privatisation is to happen before the next election. It was uncertainty about the scale of long-term liabilities that led to the nuclear industry being dropped from privatisation in 1989. The waste review is likely to focus on plans of the nuclear waste agency, Nirex, for a 3 billion pound national nuclear waste dump at Sellafield -- and how realistic these are. These plans have slipped from around 2003 to after 2010 while waste continues to mount at Magnox power stations. The review is also likely to look at costs and strategies for decommissioning nuclear power stations, many of them closing in the next 10 years. This alone will cost up to 10 billion pounds. Other liabilities, including disposing of Atomic Energy Authority sites and British Nuclear Fuels, bring the total closer to 20 billion pounds. Final disposal of waste, which environmentalists say has never been properly planned, is expected to cost more than that but has never been fully costed. The recent approval given for the British Nuclear Fuels Thorp plant will probably mean that a lot of extra waste is likely to be generated, with nowhere for it to go. |
FBIS3-22457_0 | More on Level of AIDS, HIV | Language: Russian Article Type:BFN [Report by Lidiya Ivchenko: "Education Is the Most Reliable Means of Combating AIDS at Present"] [Text] World AIDS Day has been marked for the sixth time, drawing universal attention to the terrible disease which has struck at least 14-15 million inhabitants of the planet. It is no coincidence that such attention has been devoted to AIDS: It is a disease of young people, and its wide spread, first, threatens to cause the degeneration of the human race and, second, is a heavy economic burden upon society. Treatment for AIDS, which can, at best, only prolong life somewhat, is very expensive -- according to U.S. estimates, approximately $80,000 a year. The disease is still incurable, with the majority of patients dying within five to 10 years despite all the efforts of medicine, and at present just one reliable means exists against it -- people's education. Information and literacy relating to all aspects of the problem -- this is one condition for prevention. This is why medics urge the press and representatives of various organizations, including religious ones, to assist them in propaganda and educational work in everything concerning AIDS. In Russia, as is well known, the incidence of infection with HIV is considerably lower than in the West. In the opinion of Vadim Pokrovskiy, leader of the Russian Center for the Prevention and Combating of AIDS, its slower pace is connected with our society's considerable isolation in the eighties. The situation is changing now. This year 80 cases of infection with AIDS have been registered. "This infection is now recorded in 53 of Russia's 88 administrative territories," Valentin Pokrovskiy, president of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, said. "This year 32 people have passed from the infected category to the sick category -- as is well known, AIDS develops slowly, and it takes several years for the disease to show itself. In all, we have registered 692 cases of AIDS infection since 1987, 124 people have fallen ill, and 96 have died. During the same time 435 HIV-positive foreign citizens have been detected and deported." Much has been done in Russia in recent years to organize the struggle against AIDS. Precisely 748 diagnostic laboratories are operating, and the Russian Scientific Methods Center, six regional centers, 73 territorial centers, and 128 anonymous screening clinics have been set up. A federal targeted program for 1993-1995 to prevent the spread |
FBIS3-22459_0 | Academician Denies Existence of International Black Market for Organs | Article Type:BFN [Editorial Report] A Russian academician has publicly denied a Canadian film's charges that he offered human organs for sale. A Russian press report gives detailed explanations why the accusations are medically and logistically improbable. In a KOMMERSANT-DAILY article (23 Nov 93), Academician Valeriy Shumakov, the director of the Public Health Ministry's Scientific Research Institute for Transplantology and Artificial Organs, denies a Canadian film's claims that he offered human body parts for export. Shumakov calls the allegations an attempt to discredit Russian transplant specialists, who are beginning to attract patients from Europe. The film "Body Parts Business," which was broadcast on British and Canadian television in November 1993, urges international organizations to stop an alleged international black market in human body parts. According to a 25 November 1993 TRUD article, which takes its information from a report in the Belgian newspaper LE SOIR, the film alleges that organs procured from Russian kidnap victims, corpses in Moscow morgues, missing Honduran children, and Argentinian psychiatric patients and accident victims are being sold for transplantation or cosmetology research. TRUD, seconded by the Moscow newspaper KOMMERSANT-DAILY (23 November 93), says that the Canadian film describes large-volume sales of body parts for hard currency in Russia. Allegedly one firm sold 600 kidneys at 20,000 rubles apiece, and a second company sold 700 kidneys, hearts, and lungs; 2,000 eyes and 3,000 pairs of testicles. The film reportedly asserts that most of these organs are taken from unclaimed corpses in morgues, but some are removed from kidnapped Russians by rings of doctors working in well-guarded, secret locations. The contraband organs are reportedly shipped out of Sheremetyevo airport under forged documents. As reported in the KOMMERSANT-DAILY article, the BBC broadcast of the film included allegations by Bernard Cohen, director of Eurotransplant, a Netherlands-based organization that distributes organs to European transplant clinics, that Shumakov offered to sell him Russian organs. Shumakov, an eminent transplant surgeon, USSR State Prize laureate, hero of socialist labor, and academician of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, says that the rumor is an attempt by "certain forces in the West ... to compromise Russian transplantology because the entry of Russian surgeons into the international market would inflict significant injury on their Western colleagues" (KOMMERSANT-DAILY 23 Nov 93). Shumakov says that his institute collaborated for one year with Eurotransplant at Cohen's initiative. According to Shumakov, "relations became complicated" when the German physicians' association protested |
FBIS3-22463_1 | Papers Report Problems in Health Service Management Growth in Expenses | this year -- an increase of £468 million or 1,800 per cent. An analysis of the figures by Labour show that annual bureaucratic costs -- including administration, clerical and management costs -- have risen over the same period from £1.44 billion to £3.02 billion, an increase of 110 percent. The proportion of spending on administration, clerical and management costs has risen from 8.7 percent of the total NHS budget in England in 1987-88 to 10.8 percent in 1992-93. Mr. David Blunkett, Labour Shadow Health Secretary, claimed that greater bureaucracy and increased administrative costs were a direct result of the introduction of the internal market -- the commercialised contracting system within the NHS. He said it had been commonly accepted before the Conservatives came to office that NHS management and administrative costs amounted to about six percent of total NHS spending. "A rise to nearly 11 percent over 15 years is a staggering indictment of the Conservatives mismanagement and misuse of resources." A spokesman for the Department of Health said that Mr. Blunkett was only looking at the "input" side of NHS statistics without considering the output it achieved. He said: "For every 100 patients treated in hospital before the reforms, the NHS now treats 115 and it will rise to 120 next year. The NHS spends £100 million every day and if it is to treat more patients and improve the quality of care, the money has to be properly used and management plays a vital role in that process." Mrs. Bottomley argues that the increase in management is caused to some extent by staff such as senior nurses being re-designated as managers under the reforms. She also says the Government has acted decisively to cut bureaucracy -- regional health authorities are about to be abolished with the loss of 2,000 staff. District health authorities, totalling 192 a few years ago, are already down to 145 and will fall to only 94 in coming years. In a counterblast to Mr. Blunkett's comments she accused Labour of failing to produce a promised document on its health policy: "Instead of attacking the health service, Labour should deploy their time explaining how they would match the improvements in the quality and quantity of patient care achieved under the Conservative reforms." The skirmish between the two parties is in preparation for a Parliamentary debate today initiated by Labour on the level of NHS bureaucracy. |
FBIS3-22465_0 | Papers Report Problems in Health Service Management New Guidelines | Language: English Article Type:CSO [Article by Chris Mihill, medical correspondent: "NHS Bosses Warned on Ethics as Bottomley Issues New Code"] [Text] Health service chairmen, chief executives and other board members are being warned not to use their positions to further personal business interests in new codes of conduct aimed at eliminating financial scandals. The highest standards of accountability, probity and financial control must operate in the NHS, said Virginia Bottomley, the Health Secretary, yesterday. The new guidelines have been introduced following the Cadbury report on corporate governance and financial scandals in the Wessex and West Midlands health authorities which drew criticism from the Audit Commission and the Public Accounts Committee. As predicted, the codes call for the setting up of a special committee by each health board to consider thee remuneration of chief executives and other senior officers. A recent study criticised the pay of some chief executives, with reports that the chief executive of one trust hospital in London received a package worth around £130,000 a year. Health authority and trust members are reminded to keep a strict curb on using taxpayers' money for hospitality, and to refuse excessive hospitality from suppliers. "Chairmen and board members should act impartially and should not be influenced by social and business relationships," say the guidelines. The codes set down clearer definitions of the functions of chairmen and non-executive board members, a requirement to establish remuneration committees, and a duty by members of NHS boards to declare private interests relevant to NHS business. The remuneration of chairman, executive and non-executive board members must be published in annual reports. At a press conference to launch the guidelines, Mrs. Bottomley said excessive pay deals to chief executives would not be tolerated, but in some cases it might be possible to justify high salaries if better care to patients resulted. David Blunkett, shadow health secretary, said the new rules would do little to raise standards to accountability in the NHS. "Most right-thinking people would have assumed that all the suggestions being made would already be in place. They will be appalled to discover they are not," he said. |
FBIS3-22467_0 | `Devastating' Impact of Asthma Highlighted | Language: English Article Type:CSO [Article by Victoria Macdonald, health correspondent: "Children Suffer in Silence From Scourge of Asthma"] [Text] The devastating impact of childhood asthma on sufferers and their families and the high cost of its treatment will be highlighted this week with the release of the largest study of its kind into the disease. It reveals that as many children are dying now of asthma as they were a decade ago, despite the fact that figures for all other causes of childhood deaths have fallen. Half of all admissions of children to hospitals are caused by asthma, with the cost of childhood asthma to the NHS as much as £107 million a year. The Lifestyle Study looked at 773 children with asthma, aged between five and 17, and 248 parents. It is the first time the impact of asthma has been studied on such a scale. It found 2,482 children died from asthma in 1990, just 0.5 percent less than in 1980. Over the same time period, deaths among children for "all causes" fell by 24 percent. It is thought up to one million children aged between five and 14 suffer from wheezing, with diagnosed asthma sufferers accounting for one-third to a half of this total. It is still unclear whether the incidence is rising but more children are diagnosed with asthma every year. Some experts blame increased pollution or maternal smoking. Nick Wells, a pharmaceutical economist and one of the authors of the report to be published in the European Respiratory Review this week, said it was hoped that the findings would push the experts into doing something. Mr. Wells and Dr. Warren Lenney, of the Royal Alexander Hospital for Sick Children in Brighton, found 38 percent of the school children in the study lost an average of 10 days a year of education because of their asthma. More than half of the parents whose children had more than five days' absence from school felt their child's prospects were affected by the condition. Large numbers were also unable to take part in sport, play a musical instrument or go out with friends. Two-fifths were not allowed to take part in some trips or holidays. The effect of asthma on parents is also considerable, particularly on mothers. There may be additional housework to reduce dust and other irritants and the need to take time off work. "The emotional impact |
FBIS3-22470_1 | Roundup of Disease Reports for 22 Jan - 10 Feb | AIDS, according to Professor (Eglar), head of the Department of Microbiology of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, at a lecture organized by the Kogi State Medical Students Association. Prof. (Eglar) explained that in every one minute, two females are infected with the HIV virus, adding that 73 people died last year from AIDS. He warned against indiscriminate promiscuity among adults, saying that prevention is the only way of escaping from the disease as the medical profession is helpless in finding solutions to its cure. Prof. (Eglar) dismissed as false that AIDS originated from Africa, adding that the continent's most populous nation, Nigeria, ranks among the last in the list of countries noted for the disease. The professor called on the Federal Government to set up special rehabilitation centers for people infected with AIDS. [Kaduna Radio Nigeria in English 1700 GMT 22 Jan 94] AIDS -- Ten persons have died of AIDS in Abuja. They were among 75 people who had earlier tested positive to the AIDS virus. Dr. J.K. Hamza, director of health services in the Federal Capital Territory, disclosed this while speaking at a seminar in Abuja. He said 20 females and 55 males tested positive to the HIV virus out of over 1,000 blood samples tested. In an interview in Lagos, National AIDS Control Coordinator Abiola Teleguyado said that about 1.2 percent of Nigerians, who are in the puberty age, carry the HIV virus responsible for AIDS. She said over 900 people have so far developed full blown AIDS. [Lagos Radio Nigeria Network in English 1500 GMT 10 Feb 94] Leprosy -- In Kwara State, the number of registered cases of leprosy has dropped from 3,000 to 400 a year. James Malamor, director general in the State Ministry of Health, stated this in Ilorin on 24 January while briefing newsmen on activities to mark this year's tuberculosis and leprosy week. He added that the recently introduced multiple drug therapy had greatly helped in reducing the number. He said his ministry had embarked on a house to house enlightenment campaign aimed at educating the people on how to control the two diseases. [Lagos Radio Nigeria Network in English 1500 GMT 24 Jan 94] Vaginal festola -- Patients of vaginal festola in federal teaching hospitals are now to be treated at government expense. The disease is brought about by teenage pregnancies and it has assumed the status of a national problem. |
FBIS3-22470_4 | Roundup of Disease Reports for 22 Jan - 10 Feb | federal government, have taken steps to prevent new districts being affected, the paper said. Anambra State's governor, Colonel Mike Attah, told the paper that the government has provided large quantities of vaccines to carry out a major prevention campaign. Yellow fever is characterized by hemorrhages, jaundice and vomiting. [Lagos Radio Nigeria Network in English 0600 GMT 29 Jan 94] Yellow fever -- In Anambra State, 108 persons are reported to have died during an outbreak of yellow fever in Iyela local government area. Joseph Wikey, assistant chief environmental health officer for the local government, announced this when the military administrator of the state, Colonel Mike Atta, visited the local government area. A man told the administrator that he lost his wife, two children, and a grandchild as a result of the epidemic. [Lagos Radio Nigeria Network in English 0600 GMT 29 Jan 94] SUDAN Measles -- There has been an outbreak of measles in southern Sudan's Jakuture State. According to the state administrator, the epidemic is in an area close to the government's main stronghold of Juba and there have been several deaths. According to a report, the epidemic has already killed 55 people. It said 200 others had contracted the disease in the region. A state of emergency has been declared there. [London BBC World Service in English 1705 GMT 25 Jan 94] ZAIRE AIDS -- A conference followed by a debate on AIDS was chaired on 24 January by Professor Sola Kabumbamba at Masina Literary Institute. Prof. Kabumbamba said 21,000 AIDS cases were reported in Zaire during the 1986-93 period, 12,000 of which were from the city of Kinshasa alone. It is estimated that the number can reach 15 million HIV positive cases by the year 2000. In Zaire, over 100,000 cases of death from AIDS have already been recorded. [Kinshasa Voix du Zaire in French 1800 GMT 24 Jan 94] Leprosy -- The international community celebrated the 40th World Leprosy Day on 30 January. Speaking on the occasion, the health minister said control of the disease is positive in the world but remains preoccupying in Zaire with 60,000 leprosy patients thus making the country one of the most endemic in Africa. The areas with the highest number of leprosy victims are Equateur, South Kivu, Haut- Zaire, and Tanganyika subregions. The multiple drug therapy coverage rate remains low in Zaire but nonetheless there has been an improvement in |
FBIS3-22470_5 | Roundup of Disease Reports for 22 Jan - 10 Feb | provided large quantities of vaccines to carry out a major prevention campaign. Yellow fever is characterized by hemorrhages, jaundice and vomiting. [Lagos Radio Nigeria Network in English 0600 GMT 29 Jan 94] Yellow fever -- In Anambra State, 108 persons are reported to have died during an outbreak of yellow fever in Iyela local government area. Joseph Wikey, assistant chief environmental health officer for the local government, announced this when the military administrator of the state, Colonel Mike Atta, visited the local government area. A man told the administrator that he lost his wife, two children, and a grandchild as a result of the epidemic. [Lagos Radio Nigeria Network in English 0600 GMT 29 Jan 94] SUDAN Measles -- There has been an outbreak of measles in southern Sudan's Jakuture State. According to the state administrator, the epidemic is in an area close to the government's main stronghold of Juba and there have been several deaths. According to a report, the epidemic has already killed 55 people. It said 200 others had contracted the disease in the region. A state of emergency has been declared there. [London BBC World Service in English 1705 GMT 25 Jan 94] ZAIRE AIDS -- A conference followed by a debate on AIDS was chaired on 24 January by Professor Sola Kabumbamba at Masina Literary Institute. Prof. Kabumbamba said 21,000 AIDS cases were reported in Zaire during the 1986-93 period, 12,000 of which were from the city of Kinshasa alone. It is estimated that the number can reach 15 million HIV positive cases by the year 2000. In Zaire, over 100,000 cases of death from AIDS have already been recorded. [Kinshasa Voix du Zaire in French 1800 GMT 24 Jan 94] Leprosy -- The international community celebrated the 40th World Leprosy Day on 30 January. Speaking on the occasion, the health minister said control of the disease is positive in the world but remains preoccupying in Zaire with 60,000 leprosy patients thus making the country one of the most endemic in Africa. The areas with the highest number of leprosy victims are Equateur, South Kivu, Haut- Zaire, and Tanganyika subregions. The multiple drug therapy coverage rate remains low in Zaire but nonetheless there has been an improvement in the past years, from 7 percent in 1987 to 66 percent in 1992, the minister said. [Kinshasa Voix du Zaire in French 1800 GMT 30 Jan 94] |
FBIS3-22471_0 | Epidemiological Reports Monitored 7 - 13 Feb | Article Type:BFN [Editorial Report] Following is a compilation of reports monitored by FBIS Mbabane Bureau from 7 to 13 February concerning outbreaks of and reports on various diseases. Items are listed by country and disease. The source follows each item. LESOTHO AIDS -- The superintendent of Queen Elizabeth II Hospital in Maseru, Dr. Thabo Masiye, says there are more than 340 HIV AIDS victims in the country. Dr. Masiye said the rate of HIV AIDS is increasing rapidly and a joint effort is needed to prevent it. Dr. Masiye says it is increasing through a lack of knowledge and mostly affects the sexually active group, affecting mostly women between 19 and 40 years of age. This is an economically active group and the economy of the country will decline if they die. (Maseru Radio Lesotho in English 0500 GMT 11 Feb 94) MOZAMBIQUE Diarrhea -- Diarrhea has killed at least 30 people in the administrative area of Chaimite, in Gaza Province's Chibuto District, over the last two months. A local health source told Radio Mozambique that the epidemic was particularly acute in hinterland areas without health posts. (Maputo Radio Mozambique Network in Portuguese 1030 GMT 7 Feb 94) NAMIBIA Malaria -- A drastic increase in malaria cases has been reported at the (Nankundu) state hospital west of Rundu since the beginning of this year, compared to last year and at least one person has reportedly died of the disease. More than 200 people have received malaria treatment since early last month, compared to 70 cases treated at the hospital last year. More than 40 people have been admitted, of which 34 were children under the age of 12. More than 10 patients visit the hospital daily. (Windhoek Namibian Broadcasting Corporation Network in English 1900 GMT 10 Jan 94) |
FBIS3-22474_0 | Birim North District Has High Yaws Incidence | Language: English Article Type:CSO [Article by Kwaku Tsen] [Text] Superstition has been identified as the major contributory factory to the prevalence of yaws in the Birim North District of the Eastern Region. A source close to the New Abirem Health Centre told the GRAPHIC that even though c300 is charged for the full treatment of the disease, the number of people treated is negligible. As a result, only 460 out of 5,871 cases of yaws detected in a recent survey conducted by the Ministry of Health in the district have been treated. The source said the superstitious belief of parents that injections would paralyse their children and poverty are the main causes for the low figure. The district which is among one of the least developed areas in the country has the highest number of yaws cases in the Eastern Region. It mentioned Mamago, Adauseua, Hhweakwae, Zongo as communities where the disease is spreading. The disease is caused by a spirochaete and can be fatal if left untreated. |
FBIS3-22475_0 | In North, 32 Percent of Inpatients Have Malaria | Language: English Article Type:CSO [Text] Deaths due to malaria infection in the Northern Region is now 28.5 percent with children and pregnant mothers being the most vulnerable groups. A survey conducted by the Regional Health Administration between 1989 and 1993 indicates that 32 percent of ward admissions are due to malaria infection while the Out-Patient Department (OPD) admissions account for 52.3 percent. This was made known by Dr. Sylvester Anemana, acting Regional Director of Health Services at the launching of the Regional Malaria Control Programme at Tamale yesterday. He said inadequate medical staff is a major constraint in the control of malaria. He explained that the cash and carry system is also making some districts not to sustain regular drug supply while there is irrational drug prescription resulting in drug abuse by chemical sellers. Dr. Anemana said a regional plan of action to address the situation would include in-service training for staff towards proper diagnosis and treatment of malaria, provision of equipment and raising of the capital base of districts for more effective drug supply. Dr. Anemana said public health education is to be intensified and under a pilot project, impregnated bed-nets are to be used as a measure to protect the individual from mosquito bites. If it proves successful, it would be extended to other districts. Mr. Gilbert Iddi, Deputy Regional Minister of Agriculture who was the guest speaker expressed regret that health care delivery only reaches about 30 percent of the population in the Northern Region. Mr. Baba Ibrahima, Tamale Municipal Secretary, urged the health staff to devote time and energy in educating the people to adopt preventive measures against malaria attacks. |
FBIS3-22479_0 | Sterilized Tsetseflies Being Bred for Control | Language: English Article Type:CSO [Article by I.K. MacArthur] [Text] The Ghana Atomic Energy Commission (GAEC) is currently breeding a large number of tsetseflies for a biological control programme to check tsetsefly infestation in the country. The commission, at the moment, has more than 10,000 adult females, a number of males and over 23,000 pupae in its laboratories which are being used to reproduce males for the project. Dr. (Mrs.) Delphina Aba Ababie-Gomez, Head of the Department of Animal Sciences at the GAEC, who made this known to the GRAPHIC explained that under the programme, an irradiation facility -- a Cobalt 60 Gamma source -- which is being installed at the commission will be used to sterilise the insects, particularly the males. Sufficient numbers of the sterile males, she said, will then be released in critically infested areas to overwhelm the population of the insects in the wild. When the females in the wild mate with the sterile males, no offsprings will be produced, resulting in reduction in the tsetsefly population. The biological control programme, the sterile insect technology is being undertaken by the commission in collaboration with the Veterinary Services Division of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture at Pong Tamale and the Animal Research Institute of the Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). It is being supported by the International Atomic Energy Agency based in Vienna, Austria. Dr. Adabie-Gomez said when the tsetsefly population is reduced, it will lead to a reduction in the incidence of trypanosomiasis, also known as sleeping sickness, which affects man and animals in the country. She further explained that a reduction in the population of the insect in critically infested areas would enable the country to reclaim the land for human settlement, agriculture and other socio-economic purposes. She disclosed that some lands in the oncho-free areas of the Northern, Upper East and Upper West regions are not being fully utilised at the moment because of tsetsefly infestation. Parts of Ashanti, Brong Ahafo, Central, Eastern and Volta regions are also endemic, she added. Dr. Adabie-Gomez hinted that a limited number of sterile females will be released for dynamic population studies in three sites in the White Volta and Nabogo River basins of the Northern Region from April to July next year. The releases will be done monthly. The release of the sterile adult males, she said, will begin around August next year during the rainy season |
FBIS3-22481_0 | New Leprosy Cases Sharply Reduced | Language: English Article Type:CSO [Article by Pamphil Kweyuh and Alex Diang'a: "Kenya May Soon Conquer Leprosy"] [Excerpt] Kenya is well advanced in the World Health Organisation-initiated efforts to conquer leprosy by the year 2000, researchers have learned. Dr. Daniel Kibuga, head of the National Tuberculosis and Leprosy Control Programme (NLTP), says numbers of new cases registered yearly for treatment have dropped remarkably from 10,000 to 700 patients between 1985 and 1992. A further drop to 400 is expected in the next five years. By Kibuga's prediction, Kenya may be among the first of some 94 countries where four to six people in every 10,000 suffer from leprosy to come down to the WHO target of one in every 10,000 by the year 2000. WHO considers the current rate "endemic." In Kenya, leprosy is endemic in Western, Eastern and Coast provinces. Researchers say the disease is largely caused by overcrowding and poverty, a factor that makes it difficult to understand why it has not been reported in the North Eastern Province. Isolated cases of leprosy have been recorded in Kenya's other provinces, Central, Rift Valley and Nairobi, says Kibuga, adding that the disease is caused by a bacteria clinically known as Mycobacteria lepraer. According to Dr. Patrick Orega, the head of Alupe Leprosy and Skin Disease Research Centre of the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI), the last epidemiology survey conducted in Kenya in 1988 found four in every 10,000 people to be afflicted. Of these 97 percent were recorded in Western and Nyanza provinces. Kenya, with some six million people suffering from leprosy, is one of the countries targeted in the global WHO strategy to combat the disease. Alupe, on the edge of the Angoromo Shopping Centre, 500 kms west of the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, maintained a record of 4,000 patients on treatment countrywide, although Orege believes that there are 30,000 people suffering from leprosy in Kenya. [Passage omitted] |
FBIS3-22482_0 | Fifty-Five Measles Deaths in Chama, E. Province | Language: English Article Type:CSO [Excerpt] Fifty-five people have died of measles in Chama in Eastern Province since the outbreak of the disease in January. Provincial medical officer Dr. Godfrey Chishimba said 978 cases of measles had been recorded and the death toll could be higher because some occurred in remote areas without the knowledge of health personnel. Dr. Chishimba said most of the deaths occurred between January and September in nine places under chiefs Kambombo, Tembwe, Chibale, Mulilo and Chikwa. A team of medical staff had been sent to the affected areas to immunise people against the killer disease and that another group will soon go there to carry out another round of immunisation. Dr. Chishimba who complained of erratic supply of drugs to the province to contain the disease said the situation was under control. But reports reaching Chipata from Chama say there is a fresh outbreak of the disease and more people are dying especially in Chief Kambombo's area. [Passage omitted] |
FBIS3-22485_0 | Anti-AIDS Campaign Reduces STD Cases | Language: English Article Type:CSO [Text] Masvingo's Gutu District, which has become notorious for its unusually high incidences of STD, has slashed its levels of infection by 1,000 cases every year, a health officer has said. The district nursing officer, Sister Winnie Fadzai Mavedzenge, last week said incidences of sexually transmitted diseases among schoolchildren, which recently represented about 60 percent of recorded cases, had been "reduced tremendously." She attributed the reduction to a vigorous anti-AIDS awareness campaign which sparked off a "condom riot" at Gutu-Mupandawana growth point as people dropped unprotected sex. "People are coming on their own to collect condoms which we have flooded in all night spots at the growth point," she said. Cde. Mavedzenge said STD had tumbled down to fourth on the list of problem diseases in Gutu after acute respiratory infections, injuries, and skin diseases since the launch in 1990. The Ministry of Health and Child Welfare went on the offensive following reports of mounting STD and HIV cases in the district of nearly 200,000 people. Under a recently unveiled knowledge, attitudes and practices programme, public health officers studied socio-economic profiles of vulnerable groups such as schoolchildren housed in illegal boarding camps before prescribing durable solutions. "We told the heads of schools that all pupils not housed in proper boarding places had to go back to their villages where they fall under their parents' authority," she said. In 1989, Gutu was shocked when the then district medical officer, Dr. David Blankhart, said that at least 100 patients in Gutu Mission Hospital had tested HIV positive. Although his statistics were holy disputed, the spiral of infection continued to rise sharply as no fewer than 2,000 STD cases were recorded per year in the district between 1991 and 1993. Sister Mavedzenge, however, said since the launch of the campaign, numbers of "ladies of easy virtue" had dwindled considerably at Gutu-Mupandawana owing largely to a rapidly disappearing clientele. |
FBIS3-22492_0 | Study Says 100,000-400,000 Infected With AIDS Virus | Language: English Article Type:BFN [From the "International Report" program] [Text] Burma is on the brink of an AIDS [Acquired Immuno Deficiency Syndrome] explosion that could rival the problems experienced in neighboring India and Thailand. New studies revealed that Burma has the world's highest prevalence of the AIDS-producing HIV virus among intravenous drug users, and one estimate says 400,000 people may already have been infected. Evan Williams reports that after years of disastrous economic isolation, Rangoon's dilapidated health structure appears unable to cope with Asia's unknown AIDS epidemic. [Begin recording] Unidentified speaker: He was having fever for over a month here, he had thrush all over his month, he had these shingles, he had lymphatic glands, and marks all over his body. He was very very ill, and in fact I thought he was not going to make it. That was a few years ago. Williams: Twenty-four-year-old Myo Tun used to share needles with friends to inject heroin for a dollar a hit. Now he lies in Rangoon's Infectious Diseases Hospital -- part of the first wave of an epidemic nobody really knows the size of. Unidentified speaker: When he started using this among his friends nobody, you know, cleans the needle. Williams: In fact, nobody knew about AIDS, and few in Burma really still understand it. The biggest problem in the country producing most of the world's heroin is among injecting drug users. Many are sexually active young men who work in mining areas and travel throughout the country. It's illegal to possess a needle in Burma so instead those using heroin go to so-called shooting galleries where more than a dozen people share one needle. A new study says Burma has the world's highest rate of HIV infection among injecting drug users. It is a third more than New York and 15 times more than Sydney. It says HIV infection among these drug users in Burma is out of control, and there are no signs of that changing. In some areas, 96 percent of prisoners and drug users tested were HIV positive. AIDS is established in the Burmese population, it says, and a lack of information is spreading it fast. Unidentified speaker: What is needed now is, really, a nationwide information campaign which has to reach all the population as fast as possible. Williams: UNICEF's Sylvia Muchiani says Burma's AIDS problem could already compare with the worst in Asia |
FBIS3-22493_4 | Pasteur Institue Reports AIDS Findings | HIV positive case was diagnosed in Cambodia in June 1991, such tests were not previously available here so it's impossible to tell when the first Cambodian contracted the disease. Several patients are already showing signs of AIDS related complaints. [passage omitted] She adds that the lack of visible symptoms in HIV positive patients contributes to the population's ignorance and refusal to acknowledge HIV is a problem in Cambodia. Most of Cambodia's victims are young men and many of them married, but few wives continue to stay with their husbands after hearing they are HIV positive. Most of Cambodia's HIV cases are believed to have been transmitted through heterosexual sex. It seems culturally acceptable for Cambodian men to visit brothels and locals estimate up to 95 percent of Cambodian males would visit a prostitute at least once in their life time. Dr. Kruy is not alone in her fear of an AIDS epidemic gripping Cambodia. The World Health Organization and several foreign non-government organizations have recognized the problem and started to take steps to combat it. Although more than 100 Cambodian HIV victims had been identified in 1991 and 1992, none of them were informed of their status as no counseling service was available, until February of this year. The decision not to inform victims before this time was made jointly by WHO and the then Phnom Penh government. But earlier this year ten Cambodians were trained to do pre-test and post- test counseling and HIV victims began to be informed of their disease. "There are only a few cases in the provinces. If we can stop the spread in Phnom Penh, we won't have a problem like Thailand," Dr. Kruy said. Dr. Mam Bun Heng, chairman of the National AIDS Committee, said the new government had put AIDS control on the high priority list, but funds and real commitment from the community were lacking. "We are trying now to get more money. We have produced a five-year comprehensive plan, but we need money -- $7.5 million," he said. "And we need a commitment from all sectors, education, administration, religion, and the economic sector... not only to talk but to develop the program." He said the first plan of the program was to educate high risk groups like prostitutes and STD victims. "The problem is information and education and how to spread it to the public," Dr. Mam Bun Heng said. |
FBIS3-22494_1 | Doctor Reports on Fake Drugs, Attitudes on AIDS | condoms. "I tell them they will need some people to support them when they get AIDS and if there is ever some drug, they will know very soon and can cure themselves." Last month, Dr. Ouk and her male colleague saw 193 patients (more than 25 percent of them commercial sex workers) and treated 102 sexually transmitted diseases. The examination room is sparsely furnished with a sink, table, a few chairs and an examination bench. A worn microscope rests on a bench near the window from where one gets a view of the marshy dike and thatch-roofed local houses. "They come here because they are afraid of HIV, because they sometimes tear their condom and because they didn't know about HIV, so they didn't use condoms ... they don't give them education about HIV, they look so sad," she said. "Our biggest problem is gonorrhea, but I can't tell you about HIV or syphilis because we don't do the blood tests here, only refer them." Dr. Ouk claims ignorance is the biggest barrier to combatting AIDS in Cambodia. She tells a story of a man who is believed to be peddling a bogus inoculation against AIDS and STD in the Tuol Kork brothel strip. She has heard it's 10,000 riel a shot and would-be buyers are told they must have one every month. Even the brothel owners tell me, "we never saw AIDS here, what does AIDS mean?" she says. They don't understand HIV because they can't see any symptoms, she adds. About 1,000 prostitues work from wooden shacks along the Tuol Kork strip, many of them are ethnic Vietnamese, but the Cambodians are well represented as are half Khmer-Vietnamese. "Before the election many went back to Vietnam, but after that they came back with many of their relatives," she said. "The youngest I met was 14, but most are 16 years old." "They are usually from poor families, sometimes they have a broken heart, sometimes their family sells them." She says it is usually the mother who brings the girl in for sale and a lot end up paying off their parents' gambling debts. "They think if they are rich and they have enough money they will go back and married to a good man. If they have gold and good clothes it will be easy to find a man to marry when they go back." If a prostitute |
FBIS3-22494_3 | Doctor Reports on Fake Drugs, Attitudes on AIDS | paying off their parents' gambling debts. "They think if they are rich and they have enough money they will go back and married to a good man. If they have gold and good clothes it will be easy to find a man to marry when they go back." If a prostitute gets pregnant, her brothel usually arranges an abortion for her. A girl fetches her highest price for her virginity. According to Dr. Ouk, it's an Asian belief that oral sex with a virgin will improve the health of old men and increase longevity, and the new rich Khmers are joining visiting Hong Kong and Singaporean businessmen in bidding for young girls -- the going rate is $800 a week which is split between the girl's family and the broker who procures the virgin. The customers are always over 40 years old, Dr. Ouk says. Local Cambodian men claim virgins can be bought for $300 to $400 if you know how to cut out the middle man. Dr. Ouk says a girl will usually spend a week with the man who buys her virginity and after that will start to earn around $100 a time for the next month as she's still "fresh". Subsequent months she will earn around $20 a time if she stays in a dancing hall, but most of the girls in Tuol Kork earn between $2 and $4 a customer. The one-time fee decreases with time and wear and tear. "The average number of clients for the girl per day is five to six, but some of them get ten every day -- she is the pretty girl," Dr. Ouk says. "The pretty girl can get a high price and many clients." One afternoon a week, brothel owners and prostitutes are invited for health education sessions at the clinic, but to date attendances are low. Dr. Ouk is concerned that HIV will quickly spread throughout the whole country as the prostitutes are a transient population and usually come in from the provinces to work in the city for a year before returning to their home district. She believes 95 percent of Cambodian males visit a brothel at least once in their lives. It is an acceptable part of Cambodian culture. Last week she treated a 16 year-old boy for gonorrhea. The Tuol Kork community dike clinic is open four mornings a week from 0800 to 1100. |
FBIS3-22496_2 | Malaria Estimates, Strains Reported | a French agency, Action Internationale Contre Faim (AICF). Although only recently introduced in the northwest, mefloquine (marketed in Thailand as Lariam) is following a pattern set in Thailand in the 1980's; parasites present in the blood of more than half the patients in one AICF study showed resistance to the drug. In remote areas, such as Rattanakiri province in the northeast, malaria is much more responsive to traditional drugs. But Chus Alonso, an AICF epidemiologist, said she had her doubts about the scant data sent by medical workers in the northeast. The Khmer Rouge and other security threats forestall any thorough studies. Security problems also have made it difficult for medical personnel and drugs to reach affected people, including ethnic minorities. When 300,000 Cambodian refugees returned home from the Thai border, it was inevitable that they would carry the resistant parasite along with them. Just as likely, the mosquitoes bearing the parasite were waiting for them. In fact, while Thailand has earned a bit of international notoriety from its chloroquine-resistant parasites, they may have originated in Cambodia in the late 1950's and early 60's. At that time, northwestern Cambodia had a peculiar malaria prevention programme whereby table salt was laced with chloroquine. Scientists speculate that prolonged exposure to low levels of the drug enabled parasites to build up immunity to it. Nonetheless, falciparum malaria in Cambodia differs from the Thai version in a way that makes it especially difficult to fight. The mosquito carrying the parasite is called Anopheles dirus. Its preferred breeding ground is in the forest, in pools of water, including those created by an animal's hoof prints. This explains why malaria rarely occurs in Cambodian towns or in the heavily populated areas surrounding the vast Tonle Sap Lake. People clearing forests for farmland or working in forests, therefore, are most vulnerable. What worries public health officials is that the numbers of such transient people have surged with the relative peace of the past two years. They include the gem miners in the Pailin area and woodcutters along both the Thai and Lao borders. Often they are accompanied by their families. Assistance from AICF and the World Health Organization (WHO) in the past few years has upgraded the national center's treatment services. But a large grant from the British Overseas Development Administration coupled with increased access to the countryside now has made a much wider control effort possible. |
FBIS3-22501_0 | Rates of HIV Pregnancies Increasing | Language: Thai Article Type:CSO [Unattributed report: "AIDS Spreads in Seven Provinces of the South, Pregnant Women Have High Incidence"] [Excerpt] [Passage omitted] Dr. Anan Sulaiman, Director of the Area 12 Health Center, said that the increase in AIDS among women and children in the seven lower provinces of the South was accelerating. For pregnant women who were examined at the hospital it was found that 7 percent had the AIDS virus. There were many that were not examined by the hospital, and it was thought that the figure might be higher than this. Dr. Anan said the reason for the increased spread of AIDS in the seven provinces of the lower South was that there was still little awareness of AIDS prevention in any group. The use of female prostitutes caused more and more wives to acquire the virus from their husbands. Changing the custom of using prostitutes, if it were possible, would reduce the incidence of AIDS. [passage omitted] |
FBIS3-22502_0 | Health Committee Cites AIDS Figures | Language: Thai Article Type:CSO [Unattributed report: "Every Government Unit Needed To Battle AIDS"] [Excerpt] Dr. Wichai Chaichitwanitkun, an MP from Udon Thani of the New Aspiration Party spoke to reporters as Vice-chairman of the Public Health Commission. He said that at the meeting of those involved with AIDS from the Ministry of Public Health, the National Committee for AIDS Prevention, the National Assembly, and experts in AIDS it was learned that the actual figure for those with the AIDS virus throughout the country was about 600,000 people. Areas with a high incidence were the North and Bangkok. Little was found in the Northeast, the South and the East. If one person in 100 had AIDS, it would be considered very serious. Dr. Wichai also said that in 5 to 6 years there would be 300,000 people with the complete AIDS symptoms. At present the Ministry of Public Health and private institutions had 90,000 beds for patients. How would these patients be cared for? The Ministry of Public Health would have to find new ways to care for both AIDS patients and ordinary patients. How could they both be dealt with? What he was worried about was how to get the Thai people throughout the country to refrain from spreading the disease, especially in regard to the use of prostitutes. Prostitutes were the most serious cause of the spread of AIDS, accounting for 90 percent of the cases. Children contracting the virus from their mothers accounted for 5 percent of the cases. The rest involved drug addiction and hypodermic needles, but the percentage was small. [passage omitted] He said that the statistics for those dying from AIDS now was one and one-half per day. The situation was considered to be very serious especially in some provinces of the North such as Chiang Mai Province, Chiang Rai Province and Lampang Province where one person per day was dying. He wanted those who did not have the AIDS virus to see people suffering from AIDS. Then they would know how bad it was for these patients just to lay down and wait to die, and how much the patients suffered in the 3 to 4 years it took to die. Government units in every ministry, bureau, department; University students; secondary students; and primary students would have to help in the battle to make the people realize the danger of AIDS and stop thinking |
FBIS3-22503_0 | Over 2,000 AIDS Cases; 21 Deaths | Language: Thai Article Type:CSO [Excerpt] Dr. Phuchong Wiraphlin, the public health officer in Phrae Province, talked about the AIDS situation in Phrae Province. He said that there are now 2,041 people with AIDS, and 21 have died. A report issued by the Social Medicine Data Section, Phrae Hospital, stated that the largest number of AIDS patients are men who like to visit prostitutes. This is followed by prisoners and housewives. [passage omitted] |
FBIS3-22505_0 | Nakhon Sawan Dengue Worsens | Language: Thai Article Type:CSO [Unattributed report: "Severe Outbreak of Dengue in Nakhon Sawan, Public Health Claims Control"] [Excerpt] [Passage omitted] Dr. Thawat Suntharachan of the Nakhon Sawan Province public health organization told MATICHON that the statistics for the spread of dengue fever in Nakhon Sawan Province were higher than last year. It was normal for the incidence of this fever to be heavy one year and light the next. According to the statistics from the beginning of the year until the present, there had been 714 cases of the fever and four deaths. According to a public health report Latyao District had the most cases with 150. Branch District Maewong had 114 cases and two deaths. The municipal area of Nakhon Sawan had the most for a municipal area with 87 cases. The Chum Saeng municipal area had 16 cases. The Ta Khli municipal area had six cases. The sick were generally between 1 and 14. Dr. Thawat said that since those sick were generally between 1 and 14, most were of school age or were students. This year public health was receiving a great deal of assistance from the educational administration in combating the spread of mosquitos and controlling mosquitos. [passage omitted] In regard to the spread of dengue fever in Nakhon Sawan, although the statistics public health had received from affiliated units had not been high, nevertheless the investigation done by MATICHON in private hospitals and clinics indicated that there were very many who were sick. |
FBIS3-22506_0 | Flooding May Increase Risk of Dengue Fever | Language: Thai Article Type:CSO [Unattributed report: "Serious Outbreak of Dengue Fever, "Nong Chok" Champion for Highest Number of Sick"] [Excerpt] [Passage omitted] Dr. Warawit Lepnak, Director of the Bangkok Health Office, said that heavy rains and flooding provided many breeding places for mosquitos and people could be more at risk from dengue fever. So the health office had been working to destroy these breeding places throughout Bangkok. The statistics for dengue fever for the past ten years indicated that the highest incidence had been in 1987 when there were a total of 12,190 cases in Bangkok and 18 deaths. The pattern of the disease was to spread every other year or every two years. When Bangkok battled the disease, the number of cases was reduced. He said that this year the number of cases of dengue fever had been higher from January until August. There had been a total of 1,096 cases but no loss of life. If one compared the statistics for the number of cases in various areas based on the population, one found that Nong Chok had the highest incidence. Next came Yannawa, Sathon, Bangrak and Thonburi in that order. If one considered the total number of cases in the top ten areas, Thonburi was first with 75 cases, Huai Khwang was next with 61 cases, Yannawa with 59, Sathon with 58, Phasi Charoen with 56, Chomthong with 45, Ratsadon Burana with 42, Phrakhonong with 40, Bangkapi with 39, and Dusit with 36. He also said that although the situation with dengue fever in Bangkok had not reached the stage of epidemic, we should be careful after the rains not to throw away anything which might hold water as these could provide breeding places for mosquitos. There was a mistaken belief that breeding places for mosquitos could only be in waste water. In fact mosquitos could breed in clean water. |
FBIS3-22508_0 | Province Sees Drop in Liver Fluke Cases | Language: Thai Article Type:CSO [Report by Ruangsak Lathainin: "Liver Flukes in Roi Et No Longer a Public Health Problem"] [Text] "Liver flukes" were a serious problem for the Northeast. From examining feces it was learned that 35 percent of the population had liver flukes. In Roi Et Province alone it was found that 42.61 percent had liver flukes in 1988. In that same year more than 500 people in Roi Et died from liver flukes -- they generally had liver cancer caused by liver flukes. The report also stated that those who died from this disease were of working age, and so this was a great loss for the economy and the society. An important cause of this disease was the preference for raw food, especially raw fish, of the people of the Northeast. In addition they did not have sufficient toilets to break the cycle of the disease. Therefore to correct these problems they sought to change the preference for raw food and to have toilets for every house. Roi Et Province officials began this effort in earnest in 1984. Initially the approach was to cope with the disease; they set up teams to check for and treat the disease in the province. Then in 1989 they changed their approach and attacked the disease with the GTZ [expansion unknown] program of the German government, which worked with the Department of Communicable Disease Control of the Ministry of Public Health and with Roi Et Province. But these efforts could only reach half the area and only 600,000 people. The rest was handled by various district hospitals. In 1992 Roi Et Province employed a more concentrated strategy. It attacked the problem of liver flukes using three activities: 1. checking for and treating the disease -- public health officials were trained to find the disease and mobile units were set up to go to the villages; 2. efforts were made to set up water toilets -- the goal was 100 percent; 3. efforts were made to change behavior with emphasis on changing the habit of eating raw fish. Continuous efforts were made in the Northeast to stop the eating of raw fish from 1989 to 1990. The role of popular organizations was encouraged with the effort to set up "villages free of liver flukes". The results of these persistent efforts were demonstrated in 1992 when the incidence of the disease, which had |
FBIS3-22509_0 | Leprosy Cases Discussed, Treatment Noted | Language: Thai Article Type:CSO [Unattributed report: "Reducing Leprosy to One in 10,000"] [Text] S.N.Ph. Thira Ramsut, the Chairman of the Medical Prevention Group of Thailand and a doctor who was an expert in the treatment of leprosy, said that Thailand could reduce leprosy to one in 10,000 before the year 2000, the next health year, in accordance with the schedule of the World Health Organization. Therefore they would proceed quickly to send personnel to care for patients in the countryside, to train personnel and to disseminate information about this disease. This expert in the disease also said that leprosy was a contagious disease in Thailand and that there had been no way of treating it 40 years ago. It had been similar to AIDS today. The incidence of the disease now was 1.36 per 10,000. There were only 6,780 registered for treatment of the disease at various hospitals. The numbers had fallen a great deal since the survey done in 1953 when it was found that Thailand had 150,000 suffering from it. He said that after the survey for leprosy at that time, the Leprosy Project for Thailand worked with the World Health Organization and UNICEF in sending mobile teams to find leprosy sufferers in various villages, and they set up treatment areas in villages or clinics to provide monthly treatments until the symptoms improved. In 1984 a new medicine was discovered to treat those sick with the disease. Treatment had taken 16 years. With the new medicine it required only two years. And for patients in whom no disease bacteria or very few disease bacteria were found and for whom treatmant had required about six years, the treatment could be shortened to six months. |
FBIS3-22510_0 | Report on Optometrical Hospital in Chiang Mai | Language: Thai Article Type:CSO [Article by Siri Antharin] [Excerpts] Today, the number of people in the northern region of Thailand who have diseases of the eye, particularly cataracts, is increasing. But there are very few hospitals, either public or private, that are prepared to treat eye disorders. Moreover, there is a shortage of equipment used in conducting eye examinations, treating eye diseases, and performing eye operations. There is also a lack of technical equipment used in analyzing things to find the causes of the eye disorders. Because of this, those who need immediate medical attention for an eye disorder risk damaging their eyes because they can't obtain emergency treatment. They might even go blind. Besides this, another very serious problem concerning this is that there is a shortage of eye specialists or ophthalmologists. In Chiang Mai, there are only ten ophthalmologists and 12 others who are interns or who are studying to be ophthalmologists. Looking at the number of hospitals that have the capabilities to treat eye disorders, it can be seen that there are only two such hospitals in the north. One is the Maharat Hospital in Chiang Mai City, a public hospital that the people refer to as the "Flower Garden Hospital." The other is the Chiang Mai Saint Peter's Hospital, which is the first private optometrical hospital. This is now the most modern facility in the north. [passage omitted] Dr. Phithak Kitcharoen, the director of Saint Peter's Hospital, is serving society in cooperation with the Lomoson Foundation and various other organizations in the form of funds to aid people with eye disorders. [passage omitted] Saint Peter's Hospital has mobilized a number of elderly ophthalmologists and some modern equipment and provides service like a hotel. From a business standpoint, it will be a long time before the hospital breaks even. This hospital has 23 rooms and 30 beds, including deluxe, special, and ordinary rooms. Within several months of opening, it was crowded with patients even though it provided services 24 hours a day. Thus, administrators had to mobilize another 15 million baht in order to install additional modern equipment. Based on hospital reports, this hospital has treated patients from throughout the country, not just the 17 northern provinces. All of those who have come here for treatment have serious disorders. This is a sign that government units must quickly take steps to deal with this situation before it |
FBIS3-22511_0 | Data on Contagious Diseases Released | Language: Serbo-Croatian Article Type:CSO [Text] Zagreb (HINA) -- The Epidemiological Service of the Croatian Public Health Institute reported that the number of contagious disease cases remain stable; the occurrence of influenza was confirmed on Saturday but it is not epidemic. In December, 2,513 fell ill from chicken pox, which is spreading, and 1,654 had strep throat. Epidemiologist Dr. Borislav Aleraj reported that, contrary to expectations for this time of the year, hepatitis infections declined from 119 in December 1992 to 81 in November and 62 in December 1993. According to Aleraj, it was expected that in December the number of trichinosis infections will decline; 19 persons fell ill after having eaten undercooked domestically bred pork. There were 321 persons infected by salmonella, a normal seasonal decline compared to 427 cases in November and a slight increase in comparison with December 1992. In December, two more persons, both from a high-risk group, were infected with AIDS. There were no reports of typhoid fever; throughout 1993, there were only three separate cases reported. They were taken care of and did not cause new infections, Dr. Aleraj added. Occurrences of diseases that can be eliminated through systematic vaccination are rare or nonexistent. In December only one case of measles and one case of malaria were reported; there were a few other cases during the year, originating in one of the tropical countries. |
FBIS3-22514_2 | Regional Health Report 6-14 Jan | outbreaks has been the consumption of certain vegetables. (San Salvador EL DIARIO DE HOY in Spanish 11 Jan 94 pp 4, 31) Honduras Rabies -- Twenty-four people were bitten by rabid dogs in Choluteca Department during the first six days of 1994. The Natural Resources Secretariat has confirmed all the cases. (Tegucigalpa LA TRIBUNA in Spanish 7 Jan 94 p 61) AIDS -- Sources of the Public Health and Social Aid Ministry reported on 12 January that the number of AIDS cases increased by 5 percent in 1993, amounting to 3,285. Since AIDS was detected in Honduras in 1985, 773 people have died. There are approximately 500 affected people whose whereabouts are unknown. It is estimated that approximately 80,000 people carry the virus but are asymptomatic. (Panama City ACAN in Spanish 1609 GMT 12 Jan 94) Mexico Malaria -- Official sources have said that health authorities are stepping up sanitary measures after at least 27 people displaced by the Chiapas conflict were infected with malaria. Health Secretariat official Luis Barragan Cruz has told members of 500 Indian families to boil water before using it. (Mexico City NOTIMEX in Spanish 0331 GMT 14 Jan 94) Nicaragua AIDS -- Health authorities have reported that five people from Chinandega have been infected with AIDS. Of these, three have died and the other two are under the Health Ministry's care. (Managua LA PRENSA in Spanish 7 Jan 94 p 8) AIDS -- Local medical sources have reported that approximately 250 people are infected with AIDS in Chinandega, which is visited by many Salvadoran, Guatemalan, and Honduran tourists. (Managua LA PRENSA in Spanish 13 Jan 94 p 2) Cholera -- Since the arrival of cholera in July 1991, 1,149 people died and 82,858 were infected in Central America. Only Costa Rica and Belize have reported zero cholera-related deaths. In Nicaragua, one person died and 50 were infected so far in 1994. Salvadoran health authorities have reported that 24 people died and 2,000 were infected with cholera during the last two weeks. Honduras reported 70 cases in the first days of 1994. (Panama City ACAN in Spanish 1549 GMT 9 Jan 94) Cholera -- Dr. Sonia Dona has reported that five people died of cholera in Cruz de Rio Grande since October 1993 in the southern Atlantica region and that 73 cases have been detected. (Managua EL NUEVO DIARIO in Spanish 10 Jan 94 p 8) |
FBIS3-22516_4 | Population's AIDS Awareness Surveyed | method is use of a method that never fails, abstinence. A little over half the women believe fidelity is the best way to prevent disease; 28 percent believe in using a condom; and 24 percent in not having casual sexual relations. Surprisingly, 17 percent think AIDS can be prevented by avoiding contact with infected persons. People under 45, those now in a stable relationship, and people with a higher level of education know the importance of fidelity, while younger people and those who are single or separated are aware of the need to use a condom. On the contrary, older and less well-educated people are the most fearful about contact with persons infected with the AIDS virus. AIDS ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |Percentage Who Say They Know What AIDS Is | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |Men |Women |Total | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |89.0 |89.0 |89.0 | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |Percentage Who Know It Is Fatal | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |Men |Women |Total | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |47.8 |43.5 |45.6 | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |Percentage Who Know It is Transmitted Sexually | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |Men |Women |Total | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |50.2 |54.5 |52.7 | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |Percentage Using a Condom | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |Men |Women |Total | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |5.0 |3.9 |3.0 | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |Percentage Who Know It Is Transmitted by Blood | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |Men |Women |Total | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |2.4 |3.0 |2.7 | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- With or Without a Condom The results of the National Survey of Knowledge, Attitudes, and Behaviors Related to STD's-HIV/AIDS Infection, found some very interesting points concerning the sexual behavior of Colombians. While 95.6 percent of the Colombian people know about condoms, only 5 percent of the population uses condoms. This contrasts with 34 percent of the people who mention using condoms as a method of preventing AIDS; it seems that when having sexual relations, they prefer a natural approach. One reason for this last-minute change may be that 35 percent of sexual relations take place under the influence of alcohol. It is surprising that the 84 percent of the women whose partners have used a condom at some time have used it as a contraceptive rather than as protection from disease. One factor that will be used in AIDS and STD prevention campaigns is that 92 percent of the adults in Colombia have had sexual relations (97 percent of the men and 88 percent of the women). The strange thing is that 91 percent of single men and 51 percent of single women have |
FBIS3-22518_0 | Growing Dengue Epidemic Confirmed | Language: Spanish Article Type:CSO [Article by Milena Fernandez] [Excerpt] Health authorities have confirmed that the country is facing an epidemic of dengue fever. They stated that at least 18 cases have been confirmed in Barranca and that there are another 500 cases where dengue fever is suspected (400 in Puntarenas and 100 in Liberia, Province of Guanacaste). This announcement by the Costa Rican Institute for Research and Education in Nutrition and Health (INCIENSA) led authorities in the Ministry of Health to reconfirm the emergency which was declared on 27 September, when it was reported for the first time that there was a possibility that the disease -- which was supposedly eradicated 50 years ago -- was reappearing. Although the first samples [of suspected material] have been sent to the Reference Center of Honduras, a diagnosis has not been made, because of the medical strike called in that country at least two weeks ago. Due to the epidemic, the first action taken was to establish health quarantines in Puntarenas, Liberia, and Valle Central, according to Emilia Leon, acting minister of health. In the port of Pacifico the disease spread rapidly. The first case was identified on 14 October in Barranca. From there it spread to Esparza -- where there are at least two persons ill with the disease -- and to other places in the province. Ana Gabriela Ross, director of the South Central Region of the Ministry of Health, stated that mosquitoes have been detected in the Cantons of Desamparados, Goicoechea, Alajuelita, Coronado, Tibas, Moravia, and Montes de Oca, as well as in the Districts of Hatillo and San Sebastian. She added: "In June several suspected cases were reported in Barrio Mexico, Ciudad Colon, and Tibas." Ross did not specify the number of persons affected, but she said that they showed symptoms of dengue fever: headaches and pains in the joints of the body, skin rashes, general discomfort, and feelings of tiredness around the eyes. Health authorities stated: "Mosquitoes transmitting dengue and yellow fever are found throughout the country." They confirmed that they are taking emergency action to prevent the outbreak from spreading to a larger number of people. Unofficial calculations indicate that if the pace at which the disease has spread continues as it has up to the present, it could affect between 250,000 and 500,000 people. The government has allocated 30 million Costa Rican colones for the purchase |
FBIS3-22520_1 | Cholera, Malaria, Yellow Fever, TB Among Shipibos | this year owing to the lack of medications and specialized medical care. A delegation from the Association for the Development of the Shipibo-Conivo Culture, headed by coordinator Andres Castaneda Saavedra, arrived in the capital to explain this tragic situation to government officials. The coordinator told LA REPUBLICA that about 35,000 members of this ethnic group in 108 native communities have suffered losses because of the flooding of the Ucayali River, aside from the diseases that the flooding has caused. The flooding started in January of this year and resumed in recent months, burying huge fields of rice, yucca, corn, and beans in the Ucayali Valley under more than two meters of water. The local communities consume these crops themselves. All of the crops were lost, and since other food was not forthcoming from elsewhere in the country, owing to the lack of roads and vehicles, hunger began to decimate the population, causing the more than 15,000 cases of tuberculosis. The huge swamps and pools of stagnant water became breeding grounds for cholera, malaria, and yellow fever, which spread rapidly, especially among children and the elderly. The chiefs of the native communities worriedly gathered together early in the year and asked the Health Ministry directly to declare a state of emergency in the Ucayali region. The ministry did not declare a health emergency in the region until this past October and on the seventh of the month approved 73,363 new soles in funds to combat these epidemics in Ucayali. The money was sent to the director of the Ucayali Health Region, Dr. Antonio Mundine Medrano, who was supposed to purchase medications and see to it that patients were treated immediately. Nevertheless, the incidence of cholera, malaria, and yellow fever remained unchanged, and patients seemed to be receiving no treatment whatsoever. The Shipibo culture association contacted the chiefs of the various native communities to check whether medicine had been received or medical care delivered. All said that they had received no medications or visits from physicians, and the hovels that function as medical posts have lacked basic items for medical care since last year. According to Castaneda Saavedra, Dr. Mundine Medrano has not accounted for the alleged aid shipment to the communities that requested it, contending only that the aid has already been distributed and that if it did not reach certain communities, it did reach others, which he did not specify. |
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