Risks of Car Air-conditioning -Very Important!!!!

 
No wonder more people are dying from cancer than ever before. We wonder where this stuff comes from but here is an example that explains a lot of the cancer causing incidents. 
    
Many people are in their cars first thing in the morning and the last thing at night, almost 7 days a week. 
    
Question: My car hand book says to roll down the windows to let out all the hot air before turning on A/C. Why is that? I have heard that it is very important to do that for health reasons! 
    
Answer: Car A/C (Air Conditioning) MUST READ!!! Please do NOT turn on A/C as soon as you enter the car. Open the windows after you enter your car and then turn ON the AC after a couple of minutes. 
    
Here's why: According to research, the car dashboard, seats & even air freshener all emit Benzene, a Cancer causing toxin! (carcinogen - take time to observe the smell of the heated plastic in your car). In addition to causing cancer, Benzene poisons your bones, causes anemia and reduces white blood cells. Prolonged exposure will cause leukemia, increasing the risk of cancer and also may lead to miscarriage. Acceptable Benzene level indoors is 50 mg per sq/ft.

 A car parked indoors with windows closed will contain 400-800 mg of Benzene. Parked outdoors in the sun at a temperature above 60 degrees F, the Benzene level goes up to 2000-4000 mg, that is more than    
40 times the acceptable level. People who get into their car, keeping all windows closed will inevitably inhale, in quick succession, excessive amounts of this toxin. Benzene is a toxin that affects your kidney and liver. What's worse, it is extremely difficult for your body to expel this toxic stuff.   
  
So friends, please open the windows and doors of your car to give the interior time to air out - to dispel this deadly stuff - before you enter the vehicle! Please pass this on to as many people as possible.  

 

Guess it's not too late to make some changes.

 

 

Cops: Don’t hire Nepali help

Nepali Union objects to move by Mumbai police, calls it discriminatory. Cops justify move saying it's difficult to screen people from across the border; in last year cops have arrested seven nationals of Nepal in connection with robbery and murder cases

    Mumbai police is advising households against employing Nepalese domestic helps after a series of robberies and murders involving Nepali nationals. 

    While the move has come in for sharp criticism from the Nepali Union in Mumbai, Mumbai police believes that since it is difficult to screen migrants from other countries, it will be advisable if people who have spent considerable time in Mumbai were preferred as domestic help, especially by senior citizens staying alone. 
    Deputy Commissioner of Police, zone 11, Mahesh Patil and his counterpart in zone 9, Pratap Dighavkar, have begun communicating with housing societies in western suburbs warning them of dangers of employing Nepalese house helps. 
    Domestic helps from Nepal have been found involved in eight cases of robberies and murders this year alone. These cases include three house-breakings in Borivli, a murder-robbery in Santacruz where an elderly woman was killed, and another robbery and double-murder in Juhu. 
    Seven Nepali house helps are in police custody in robbery and murder cases that took place this year. 
    DCP (Zone XI) Mahesh Patil said while the police department does not believe in racial profiling, involvement of Nepali nationals in robberies and murders is posing peculiar problems for the force. "One, we have found that many of the Nepali nationals arrested had links with Maoist insurgency in Nepal. Also, since we do not have an extradition treaty with Nepal, arresting them and bringing them to face legal proceedings here is difficult," he said. 
    Information collected from arrested Nepali nationals reveals that some of them are repeat offenders. "Since we can't chase them to Nepal, they spend six months to a year in Nepal after committing a crime and then return for more," said another officer who did not wish to be identified. 
    DCP Dighavkar, the brain behind the one-society-one-cop drive, said his men are advising households to hire people who have been around in Mumbai for some years. "If people who have lived in Mumbai for a considerable period of time commit a crime, it's easier to trace them. But ifsomebody crosses the border and then returns within, say six months, after committing a crime, it's difficult to trace him." 
    Dighavkar said senior citizens staying alone must take extra care when employing servants. "It will help if they hire local domestic helps. It's easier to screen these people," he added. 
    The head of Nepali Union, Master Thappa, said it would be wrong to tarnish the community for the mistake of a few of its members. "We admit that there have been many crimes in the city in which Nepali people are involved. We are ready to cooperate with the police. If they have problems in tracing a Nepali who has escaped to his native place we will help them," he said.

Ramsingh and Teksingh were working at the Juhu household of Kavita Suchak, for five years. They have now been arrested and, police say have confessed to killing her for money. Right: Jay Jagdish building at Suvarna Nagar where Suchak lived

Forest officials pose danger to forests: Experts

Accuse Them Of Hiding Facts To Okay Projects

New Delhi: Forest officials are fudging data, hiding facts, sidestepping laws, overlooking violations and finding ways of clearing even projects that are dangerous for forests, three non-official members on the statutory Forest Advisory Committee have told environment minister Jayanthi Natarajan. 

    In a scathing letter loaded with this explosive critique of the committee's functioning for the past some time, the three—Ullas Karanth, the world's foremost tiger expert; Amita Baviskar, associate professor at the Institute of Economic Growth; and Mahesh Rangarajan, director of Nehru Memorial Museum and Library—just stopped short of alleging corruption by the forest bureaucracy in the clearance process. 
    The FAC is the mandatory body under the Forest Conservation Act which recommends projects for using forestlands to the minister. Besides the three non-official members, the panel comprises some of the seniormost forest officers in the ministry, including the Director General of Forests. 
    The three have written, "From the bottom up, state forest departments/governments are routinely approving even obviously damaging projects." India, China pay for West's pollution Anew study reveals the gigantic extent to which the developed world has polluted the world. Between 1850-2000, the US emitted carbon nearly three times the permissible limit by 2050. The entitlements for the US and the EU from 2000-2050 work out to -50GtC (giga tonnes of carbon) and -24 GtC. Even if these countries drop their emissions to zero starting today, nations like India and China will not be able to emit even a fraction of the carbon they are entitled to. P 13 Experts fear bid to scuttle vetting of big projects 
New Delhi: Three non-official members of the Forest Advisory Committee, all well-known names, have written to MoEF Jayanthi Natarajan about how forest officials are corrupting the environmental clearance process. "They have abdicated their role of due diligence, mandatory under the Forest Conservation Act, and honest expression, possibly under political or other pressure," they wrote. 
    Natarajan confirmed receiving the letter. "Yes, I've got the letter from the three non-official members. I am going to consider it seriously and will certainly make any course correction that is required," she told TOI. 
    TOI had reported how in 20 months of Jairam Ramesh's over two-year tenure, the ministry had cleared 1,446 projects requiring 31,501 hectares of forestland to be levelled—equal to half the size of Mumbai. Another 993 projects got 'in-principle' clearance to divert 35,391 hectares of land over thesame period.Officials, in reply to an RTI query then, had said they did not even hold the mandatory documents required as precondition to clear the projects. 
    The three have written that they doubt whether their proposal to get the big projects verified on the ground for facts by empanelled experts was deliberately suppressed. "We're forced to take decisions on the basis of inadequate and inaccurate information. When we impose conditions, there's no guarantee they'll be enforced," they said. 
    In most cases, the fact sheet they get on each case fails to provide a substantive basis for rational decision-making. "The only way of accurately evaluating a project is by using independent experts and this procedure needs to become routine in the functioning of the FAC," they wrote. They said the forest bureaucracy was not even providing information required under the law for them to take a decision. 
    The three experts also said there was no monitoring of projects once conditions were imposed. "Violations of previous conditions imposed by the FAC are going unchecked," they wrote. They even cited examples to the minister of how projects were being cleared with shoddy and wrong information. 
    In the report on the controversial Niyamgiri bauxite mining case of Vedanta, they said, "A retiredsenior official claimed there was an animal with stripes that could either have been a tiger or a hyena (and this on the basis of discussion at roadside tea shops)!" In the cases of Mahan coalfield of MP and Tara coalfield in Chhattisgarh, they said, "The on-site inspection team found that forest density figures provided in the ministry 'factsheet' werecompletely at variance with those provided by the Forest Survey of India. There is zero accountability for such amazingly inaccurate reportage." They said no one was punished for providing such false information in the FAC meetings. 
    They recordedthateven the agenda of FAC was not put up in public domain giving them or people time to react in time like it is done in the environmental clearance process.

    State forest 
    departments/govts are routinely approving even obviously damaging projects. They have abdicated their role of due diligence... and honest expression, possibly under political or other pressure 
LETTER BY ULLAS KARANTH, AMITA BAVISKAR AND MAHESH RANGARAJAN

I am going to consider it seriously and will certainly make any course correction required 
JAYANTHI NATARAJAN ENVIRONMENT MINISTER

6.8 scale quake hits Sikkim, leaves 15 dead, Kolkata and Delhi rattled

Kolkata: An earthquake measuring 6.8 on the Richter scale hit the Sikkim-Nepal border at 6.10pm on Sunday, killing at least 15 people on both side of the border, according to preliminary reports which suggested the death toll was likely to rise. The quake rattled the entire eastern region—Bengal, the North-Eastern states, Jharkhand and Bihar—and was felt as far 

away as Delhi and Rajasthan. 
    Reports said at least five persons had died in Sikkim, two in and around Darjeeling, one near Siliguri, two in Bihar and five in Nepal, three of them in a wall collapse outside the British embassy in Kathmandu. Sixty people were reported injured in Sikkim. 
    With power and communication lines down in Sikkim and Gorkhaland areas, reports were still sketchy for hours after the quake. Scores are feared trapped under collapsed buildings in Gangtok, Darjeeling and Kalimpong. 
    "Landslides and house collapses have been reported from various parts of Sikkim. With power lines down, it is difficult to assess the damage at this moment, said A K Singh, district magistrate of South Sikkim. 
    Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called up Sikkim CM Pawan Kumar Chamling, who reportedly described the damage as serious. "Tremors were felt between 30 seconds to one minute in some parts of Sikkim, including Gangtok," Shailesh Nayak, secretary in the earth sciences ministry, said in Delhi. 
    In Kolkata, people ran out of homes, shopping malls and multiplexes which shook violently for several seconds.

15 dead, 100 injured in TN train collision

Chennai: At least 15 people were killed and 100 injured when a local train from here rammed into a stationary passenger train near Arakkonam junction on Tuesday night. 

    The Chennai Beach-Vellore Cantonment local train crashed into the rear of the Arakkonam-Katpadi passenger train near Sitheri station, 
75 km from Chennai, around 9.20 pm amid heavy rain. 
    Railway officials said the two trains were running on the same track and a signal failure might have led to the accident. 
    The Arakkonam-Katpadi train was waiting for a signal outside Sitheri station, also about 90km from Vellore, when the Chennai-Vellore train hit it. TNN Several bogies derailed in TN mishap, toll may rise 
Chennai: Railway Protection Force sources said several bogies derailed when a Chennai-Vellore local train slammed into the rear of the Arakkonam-Katpadi passenger train waiting for signal outside a station about 75 km from here, raising fears that more than the 15 persons confirmed dead could have been killed. The EMU was the penultimate service from Chennai for the day and was packed with passengers. 
    "One bogie of the Chennai-Vellore train and three bogies of the Arakkonam-Katpadi passenger appear to have derailed," an official quoted an eyewitness as saying. "There are hundreds of people trapped. Several more are feared dead." 
    Two teams from the National Disaster Response Force accompanied fire and rescue services personnel to the site. But rescue efforts were difficult because of the rain and even had to be stopped for some time. 
    Railway minister Dinesh Trivedi announced ex gratia compensation of Rs 5 lakh for the dead, Rs 1 lakh for the seriously injured and Rs 25,000 for the others. 
    Trivedi said he would leave for the accident site along with junior minister K H Muniyappa and the Railway Board chairman, by the first flight in the morning. 
    He said initial reports seem to suggest the EMU driver may have jumped the red signal, but added that it was too early to speculate. 
    He noted the driver was alive and under treatment and could provide details. But the police said the guard of the passenger train and the driver of the EMU were among the dead. 
CRASH COURSE 
July 31 | 3 killed, 50 hurt as passenger train rams into derailed express train, sparking a fire, in Bengal's Bakharpur 
July 10 | 35 killed as 13 bogies of Kalka Mail derail after driver hits emergency brake. On the same day, over 100 passengers injured as the Guwahati-Puri Express derails after suspected militants triggered an explosion on the tracks near Assam's Rangiya 
July 7 | 38 killed as Mathura Chhapra Exp rams into bus carrying marriage party at unmanned crossing in Kanshiram Nagar (UP)

There Were Still No CCTVs Three Months After Blast At Delhi HC. Is Anyone Serious About This ‘War’?

Terrorists Strike Yet Again, At Will

11 Dead And Many Maimed As Bomb Rips Delhi's Heart

New Delhi: Exactly 105 days ago, on May 25, there was a low-intensity blast at Gate No. 7 of the Delhi High Court. It wasn't taken seriously; in fact, it was considered a failed attempt and a sign of the reduced strike power of terrorists. Now, it seems that the attack—whose perpetrators have still not been arrested—was just a dry run for a murderous strike by a band of determined killers. 
    At 10.15am on Wednesday, as the Delhi High Court's reception counter near Gate No. 5 milled with people, terrorists detonated a sophisticated improvised explosive device (IED) placed in a briefcase, leaving 11 dead and 91 others injured. It was the first major terrorist attack in the capital in almost three years, though it came less than two months after the serial blasts in Mumbai on July 13, which left over 25 people dead. 
    Most of the casualties on Wednesday were among litigants, some as distinguished as Captain Ronald Nagar, who was once Rajiv Gandhi's copilot in Indian Airlines, and some as nondescript as a band of hawkers who had come to the court in appeal for a licence to sell their wares. 
    Late at night, there was word that the police might have a lead. 
    Sources said Delhi police were looking for a silver Hyundai Accent car, DL 9CA 6034, which was being driven by a man in white shirt and black trousers — an attire possibly used by the killer/s to pass off as lawyers. Police sources later said the car was owned by National Insurance, Daryaganjbranch,andwaspossibly a stolen vehicle. 
COSTLY LAPSES 
On May 25, a low-intensity blast shook the Delhi HC. That seems to have been a dry run for Wednesday's blast 
Reacting to earlier blast, Delhi Police came up with plan to install CCTVs in the court. 
Plan still not implemented 
In July, Delhi Police was warned about impending terror threat, says home minister Chidambaram. So, what precautions taken? 
Terrorists struck at busiest spot in HC near the reception counter. The area was not secured by police. Why? THIS MAN USED TO FLY WITH RAJIV GANDHI 
BRIEFCASE BOMBER 
TIME | 10.11am on a busy Wednesday, just as around 200 people were lining up to collect entrance passes. 
PLACE | Between Gates 4 & 5 of Delhi High Court, on Sher Shah Suri Marg. Bomb placed near busy reception centre 
DEVICE | Packed in a black briefcase, bomb was 3-4 kg nitrate-based cocktail. 
Traces of PETN (pentaerythritol trinitrate), a chemical explosive, also found 
A CLUE? | Cops hunting for a silver Hyundai Accent, DL9CA 6034, apparently being driven by the killer/s Terror mail sent from Mumbai 
New Delhi: A few hours after the Wednesday blast, an outfit calling itself Harkat-ul-Jehadi (very similar to the notorious HuJI—Harkat-ul-Jehad Islami) sent an email to a TV channel claiming responsibility for the blast. It demanded the release of Parliament attack accused Afzal Guru who has been sentenced to death. It also threatened to target all major high courts in the country and the Supreme Court. Sources say the email has been sent from Mumbai where a team is being sent for further investigation. 
    Police said the IED used on Wednesday was possibly made with three to four kilograms of ammonium nitrate laced with PETN, shrapnel and an electronic timer device. It was placed in a black briefcase near the reception counter where around 150-200 people had queued up for gate-passes. Sources said the bomb was "very sophisticated and has been made by experts". They added that "such a bomb has been seen after a long time in the last few years". 
    The possibility of RDX being used is not being ruled out as the impact of the explosion was terrific and there was a thick pall of smoke after the blast. The impact left a 4-feet crater with 1-metre diameter. Around it was a horrible mess of blood and flesh. 
    Home minister P Chidambaram said the NIA would investigate the case and a written directive was sent to Delhi police asking it to assist NIA. By evening, Delhi police released sketches of two suspects prepared on the basis of description given by eyewitnesses. One suspect is aged 26, the other 50. Chidambaram hinted at gaps in the security system when he said that Delhi Police had been given intelligence inputs in July and the attack happened despite the fact that the Capital was on high alert. 
    As it was a day for public interest litigations (PIL), there was a higher number of litigants at the reception counter. The explosion took place near the senior citizens'counter, ripping off the reception area. Several persons who were standing near the deadly briefcase were killed on the spot. The injured were rushed to different hospitals—57 to Ram Manohar Lohia hospital. There were some injured in AIIMS, Moolchand hospital, Apollo, Safdarjung, Ganga Ram and R&R Army hospital. 
    Teams of forensic experts, Delhi Police's special cell, crime branch, as well as the police and NIA brass were at the blast site, carrying out an extensive examination for leads. A NSG team with sniffer dogs was also drafted in the operation. NIA has formed a team of 20 officers to probe the case. 
Blast defuses BJP's cash-for-votes bomb 
New Delhi: The Delhi HC blast may have added to the UPA's troubles, but on Wednesday, it helped the Centre by heading off a scathing attack from the BJP on the cash-for-votes scam. 
    Feeling vindicated by police's belated action in the 2008 trust vote and angry that its own people were arrested when their role was limited to exposing the bribery, BJP had planned a full-scale attack on the government. Sources said L K Advani had planned to say that the "sting operation", which exposed attempts to lure BJP MPs, was authorized by him. The party veteran would have offered to face consequences for enacting the whistleblower operation. But the BJP did not get the opportunity to implement the script because of the blast. With Delhi Police telling the court that money was indeed in play and that those involved would have shaken the "democratic system", the BJP had planned to confront the government afresh. TNN

Captain Ronald Nagar, a veteran pilot, began his career with Indian Airlines where he often flew as Rajiv Gandhi's co-pilot. Currently senior vice-president (operations) of Kingfisher, he was part of the team set up by the govt to probe the Mangalore crash. On Wednesday, he suffered injuries in his legs, right arm and right eye and was rushed for surgery | P 14 

‘1/3 armymen overweight, 80% have heart risk’

New Delhi: A study on the health of Indian Army personnel shows worrying results.     Four out of five personnel surveyed, including officers, suffered from pre-hypertension, about a third were overweight and two-thirds had low levels of good cholesterol, 
caused by lack of exercise. The prevalence of pre-hypertension was higher in the group than in others. While 40-60% Indians show the symptoms, it was 80% in the army. 
    The sample survey was conducted by the defence ministry and Indian Council of Medical Research on 767 "healthy" personnel including 130 officers. Their ages ranged from 18 to 50 years. 'Low HDL cholesterol in 67% armymen' 
New Delhi: A study of the health of the Indian military not only shows a sharp rise in lifestyle diseases—the scourge of the Indian middle class—among soldiers, but also found a majority of the personnel had bad eating habits. Most of them added salt or pickle to their food and used ghee/butter regularly. 
    Almost 67% were found to have low HDL cholesterol level, a sign of low physical activity. And 30% had a body-mass rsatio of over 23, putting them in the overweight category. The report, published in the latest issue of the Indian Journal of Medical Research, calls for targeted intervention to reduce cardiovascular risk among soldiers. "Lifestyle modifications such as reducing the intake of saturated fats and salt in diet and reducing smoking can lower the risk of hypertension and cardiovascular disease," it said. 
    The study was conducted over a period of two years. Of the 767 personnel studied, 670 were married. Personnel with known history of ischemic heart disease, hypertension, obesity and diabetes were excluded from the study and only the "healthy" ones examined. Most of soldiers identified as pre-hypertensive were in the habit of using extra salt and pickles and had a lot of ghee or butter. 
    "In the army, we have an authorization scale for ration that includes fresh vegetables, fruit, bread, butter, rice and milk among others. But people also eat from outside," an officer said. 
    Dr Anoop Misra, director and head of the department of diabetes and metabolic diseases, Fortis Group of Hospitals, said the results were surprising. "We think military personnel have an active lifestyle and a good dietary intake. High prevalence of pre-hypertension among them is worrying ," he said. He added that high stress level could be another factor for pre-hypertension. Other experts called for limiting the intake of salt and oil products and snacks like chips and namkeen. They should be encouraged to take more green leafy vegetables and fruits and exercise regularly, they said.