Officials say no health risks after New York blast

Officials say no health risks after New York blast
New Yorkers are still questioning their air's safety after a steam pipe eruption spewed dirt and debris into the sky over midtown. Many remember the cover-up after the last major pipe rupture and the illnesses faced by workers at the site of the destroyed World Trade Center years after officials assured them lower Manhattan was safe.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Thursday declared the air free of asbestos, saying ``every single test'' showed no asbestos in the air. Other city officials were unwavering in that assessment, as well.

Yet, the painful legacy of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks that destroyed the World Trade Center was evident among area residents. Workers from the World Trade Center site have filed a class-action lawsuit claiming that toxic dust gave them serious, possibly fatal diseases.

The debris from Wednesday's rupture was nothing close to the scale of the twin towers' collapse, but the sight of police in filtration masks and the warnings to area residents to keep windows closed and to throw out any clothing touched by dust or debris added to the worries.

``I take everything with a grain of salt. I would like to believe it, but I can't,'' said Ariana Reines, an English teacher who returned to her school on a block of Lexington Avenue that was closed off after Wednesday evening's rupture.

Many of the city's older steam pipes are lined with asbestos, a carcinogen that can cause serious illnesses with longterm exposure. The dust and debris churned up when the 83-year-old pipe burst showed some signs of asbestos on the ground; officials said 14 of 56 debris samples tested positive, though most had only trace amounts.

A deadly 1989 rupture of another steam pipe near Manhattan's Gramercy Park also spewed asbestos _ a fact utility Con Ed later admitted it had concealed for days while residents were exposed.

Cleanup from Wednesday's blast, meanwhile, could last well into next week, Bloomberg said Friday.

``There are a couple blocks where people really are getting hurt, small businesses, offices,'' Bloomberg said on his weekly radio show. ``But you know, you got to be safe no matter what the costs are.''

Tests for airborne asbestos continued Friday, but Department of Environmental Protection officials have said any exposures to the cancer-causing contaminant would have been brief and the health risks limited.

Jason Post, a mayoral spokesman, said new test results would be available later Friday.

The cause of the rush-hour explosion remained under investigation, with speculation that the pipe might have burst under extreme pressure caused by an infiltration of cold rainwater or might have been damaged by a water main break.

Bumper-to-bumper traffic jams continued to clog blocks around the ``frozen zone,'' the three-square-block area around the explosion crater that was closed to vehicles and most pedestrians. Some police officers were still wearing respiration masks, two days after the steam pipe blew apart.

``I don't know anybody here who's going out to lunch,'' said attorney Jordan Fox, who was working a block from the rupture site and has been involved in asbestos cases. ``It's musty out there _ it's humid, and the air is kind of thick. That could keep the asbestos entrained in the air.''

``They lied to us on Sept. 11 and thereafter. It's clear they misrepresented exposure after 9/11,'' Fox said. ``A lot of people would ask, 'Why should we trust them now?'''

source;www.hindu.com

Yoga Exercises and Seizures | Practice Yoga Exercise to Prevent Seizures

Yoga is an ancient practice, which is embedded in Hindu religious principles since 5,000 years and has generated wonderful results in modern medicine. The practice and philosophy of yoga is gaining attention worldwide as the focal point in treating seizures.

Thus, people know its health benefits and began to practice yoga.

The term yoga is derived from the Sanskrit word "union," which means ‘to join.’ Yoga aims for the great union of the body, mind and spirit through a system of postures, breathing exercises, meditation.

The WHO, world health organization, estimates that around 50 million people in the world are with epilepsy and 75 percent are with seizure disorders. Also, most of them do not taking any medical treatment.

It has been found that, according to ancient Indian writings, there are four types of epilepsy and nine other disorders causing seizures in children and yoga with its discipline can reestablish the balance that is needed to help prevent or even stop seizures.

Yoga is one among the oldest practices that is well known for its effectiveness in balancing the different aspects of your body and mind. Epilepsy is the basic term that is used to express different diseases with some common symptom, the seizures. Seizures will interrupt the normal activity of the central nervous system.

Yoga Exercises for Preventing Seizures

Here, you can know the way yoga exercises help prevent or stop seizures. An imbalance in your body and mind can cause seizures. By practicing yoga exercises regularly, you can maintain a balance between your mind and body. Therefore, practicing yoga exercises, breathing exercises, and relaxing your mind through meditation can help in preventing seizures.

Tension is an eminent trigger for seizures as well, however practicing yoga exercises can help overcome it. Thus yoga proves to be a great stress reliever.

Common Triggers of Seizures

Here are some common triggers of seizures: listening to music, environmental stimuli such as heat and humidity, hyperventilation, alcohol beverages, excessive fluids, irregular sleep patterns, poor nutritious food, insufficient sleep, drug abuse, emotional stress, neglect medication.

You can prevent or stop these seizures through a regular yoga practice. If you feel yourself slipping into a seizure, catch a sharp breath, just as if you are frightened and hold it.

This will cause a change in your blood pressure, metabolism, and alters the flow of blood and oxygen to your brain. Then go into deep breathing to help restore normal respiration. If this practice can be learned, it may help to control seizures or even stop one before it starts.

The physical practice of yoga helps restore the metabolic balance of your body. It also increases stamina, improves circulation, concentration and respiration. It also helps calm the central nervous system that will decrease your chances of having a seizure.

Meditation

Meditation is also an important part of the Yoga exercises to help prevent seizures. Stress can be a major trigger to seizures. Meditation can improve blood flow to the brain, slows stress hormones, and helps to increase the serotonin which helps keep the nervous system calm.

Ten years ago, the results of a study were published in The Indian journal of medical Research on Yoga practice for seizure control. Researchers did their own study with astounding results. Those in the study that practiced the style of Sahaja yoga for six months experience a decrease in their seizure activity by 86 percent.

This is a large enough percentage to warrant using Yoga techniques to help control seizures. It’s easy to do, free of medication and can help your body with its overall health.

If you are already taking medication for control of seizures, consult with your Doctor. Don’t just stop taking your medication without his approval. Why not try it if you suffer from occasional seizures.

source;www.americanchronicle.com

Hectic efforts to save child

JAIPUR: Efforts to save a five-year-old boy, who fell into a 150-foot-deep borewell at Nimeda village, 35 km from near here, were hampered on Thursday night after a crane toppled over and crushed two labourers engaged in the rescue operation.

One of them was rushed to hospital in a critical condition and the machine was pulled out of a ditch into which it fell.

However, labourers digging a parallel pit to reach the trapped boy abandoned the work demanding safety measures. The rescue teams of the Army and civil administration are waiting for a new group to arrive at the site.

Suraj Banjara fell into the borewell on Wednesday evening. After an overnight rescue operation, his cries could be heard from a hole on the ground till Thursday afternoon. Oxygen was pumped into the borewell to facilitate breathing and power supply arrangements were made at the site.

A CCTV footage showed Suraj as either sleeping or lying unconscious, but work stoppage heightened the concern for the boy’s safety, eyewitnesses said.

Chief Medical Officer Ashish Sharma, who was monitoring the child’s health through CCTV images, said he was hopeful of his survival as his respiration seemed to be normal.

source:www.hindu.com

A mystery on the vine

The house where the dying girl's body lay on the wooden porch is long gone, her unmarked grave forgotten under tall grass and patches of moss. Her parents and most siblings have passed away; the investigative files are nonexistent.

Left behind are a few newspaper clippings about the 1947 rape and murder of 11-year-old Myrtle Everett of Una and the lingering question: Who killed her?

Monday marks the 60th anniversary of one of Spartanburg County's oldest unsolved murders. The child began the day of July 23, 1947, picking blackberries with her family near their old home on Carver Road, now Carver Mill Road, just northwest of Spartanburg. Her life ended that afternoon, after resuscitation attempts failed.

The child's parents said they had found her severely beaten, sexually assaulted and stuffed in a closet.

It was known around town as the "Blackberry Murder."

Myrtle's death was one of only two murder cases former Spartanburg County Sheriff B.B. Brockman said he never cleared during his 16-year tenure, from 1945 to 1961. At the time of the killing, and in a 1988 interview with the Herald-Journal, Brockman consistently told reporters the child never regained consciousness from the time her body was discovered until her death later that day.

But one of his daughters, Hilda Suitt of Greenville, said her father told her a different story. He told her Myrtle had spoken, said Suitt, now 80.

Brockman, who died in 1990 at age 92, told Suitt the child was conscious long enough to let officers know her father - who many in the community thought killed Myrtle and created a story to cover his tracks - was innocent, Suitt said.

"It just broke dad," she said. "It just crushed him. He could not arrest the father. The public wanted him to, but he said, 'I cannot do it. I cannot do it.' There was no evidence. He said, 'I can't arrest an innocent man.'

" … It bothered dad more than anything, I think, that ever happened in his 30 years of law enforcement and 16 years as sheriff."

source:www.goupstate.com

1 dead, 3 injured in house fire

A nine-year-old girl was asphyxiated to death and three others sustained serious injuries in a major fire in Madhuram Bungalows near Sola Road on Wednesday.

Within a matter of minutes, the bungalow was engulfed in flames and the fire brigade battled for long before the fire could be brought under control. Priyanka Patel (9) suffocated to death after inhaling the fumes. Priyanka’s mother Neeta (38) was reported critical and put on ventilator by medics.

"Heavy fumes cut off fresh air supply, severely affecting the respiration of the little girl and her mother. Her father Sachin Patel (40), who owns a chemical factory, and brother Aryan (6) were lucky to survive the fumes. It took more than an hour for the fire brigade personnel to bring the fire under control and evacuate the inhabitants. The fire damaged the bungalow charring furniture and electronic equipment."

Doctors at VS Hospital, where the family was shifted after being rescued, said that Aryan was completely out of danger while Patel was being treated for respiratory injuries and his condition was stable. Later in the night the injured were shifted to the Sterling Hospital. Eye-witnesses said that the Patel family was at home when the fire broke out in their bungalow on the ground floor. Instead of trying to get out of the house, the family locked themselves in the bathroom on the first floor to save themselves from the ensuing fire that consumed their house.

This proved to be a mistake as fumes affected their respiration. Eye-witnesses said that though there was no injury marks on the bodies of the victims, their bodies were covered in soot and they were coughing and gasping for breath.

"Preliminary investigations suggested a short circuit in an air conditioner at the bungalow had started the fire that fed on combustible material inside the house," said B M Chawda, sub-inspector of Sola police station.

source;timesofindia.indiatimes.com

Respiration rate can indicate livestock heat stress

Now’s the time to be watching your livestock for heat stress. Something producers can check is the respiratory rate, to see if their animals are becoming overheated.

University of Missouri associate animal science professor Don Spiers says producers can usually tell when their cattle are breathing too hard, but counting their breaths per minute can indicate their level of heat stress, "If 10% of the herd is around 70 to 120, it is highly recommended that they don't try moving that herd that day."

He says you can very quickly tell what their respiration rate is, "I don't know whether producers are used to measuring their respiratory rate but you can look at an animal and you don't have to monitor it for a minute. Just 30 seconds and just double it."

Spiers suggests hosing your cattle down if the rate gets near or above 120 breaths per minute to try and cool them off.

source:www.brownfieldnetwork.com

Government Hiding the Truth About Lviv Accident?

The management of department working on the scene of the accident in Lviv region forbids people to walk about in respiration masks not to spread panic among the public.

This is the information from the spot by Komsomolska Pravda in Ukraine.

According to the publication, the nerves of people who stay in the camp are “on edge”. Commanders lose their temper and shout at their subordinates. The correspondent saw himself how the officer scolded one of the rescuing girls for putting on a respiration mask.

“The management forbids people to walk about in masks not to spread panic among the public. They say it’s because TV journalists are working here and broadcasting everything! And nobody is thinking about our health,” she said later.

Militiamen also take off their masks as soon as a car with a government or state license plate stops by them.

Meanwhile, according to the publication, Busk district “is almost dead”. House windows are closed and blinds are locked. One cannot even see dogs and cats in the yards.

Only old people refused to leave their homes. All the youth departed on the day of the accident.

“I do everything possible to evacuate senior citizens. But they do not want to go,” said the head of Ozhydiv village council Oleksandra Shakh.

According to her words, the administration had “to literally fight for” the buses from district administration to evacuate the majority of the population: the officials claimed that they had obtained an order “from up there” not to spread panic.

Besides, regardless of the claims of government representatives that doctors have already visited all the yards of Busk district to provide help for those who need it old people said that doctors did not come to them.

“They say on the TV that we were all given respiration masks. But it is not true!” said one of the district residents on the following day after the accident.

“They tell us not to worry but we do not believe them. We see how poisonous smoke continues to ruin the entire neighborhood. I’ll be honest: if I weren’t the head of the village council I would have left long ago,” noted Ms. Shakh.

The publication also notes that the representatives of Kazakhstan company which loaded phosphorus who arrived at the scene of accident refused to make any comments.

According to the acting head of Lviv region state administration Valeriy Pyatak, common Ukrainian-Kazakh commission is developing a plan to transport tanker cars – each one separately. To do this, it is necessary to build a branch line near the spot of the disaster for heavy machinery.

It is planned to cover the tanker cars in a special mixture, to load them on cars and to take them away.

source:www2.pravda.com.ua

First aid courses scheduled for fall

Sooke residents previously daunted by the drive to downtown Victoria for first aid classes will have four chances this September to complete emergency first aid level one.

“It’s to encourage Sooke residents to get out there an take this course,” says Kate Butler, volunteer coordinator for St. John Ambulance. “It’s a really good thing for the community because emergency preparedness is so big right now and having people in your community who know what to do if something ever happens is a real benefit.”

The 8-hour course is a Workers Compensation Board recognized certificate which covers basic wound care, bleeding, artificial respiration, CPR, choking, and information about WCB safety.

“The instructor who’s going to teach it, Ray Fisher, is one of our longest teaching instructors,” says Butler. “He lives in the western communities and he’s really excited about the project.”

Classes will take place at the Pentecostal Church, 6851 West Coast Rd. on:

Wednesday Sept. 12, Saturday, Sept. 15 and Monday Sept. 22 from 8:30 a.m. to 4:45 p.m.

Classes from 6-10 p.m. are set for Monday and Tuesday, Sept. 17 and 18.

A grant from the municipality of Sooke is subsiding the cost of the courses, dropping the fee from $85 to $65 for Sooke residents.

“It’s a good chance for people to get involved and use St. John Ambulance, we’re the leader in first aid training.” says Butler.

source:www.sookenewsmirror.com

It's a case of buyer beware for anyone wanting to offset their CO2 emissions, writes Wendy Frew.

Buy a Tsunamii T-shirt and you won't only be making a fashion statement, you will also be investing in a wind farm or solar power project. That's the promise from two young commerce students from Sydney University, Gideon Birns and Tim Slater. Earlier this year they launched a company called Twenty50 to tap into the burgeoning but controversial market that offers to clean up your greenhouse gas pollution without impinging on your lifestyle.

For the past 12 months Birns and Slater have been working on a business plan to help Australian consumers offset greenhouse gas emissions by attaching carbon credits to branded consumer products.

They have started producing their first set of Tsunamii T-shirts with a range of prices (from $48 to $68) reflecting different amounts of greenhouse gas cuts.

The price of the cheapest shirt will cover enough clean energy or energy efficiency projects to offset 5 per cent of the greenhouse gases generated by the average Australian. Pay a bit more and you could offset 10 per cent or 20 per cent of your climate change pollution.

It's a new spin on a crowded market that offers to offset the greenhouse gas emissions we all generate when we use coal- or gas-fired electricity in our homes, or travel by car or plane.

More than a dozen Australian companies are offering to plant trees to soak up carbon dioxide, capture the methane that arises from landfill, or invest in energy efficiency or renewable power on your behalf.

But it is a market that has attracted its fair share of criticism, especially from environmentalists, and one that will be heavily regulated if a Labor government comes to power at the federal election later this year.

Green groups are worried the carbon offsets market, as it is known, could encourage a business-as-usual approach to energy and the generation of waste by suggesting people can pay to pollute. We should first be cutting back on energy use and car and plane travel wherever possible, they say.

The market also lacks transparency on pricing, emission calculations and the effectiveness of various emission reduction projects, say the critics.

Tree planting as a way of offsetting carbon emissions seems especially fraught with dangers, ranging from well-meaning companies that fail to monitor and nurture plantations, to several cases overseas of fraud, where customers paid for trees that were never planted or where old-growth forests were bulldozed and replaced with plantations.
source:www.smh.com.au