Fiona Westerhout talks about her skin as though she is giving directions in a familiar neighbourhood: oily around the T-zone, dry cheeks, sensitive with the occasional breakout. Westerhout, 29, had just started blogging about skincare when she and her partner moved from Perth in Western Australia to Shanghai in May 2016. There she found …
Anti-pollution skincare: can a cream really help you ‘face the city’? Read More »
Air pollution might be linked to poor sleep, say researchers looking into the impact of toxic air on our slumbers. Looking tired can harm your social life, say researchers. The study explored the proportion of time participants spent asleep in bed at night compared with being awake – a measure known as sleep efficiency. The …
A new study has found that public restrooms can indeed be hotbeds for transmission of airborne diseases. Flushing a toilet generates aerosols that could linger in the air for hours, possibly days. Given that aerosols are now widely accepted as the primary mode of transmission of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, is there a …
Air pollution costs Indian businesses $95 billion every year, or 3% of the country’s Gross Domestic Product, and cuts annual consumer spending by $22 billion, according to a study released on Thursday. Every year, higher pollution levels shave off $1.3 billion from India’s IT sector in lost productivity, said the study by industry group …
Air pollution costs Indian businesses $95 billion a year – study Read More »
The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has directed the constitution of an eight-member national task force to oversee air quality monitoring of 124 non-attainment cities (NACs) in the country. Headed by the environment secretary, the task force will have members from ministries of housing and urban development, road transport, petroleum, power, agriculture, health, and chairman of …
NGT directs setting up national task force for air pollution monitoring in 124 cities Read More »
The announcement of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan by the Indian government, back in 2014, created tremendous momentum to leapfrog the country towards reaching open defecation free status. By the end of 2020, the mission achieved significant success with a multi-fold increase in access to toilets. Yet, urban poor populations living in informal settlements are disproportionately disadvantaged, …
Swachh Bharat Abhiyan: Sanitation, purpose and the power of partnerships Read More »
Even as a second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic is sweeping across India with surges in rates of infections and number of mortalities, a recently released report by Assocham and the Thought Arbitrage Research Institute, on the risks posed by non-communicable diseases in the country, draws our attention to this under-reported but important healthcare issue. …
Mumbai had an annual average PM 2.5 concentration of 41.3 micrograms/cubic metre, which is nearly four times above the WHO limit, according to IQAir, a Swiss group that measures air quality levels based on concentration of Particulate Matter (PM) 2.5. In the last one year, there was improvement in the annual average of PM 2.5 …
Mumbai’s average PM 2.5 level four times above WHO limit: report Read More »
India could soon have a single law governing air, water and environment-related activities, one of the senior-most officials in the environment ministry said on Tuesday. The Union environment ministry plans to table a new environmental management law that will subsume the Air Act 1981, Water Act 1974, and the Environment (Protection) Act 1986 and serve …
Single law mooted to replace air, water, environment acts Read More »
The Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) is known for adopting the latest technology in its day-to-day work. Now, citizens can share their feedback on a public toilet by just scanning a QR code, put it up outside the complex. NMMC has already has received a Double Plus rating for open defecation free (ODF) city and …
Now, scan QR Code to rate public toilets in Navi Mumbai Read More »