The government panel's interim report said plans laid out by the Nuclear Disaster Special Measures Law did not function properly because the scale of the disaster was unimaginable.
According to the law, in the event of a nuclear disaster an off-site headquarters is to be established near the nuclear power plant where the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency can gather information with representatives of local governments.
However, because local governments were overwhelmed dealing with the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, of the six towns surrounding the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant only Okumamachi sent a representative to the headquarters.
On March 15, following explosions at the plant's Nos. 1 and 3 reactors, and with the No. 2 reactor in a hazardous condition, radiation measurements inside the headquarters reached 200 microsieverts per hour, forcing the office to relocate to Fukushima city.
Early that morning, the nuclear safety agency had faxed the headquarters, advising them to administer stabilized iodine to prevent the accumulation of radioactive iodine in workers' bodies. But in the confusion surrounding the relocation to Fukushima, nobody noticed the fax until the evening.
The headquarters, which was only five kilometers from the nuclear plant, was not equipped with an air purifier to protect against radiation. This had been pointed out in 2009 by the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry, but the nuclear agency said such equipment was not necessary. "Radioactive substances would only be in the air for a short time. Just turning off the ventilation system is enough," they said.
The confusion was largely because a multihazard disaster involving a nuclear crisis and natural calamities was not foreseen. However, the 2007 Niigata Chuetsu Offshore Earthquake had provided a forewarning.
The Niigata quake damaged Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Kashiwazaki Kariwa nuclear power station, and the nuclear safety agency began conducting an investigation.
However, local governments opposed this probe, saying that if a claim was made that the earthquake caused the nuclear accident, the public would be overly apprehensive. The agency then concluded, "There is virtually no possibility that a natural disaster could cause a nuclear disaster," and the probe was terminated.
Niigata Prefecture in 2010 devised a training plan that anticipated such complex disasters, which was revised and approved by the safety agency. Regarding such training, the report said, "Disaster drills that take into account the unique aspects of nuclear accidents should be conducted regularly, with full participation of local residents."
2011年12月29日星期四
2011年12月28日星期三
Russ Choka created what we all yearn for – a place of community
On Friday, Russ Choka was laid to his rest, a much-deserved one. The gray skies reflected the somber mood at the morning vigil outside his restaurant, later at his funeral in the cathedral and finally at his grave in the Catholic cemetery.
So what was it then? Homage to Mr. Choka or simply that old familiar craving for a coney dog that drove us downtown three nights before Christmas? I don't know, but whatever it was when we pulled into the last space in the darkened parking lot, it was evident we were not alone. The place was jam-packed!
We stumbled through the back door, down the steps, through the kitchen, past the stove with the huge pots and the counter with tubs of dirty dishes into the restaurant, where we joined half of Fort Wayne. There was no room at this inn. We latecomers huddled together at the front and rear entrances of the old-timey establishment, eyeing the crowded tables, wondering “how long,” eager for our chance at the trough.
I'm telling you, that blazing Santa Claus sign was the slickest promotion Choka ever devised, shooting his revenue through the roof every December.
There were big-bellied Steelers fans chomping down dogs. Small shepherds and wise men with their worn-out parents chomping down dogs. Hot-shot high-schoolers in letter jackets with their girlfriends, businessmen, a woman in a fur coat, the ragged, the rich, the young and the old, all chomping down dogs. Why, it was “weinermania”! A fat baby in a high chair with a hot dog in one hand and pacifier in the other. An 89-year-old Leo Lion retelling the tale of his 1940 championship season when the whole team celebrated at this very establishment.
Knowledge handed down from one generation to the next is a beautiful thing to behold, and I watched as a doting grandfather hoisted his little angel onto a barstool at the counter. It took the child three seconds flat to discover the mystery of the motion of the swiveling stool, as she looked up in gratitude at her grandpa.
It had now been almost 10 hours since the vigil, and still the exhausted staff displayed a professionalism that would put the high-class joints in town to shame. In their soiled aprons and sweaty T-shirts proclaiming “Our buns are steamed,” I observed as they smiled patiently doing their best to satisfy all comers, sorting out Rubik's-cube orders — “Twenty- one coneys, nine with mustard, four without, five no onion.”
Thank heavens, a righteous man in a dark suit and tie, obviously straight from the church, was helping out, acting as maitre'd and busboy, alternately wiping tables and his brow.
Soon it was our turn to be seated, and in just an instant, like magic, our chili and coney dogs were placed before us. Gloria in the highest! Those dogs are the world's best!
Confirmed by the neon “World Famous Coney” sign blinking back in the window, I surveyed the scene. Only Norman Rockwell could have captured the magnitude of the neighborliness — friends sharing tall tales, strangers invited to pull up a chair, the laughter, the hugs, the “Merry Christmases”…
It was then I spotted her looking down on all of us — Mary with her baby, on a memorial blanket hung on a wall at the far end. Now my husband thinks I'm goofy, tearing up at the most inappropriate times, but honestly, that did it — that and the knowledge that Choka had chopped 50 pounds of onions seven days a week for more than 50 years!
And in that instant I knew why the place was packed, why business was booming, why the children would bring their children. The recipe was simple. With a humble hotdog, a spoonful of sauce and a fresh bun, Russ Choka had created what we all yearn for: a place of community.
So what was it then? Homage to Mr. Choka or simply that old familiar craving for a coney dog that drove us downtown three nights before Christmas? I don't know, but whatever it was when we pulled into the last space in the darkened parking lot, it was evident we were not alone. The place was jam-packed!
We stumbled through the back door, down the steps, through the kitchen, past the stove with the huge pots and the counter with tubs of dirty dishes into the restaurant, where we joined half of Fort Wayne. There was no room at this inn. We latecomers huddled together at the front and rear entrances of the old-timey establishment, eyeing the crowded tables, wondering “how long,” eager for our chance at the trough.
I'm telling you, that blazing Santa Claus sign was the slickest promotion Choka ever devised, shooting his revenue through the roof every December.
There were big-bellied Steelers fans chomping down dogs. Small shepherds and wise men with their worn-out parents chomping down dogs. Hot-shot high-schoolers in letter jackets with their girlfriends, businessmen, a woman in a fur coat, the ragged, the rich, the young and the old, all chomping down dogs. Why, it was “weinermania”! A fat baby in a high chair with a hot dog in one hand and pacifier in the other. An 89-year-old Leo Lion retelling the tale of his 1940 championship season when the whole team celebrated at this very establishment.
Knowledge handed down from one generation to the next is a beautiful thing to behold, and I watched as a doting grandfather hoisted his little angel onto a barstool at the counter. It took the child three seconds flat to discover the mystery of the motion of the swiveling stool, as she looked up in gratitude at her grandpa.
It had now been almost 10 hours since the vigil, and still the exhausted staff displayed a professionalism that would put the high-class joints in town to shame. In their soiled aprons and sweaty T-shirts proclaiming “Our buns are steamed,” I observed as they smiled patiently doing their best to satisfy all comers, sorting out Rubik's-cube orders — “Twenty- one coneys, nine with mustard, four without, five no onion.”
Thank heavens, a righteous man in a dark suit and tie, obviously straight from the church, was helping out, acting as maitre'd and busboy, alternately wiping tables and his brow.
Soon it was our turn to be seated, and in just an instant, like magic, our chili and coney dogs were placed before us. Gloria in the highest! Those dogs are the world's best!
Confirmed by the neon “World Famous Coney” sign blinking back in the window, I surveyed the scene. Only Norman Rockwell could have captured the magnitude of the neighborliness — friends sharing tall tales, strangers invited to pull up a chair, the laughter, the hugs, the “Merry Christmases”…
It was then I spotted her looking down on all of us — Mary with her baby, on a memorial blanket hung on a wall at the far end. Now my husband thinks I'm goofy, tearing up at the most inappropriate times, but honestly, that did it — that and the knowledge that Choka had chopped 50 pounds of onions seven days a week for more than 50 years!
And in that instant I knew why the place was packed, why business was booming, why the children would bring their children. The recipe was simple. With a humble hotdog, a spoonful of sauce and a fresh bun, Russ Choka had created what we all yearn for: a place of community.
2011年12月27日星期二
Chinese turn to U.S. for clarity in smog data
The Beijing smog often keeps Zhushen Zhenyu trapped at home, on his mother’s orders, when he’d rather be playing basketball outside, but the 8-year-old still hopes for a silver lining in the clouds of pollution choking China’s capital.
“When will the air quality be so bad we don’t have to go to school?” he asked a city official one recent smoggy day.
“That depends on government policy,” was the cryptic reply of Li Yunting, an engineer at the Beijing Environmental Monitoring Center, which opened to public visits last month.
The doubts about official pollution data keep piling up for China’s government, as green activists, celebrity bloggers and ordinary citizens increasingly demand action and information to halt the environmental fall-out from decades of breakneck economic growth.
Burning coal is largely responsible for the oppressive smog, which the United Nations has rated the worst in the world. China has more than doubled its coal consumption in the past 10 years but has not kept pace with the clean-air technology found in the West. It also relies on cheaper forms of coal that emit more pollutants, and Beijing’s nearly 5 million cars do not generally meet the standards of the USA.
The past two months have been dire. The high incidence of heavy air pollution has sent many residents rushing to buy face masks, air purifiers and household plants believed to clean dirty air.
The haze has highlighted discrepancies between the government’s robustly sunny statistics and the far scarier numbers recorded and issued by the U.S. Embassy here. Beijing described the air pollution as “light” on December 4, a smog-filled day that forced the city airport, the world’s second busiest, to cancel hundreds of flights because of poor visibility. The embassy reading was “beyond index,” literally off the measurement charts that stop at “hazardous.”
The embassy measurements, begun in 2008 and issued hourly via Twitter, use a standard employed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to measure tiny airborne particles, such as soot from burning gas in cars, that are under 2.5 micrometers in diameter.
Experts consider these particles most damaging to human health, as they are small enough to penetrate the lungs and blood, potentially causing lung cancer and other diseases.
China publishes figures using a standard that measures coarser particular matter such as dust and keeps secret, for internal research, the measurements of smaller particles its scientists collect.
Despite the Chinese government’s blocking of Twitter, the U.S. Embassy figures are widely circulated in Beijing on Chinese websites or microblogs. In recent weeks, celebrity bloggers such as real estate mogul Pan Shiyi and children’s author Zheng Yuanjie have pressured Chinese officials to give a more accurate picture of air quality.
Yu Ping, a Beijing journalist and father of a 6-year-old boy who, like him, has suffered a sore throat in recent weeks, threatens to sue the municipal environmental protection agency if they don’t respond to his request for the recent data.
“This is very important for me, my son and all citizens of Beijing and China,” he says.
Yu’s quest has inspired several other Chinese to demand data from their city governments, Yu says. He is grateful to the U.S. government for its transparency, but “it should be the Chinese government that does this,” he says.
Some Beijingers, such as Wang Jinlan, say the U.S. government should mind its own business. Her daughter Du Lanxin, 8, says they filled their house with special plants last month to purify the air.
“Our home is better now, but when I go out, it’s sometimes very hard to breathe,” she says. Her mother drives her to school every day rather than breathe the smog on a bicycle or bus, but in doing so, she adds to the city’s clogged, polluted streets.
Hua Lei, vice director of the center, insists that, over the past two years, Beijing’s air quality has improved. She says the center measures small particulates in the air but does not release the data because the public “won’t understand the figures.”
Environmentalist Feng Yongfeng, founder of the environmental group Green Beagle, has been lending air-quality monitoring equipment to companies and communities since May.
“As a government, you must let the people know the worst level of air quality,” he says.
Under growing pressure, Beijing is now revising national air-quality monitoring standards and promises to require the release of data on smaller particulates — by 2016.
Environmental consultant Steven Andrews, an American based in Beijing, says the problem is that China’s “target culture” means officials, fearful for their jobs, distort pollution levels to ensure they meet government benchmarks.
Even under the new standards, “levels will still be called good in Beijing that would be in the unhealthy range in the U.S,” he says.
“The air is dangerous; it will cause cancer,” says Sam Zhang, 41, a vegetable wholesaler who signed up for the monitoring center visit. He says he trusts the U.S. Embassy figures over his own government’s data.
“Taxpayers pay the government officials’ salaries, so they should tell the truth about air quality,” he says, “but they are not elected by the people, so we have no hope they will tell the truth.”
“When will the air quality be so bad we don’t have to go to school?” he asked a city official one recent smoggy day.
“That depends on government policy,” was the cryptic reply of Li Yunting, an engineer at the Beijing Environmental Monitoring Center, which opened to public visits last month.
The doubts about official pollution data keep piling up for China’s government, as green activists, celebrity bloggers and ordinary citizens increasingly demand action and information to halt the environmental fall-out from decades of breakneck economic growth.
Burning coal is largely responsible for the oppressive smog, which the United Nations has rated the worst in the world. China has more than doubled its coal consumption in the past 10 years but has not kept pace with the clean-air technology found in the West. It also relies on cheaper forms of coal that emit more pollutants, and Beijing’s nearly 5 million cars do not generally meet the standards of the USA.
The past two months have been dire. The high incidence of heavy air pollution has sent many residents rushing to buy face masks, air purifiers and household plants believed to clean dirty air.
The haze has highlighted discrepancies between the government’s robustly sunny statistics and the far scarier numbers recorded and issued by the U.S. Embassy here. Beijing described the air pollution as “light” on December 4, a smog-filled day that forced the city airport, the world’s second busiest, to cancel hundreds of flights because of poor visibility. The embassy reading was “beyond index,” literally off the measurement charts that stop at “hazardous.”
The embassy measurements, begun in 2008 and issued hourly via Twitter, use a standard employed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to measure tiny airborne particles, such as soot from burning gas in cars, that are under 2.5 micrometers in diameter.
Experts consider these particles most damaging to human health, as they are small enough to penetrate the lungs and blood, potentially causing lung cancer and other diseases.
China publishes figures using a standard that measures coarser particular matter such as dust and keeps secret, for internal research, the measurements of smaller particles its scientists collect.
Despite the Chinese government’s blocking of Twitter, the U.S. Embassy figures are widely circulated in Beijing on Chinese websites or microblogs. In recent weeks, celebrity bloggers such as real estate mogul Pan Shiyi and children’s author Zheng Yuanjie have pressured Chinese officials to give a more accurate picture of air quality.
Yu Ping, a Beijing journalist and father of a 6-year-old boy who, like him, has suffered a sore throat in recent weeks, threatens to sue the municipal environmental protection agency if they don’t respond to his request for the recent data.
“This is very important for me, my son and all citizens of Beijing and China,” he says.
Yu’s quest has inspired several other Chinese to demand data from their city governments, Yu says. He is grateful to the U.S. government for its transparency, but “it should be the Chinese government that does this,” he says.
Some Beijingers, such as Wang Jinlan, say the U.S. government should mind its own business. Her daughter Du Lanxin, 8, says they filled their house with special plants last month to purify the air.
“Our home is better now, but when I go out, it’s sometimes very hard to breathe,” she says. Her mother drives her to school every day rather than breathe the smog on a bicycle or bus, but in doing so, she adds to the city’s clogged, polluted streets.
Hua Lei, vice director of the center, insists that, over the past two years, Beijing’s air quality has improved. She says the center measures small particulates in the air but does not release the data because the public “won’t understand the figures.”
Environmentalist Feng Yongfeng, founder of the environmental group Green Beagle, has been lending air-quality monitoring equipment to companies and communities since May.
“As a government, you must let the people know the worst level of air quality,” he says.
Under growing pressure, Beijing is now revising national air-quality monitoring standards and promises to require the release of data on smaller particulates — by 2016.
Environmental consultant Steven Andrews, an American based in Beijing, says the problem is that China’s “target culture” means officials, fearful for their jobs, distort pollution levels to ensure they meet government benchmarks.
Even under the new standards, “levels will still be called good in Beijing that would be in the unhealthy range in the U.S,” he says.
“The air is dangerous; it will cause cancer,” says Sam Zhang, 41, a vegetable wholesaler who signed up for the monitoring center visit. He says he trusts the U.S. Embassy figures over his own government’s data.
“Taxpayers pay the government officials’ salaries, so they should tell the truth about air quality,” he says, “but they are not elected by the people, so we have no hope they will tell the truth.”
2011年12月26日星期一
Some Chinese turn to U.S. Embassy for clarity in smog data
The Beijing smog often keeps Zhushen Zhenyu trapped at home, on his mother's orders, when he'd rather be playing basketball outside, but the 8-year-old still hopes for a silver lining in the clouds of pollution choking China's capital.
"When will the air quality be so bad we don't have to go to school?" he asked a city official one recent smoggy day.
"That depends on government policy," was the cryptic reply of Li Yunting, an engineer at the Beijing Environmental Monitoring Center, which opened to public visits last month.
The doubts about official pollution data keep piling up for China's government, as green activists, celebrity bloggers and ordinary citizens increasingly demand action and information to halt the environmental fall-out from decades of breakneck economic growth.
Burning coal is largely responsible for the oppressive smog, which the United Nations has rated the worst in the world. China has more than doubled its coal consumption in the past 10 years but has not kept pace with the clean-air technology found in the West. It also relies on cheaper forms of coal that emit more pollutants, and Beijing's nearly 5 million cars do not generally meet the standards of the USA.
The past two months have been dire. The high incidence of heavy air pollution has sent many residents rushing to buy face masks, air purifiers and household plants believed to clean dirty air.
The haze has highlighted discrepancies between the government's robustly sunny statistics and the far scarier numbers recorded and issued by the U.S. Embassy here. Beijing described the air pollution as "light" on December 4, a smog-filled day that forced the city airport, the world's second busiest, to cancel hundreds of flights because of poor visibility. The embassy reading was "beyond index," literally off the measurement charts that stop at "hazardous."
The embassy measurements, begun in 2008 and issued hourly via Twitter, use a standard employed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to measure tiny airborne particles, such as soot from burning gas in cars, that are under 2.5 micrometers in diameter.
Experts consider these particles most damaging to human health, as they are small enough to penetrate the lungs and blood, potentially causing lung cancer and other diseases.
China publishes figures using a standard that measures coarser particular matter such as dust and keeps secret, for internal research, the measurements of smaller particles its scientists collect.
Despite the Chinese government's blocking of Twitter, the U.S. Embassy figures are widely circulated in Beijing on Chinese websites or microblogs. In recent weeks, celebrity bloggers such as real estate mogul Pan Shiyi and children's author Zheng Yuanjie have pressured Chinese officials to give a more accurate picture of air quality.
Yu Ping, a Beijing journalist and father of a 6-year-old boy who, like him, has suffered a sore throat in recent weeks, threatens to sue the municipal environmental protection agency if they don't respond to his request for the recent data.
"This is very important for me, my son and all citizens of Beijing and China," he says.
Yu's quest has inspired several other Chinese to demand data from their city governments, Yu says. He is grateful to the U.S. government for its transparency, but "it should be the Chinese government that does this," he says.
Some Beijingers, such as Wang Jinlan, say the U.S. government should mind its own business. Her daughter Du Lanxin, 8, says they filled their house with special plants last month to purify the air.
"Our home is better now, but when I go out, it's sometimes very hard to breathe," she says. Her mother drives her to school every day rather than breathe the smog on a bicycle or bus, but in doing so, she adds to the city's clogged, polluted streets.
Hua Lei, vice director of the center, insists that, over the past two years, Beijing's air quality has improved. She says the center measures small particulates in the air but does not release the data because the public "won't understand the figures."
Environmentalist Feng Yongfeng, founder of the environmental group Green Beagle, has been lending air-quality monitoring equipment to companies and communities since May.
"As a government, you must let the people know the worst level of air quality," he says.
Under growing pressure, Beijing is now revising national air-quality monitoring standards and promises to require the release of data on smaller particulates — by 2016.
Environmental consultant Steven Andrews, an American based in Beijing, says the problem is that China's "target culture" means officials, fearful for their jobs, distort pollution levels to ensure they meet government benchmarks.
Even under the new standards, "levels will still be called good in Beijing that would be in the unhealthy range in the U.S," he says.
"The air is dangerous; it will cause cancer," says Sam Zhang, 41, a vegetable wholesaler who signed up for the monitoring center visit. He says he trusts the U.S. Embassy figures over his own government's data.
"Taxpayers pay the government officials' salaries, so they should tell the truth about air quality," he says, "but they are not elected by the people, so we have no hope they will tell the truth."
"When will the air quality be so bad we don't have to go to school?" he asked a city official one recent smoggy day.
"That depends on government policy," was the cryptic reply of Li Yunting, an engineer at the Beijing Environmental Monitoring Center, which opened to public visits last month.
The doubts about official pollution data keep piling up for China's government, as green activists, celebrity bloggers and ordinary citizens increasingly demand action and information to halt the environmental fall-out from decades of breakneck economic growth.
Burning coal is largely responsible for the oppressive smog, which the United Nations has rated the worst in the world. China has more than doubled its coal consumption in the past 10 years but has not kept pace with the clean-air technology found in the West. It also relies on cheaper forms of coal that emit more pollutants, and Beijing's nearly 5 million cars do not generally meet the standards of the USA.
The past two months have been dire. The high incidence of heavy air pollution has sent many residents rushing to buy face masks, air purifiers and household plants believed to clean dirty air.
The haze has highlighted discrepancies between the government's robustly sunny statistics and the far scarier numbers recorded and issued by the U.S. Embassy here. Beijing described the air pollution as "light" on December 4, a smog-filled day that forced the city airport, the world's second busiest, to cancel hundreds of flights because of poor visibility. The embassy reading was "beyond index," literally off the measurement charts that stop at "hazardous."
The embassy measurements, begun in 2008 and issued hourly via Twitter, use a standard employed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to measure tiny airborne particles, such as soot from burning gas in cars, that are under 2.5 micrometers in diameter.
Experts consider these particles most damaging to human health, as they are small enough to penetrate the lungs and blood, potentially causing lung cancer and other diseases.
China publishes figures using a standard that measures coarser particular matter such as dust and keeps secret, for internal research, the measurements of smaller particles its scientists collect.
Despite the Chinese government's blocking of Twitter, the U.S. Embassy figures are widely circulated in Beijing on Chinese websites or microblogs. In recent weeks, celebrity bloggers such as real estate mogul Pan Shiyi and children's author Zheng Yuanjie have pressured Chinese officials to give a more accurate picture of air quality.
Yu Ping, a Beijing journalist and father of a 6-year-old boy who, like him, has suffered a sore throat in recent weeks, threatens to sue the municipal environmental protection agency if they don't respond to his request for the recent data.
"This is very important for me, my son and all citizens of Beijing and China," he says.
Yu's quest has inspired several other Chinese to demand data from their city governments, Yu says. He is grateful to the U.S. government for its transparency, but "it should be the Chinese government that does this," he says.
Some Beijingers, such as Wang Jinlan, say the U.S. government should mind its own business. Her daughter Du Lanxin, 8, says they filled their house with special plants last month to purify the air.
"Our home is better now, but when I go out, it's sometimes very hard to breathe," she says. Her mother drives her to school every day rather than breathe the smog on a bicycle or bus, but in doing so, she adds to the city's clogged, polluted streets.
Hua Lei, vice director of the center, insists that, over the past two years, Beijing's air quality has improved. She says the center measures small particulates in the air but does not release the data because the public "won't understand the figures."
Environmentalist Feng Yongfeng, founder of the environmental group Green Beagle, has been lending air-quality monitoring equipment to companies and communities since May.
"As a government, you must let the people know the worst level of air quality," he says.
Under growing pressure, Beijing is now revising national air-quality monitoring standards and promises to require the release of data on smaller particulates — by 2016.
Environmental consultant Steven Andrews, an American based in Beijing, says the problem is that China's "target culture" means officials, fearful for their jobs, distort pollution levels to ensure they meet government benchmarks.
Even under the new standards, "levels will still be called good in Beijing that would be in the unhealthy range in the U.S," he says.
"The air is dangerous; it will cause cancer," says Sam Zhang, 41, a vegetable wholesaler who signed up for the monitoring center visit. He says he trusts the U.S. Embassy figures over his own government's data.
"Taxpayers pay the government officials' salaries, so they should tell the truth about air quality," he says, "but they are not elected by the people, so we have no hope they will tell the truth."
2011年12月25日星期日
LG launches ‘green contest’ on Facebook
LG Electronics has launched a ‘green contest’, which invites entries from LG customers to share their experiences on the official fan page on Facebook
Applicable to all existing customers of LG’s Steam and Green Health technology based washing machines and dishwashers, the contest makes them eligible to win gifts ranging from refrigerators, air purifiers and solar DOM’s, among others.
“In 2011, the core focus for LG has been health and green products. The LG Steam Technology based washing machine and dishwashers have been successful products delivering on their commitment of quality and keeping up the promise of healthy living,” said H S Paik, president, LG Gulf.
“With this competition, we would like to engage with our audience and get them more involved in sharing and learning about ‘healthy technology’ from LG.”
Taking a proactive approach to environmental and health issues, LG launched its Green Health Plus campaign in 2011.
A step up from its Healthy Living campaign of 2010, Green Health Plus campaign that will show how LG is making homes more eco-friendly through energy-efficient and health-conscious home appliances.
Applicable to all existing customers of LG’s Steam and Green Health technology based washing machines and dishwashers, the contest makes them eligible to win gifts ranging from refrigerators, air purifiers and solar DOM’s, among others.
“In 2011, the core focus for LG has been health and green products. The LG Steam Technology based washing machine and dishwashers have been successful products delivering on their commitment of quality and keeping up the promise of healthy living,” said H S Paik, president, LG Gulf.
“With this competition, we would like to engage with our audience and get them more involved in sharing and learning about ‘healthy technology’ from LG.”
Taking a proactive approach to environmental and health issues, LG launched its Green Health Plus campaign in 2011.
A step up from its Healthy Living campaign of 2010, Green Health Plus campaign that will show how LG is making homes more eco-friendly through energy-efficient and health-conscious home appliances.
2011年12月22日星期四
Panasonic launches new eco-friendly appliances
Panasonic announced the launch of new additions to its washing machine and air purifier ranges, highlighted by eco-friendly features.
The consumer electronics giant’s new EcoNavi-powered washing machines use 90 per cent less water and promises to produce better results, ensuring optimum water and energy consumption by detecting waste. It also uses 40 per cent less power.
Unveiled were the NA-148VB3 and NA-127VB3 for the B series, and the 140VG3 and 148VG3 for the G series. The latter line comes with a 3D sensor, Perfect Sense, HydroActive+ and Invertor motor that work together to provide the best possible cleaning and resource savings.
The machines also feature a new intuitive LCD screen that allows the user to monitor the activities of the device.
“Panasonic products are designed to enhance the daily lifestyle of our customers and this is particularly true for our washing machines. Incorporated in these machines are advanced features, innovative design and an eco-conscious philosophy that will fit smartly into home and a busy lifestyle,” said Shoaib Tareen, deputy general manager of home appliances at Panasonic Marketing Middle East’s consumer electronics department.
Also launched were the new range of humidifier air purifiers, the F-VXF70M and F-VXF35M, both of which are equipped with nanoeTM, and OH radical wrapped by water molecules that penetrates and deodorises fabrics, as well as hydrating skin.
“Now, with the new range of air purifiers, nanoeTM OH radicals can activate better since moisture in the air can be set by these machines in a comfortable and conducive manner, thanks to the humidifier function,” said Motoharu Sugaya, Panasonic Marketing Middle East product manager.
The air purifiers are energy efficient, which can reduce 40 per cent of the normal energy consumption through Panasonic’s EcoNavi function.
The consumer electronics giant’s new EcoNavi-powered washing machines use 90 per cent less water and promises to produce better results, ensuring optimum water and energy consumption by detecting waste. It also uses 40 per cent less power.
Unveiled were the NA-148VB3 and NA-127VB3 for the B series, and the 140VG3 and 148VG3 for the G series. The latter line comes with a 3D sensor, Perfect Sense, HydroActive+ and Invertor motor that work together to provide the best possible cleaning and resource savings.
The machines also feature a new intuitive LCD screen that allows the user to monitor the activities of the device.
“Panasonic products are designed to enhance the daily lifestyle of our customers and this is particularly true for our washing machines. Incorporated in these machines are advanced features, innovative design and an eco-conscious philosophy that will fit smartly into home and a busy lifestyle,” said Shoaib Tareen, deputy general manager of home appliances at Panasonic Marketing Middle East’s consumer electronics department.
Also launched were the new range of humidifier air purifiers, the F-VXF70M and F-VXF35M, both of which are equipped with nanoeTM, and OH radical wrapped by water molecules that penetrates and deodorises fabrics, as well as hydrating skin.
“Now, with the new range of air purifiers, nanoeTM OH radicals can activate better since moisture in the air can be set by these machines in a comfortable and conducive manner, thanks to the humidifier function,” said Motoharu Sugaya, Panasonic Marketing Middle East product manager.
The air purifiers are energy efficient, which can reduce 40 per cent of the normal energy consumption through Panasonic’s EcoNavi function.
2011年12月21日星期三
Godrej's George Menezes
If you see our growth trajectory over the last three years, we have been growing at CAGR (compounded annual growth rate) of around 28-29% as a division, and the industry has been growing around 12-15%.
We grew nearly twice the industry growth rate largely because of certain strategic initiatives. For example, in our portfolio strategy, we shifted gears to expand business in other allied categories in home appliances.
Till a few years back, we were known only as a refrigerator company. We embarked upon this (new strategy) aggressively in the last 8-10 years. We started with washing machines, added air-conditioners, and microwave owens. New products boosted our topline.
The second thing we did was to adopt a product platform, or rather a philosophy in product development, that positioned us uniquely. For instance, most players in appliances tend to emphasise on style and design, and are not differentiated. Each refrigerator across brands looks the same, and if you had to camouflage the brand name, you won’t be able to distinguish. In functionality too, everybody is pretty much the same.
So to differentiate was a huge challenge. First you need to go to consumers and find out what is it that they desire in appliances. Indian consumers are very different and we tried to address these innate Indian needs.
The multinationals are becoming Indian! Where a lot of them get constrained is, they are driven by lot of processes that are global.
For a smaller organisation like us, we are completely empowered; decision-making is quick and we can initiate changes very fast. We are more agile and have an advantage over them.
But as their India portfolio starts going up, they will be at par.
When we launched our Eon brand in 2006, we implemented an innovative technology in our refrigerators that cooled differently. Our study showed, unlike a western consumer who would be pretty disciplined in the use of a refrigerator by keeping various food articles in different zones, the Indian consumer tends to stuff everything wherever there is space.
People put the whole vessel containing leftover food inside the refrigerator! Because of this, the cooling vents which are typically designed to provide cooling used to get blocked, and the cool air never reached the rest of the compartment or gave excessive cooling in one concentrated space.
So we designed our product around this. Normally, the 4-5 cooling vents are at the back or side of the refrigerator. We redesigned the cooling delivery mechanism by building vents into every shelf.
Similarly, we did that in washing machines by identifying the pain area of a consumer. Urban or rural, India has its fair share of infrastructure-related problems. For high-end washing machines, which are at the mercy of erratic power and water supplies, we build appliances that can sense if either power or water supply go off and go into the hibernation mode.
For every product, we try to find at least one hook that can leverage the Indian need. In the last few years, we got strongly differentiated in the market. In May, we launched MuziPlay, a refrigerator with radio to the women who are closeted in the kitchen for hours. But every innovation has its life and the challenge is to innovate over and over again.
Every quarter, we want one innovation. We should be able to create something new, because of the severity of competition in the industry. On the topline front, we want to double turnover every three years.
We are focusing on appliances especially for the rural segment. After our low-cost refrigerator ChotuKool, we are working on a low-cost washing machine solution for the rural market, and a low-cost water purifier. We have a strategy to enter the hinterland through an altogether different business model and build a channel of self-help groups.
There has been erosion on pricing power across categories. But Indian consumers are migrating toward higher-end products, which is also higher on profit for all brands. We all have been able to sustain our growth and profitability only because of that.
Otherwise, the cost structures are swinging; the commodity prices are so volatile. Steel, copper, aluminum, plastic, polymers, chemicals… are all governed by metal prices and oil prices, and both are highly volatile and on an upward trajectory right now.
The last two months have been very difficult for the industry as people are not able to afford buying durables with cost of financing going up. Rupee depreciation is also hurting the industry as appliances are high on import content.
We grew nearly twice the industry growth rate largely because of certain strategic initiatives. For example, in our portfolio strategy, we shifted gears to expand business in other allied categories in home appliances.
Till a few years back, we were known only as a refrigerator company. We embarked upon this (new strategy) aggressively in the last 8-10 years. We started with washing machines, added air-conditioners, and microwave owens. New products boosted our topline.
The second thing we did was to adopt a product platform, or rather a philosophy in product development, that positioned us uniquely. For instance, most players in appliances tend to emphasise on style and design, and are not differentiated. Each refrigerator across brands looks the same, and if you had to camouflage the brand name, you won’t be able to distinguish. In functionality too, everybody is pretty much the same.
So to differentiate was a huge challenge. First you need to go to consumers and find out what is it that they desire in appliances. Indian consumers are very different and we tried to address these innate Indian needs.
The multinationals are becoming Indian! Where a lot of them get constrained is, they are driven by lot of processes that are global.
For a smaller organisation like us, we are completely empowered; decision-making is quick and we can initiate changes very fast. We are more agile and have an advantage over them.
But as their India portfolio starts going up, they will be at par.
When we launched our Eon brand in 2006, we implemented an innovative technology in our refrigerators that cooled differently. Our study showed, unlike a western consumer who would be pretty disciplined in the use of a refrigerator by keeping various food articles in different zones, the Indian consumer tends to stuff everything wherever there is space.
People put the whole vessel containing leftover food inside the refrigerator! Because of this, the cooling vents which are typically designed to provide cooling used to get blocked, and the cool air never reached the rest of the compartment or gave excessive cooling in one concentrated space.
So we designed our product around this. Normally, the 4-5 cooling vents are at the back or side of the refrigerator. We redesigned the cooling delivery mechanism by building vents into every shelf.
Similarly, we did that in washing machines by identifying the pain area of a consumer. Urban or rural, India has its fair share of infrastructure-related problems. For high-end washing machines, which are at the mercy of erratic power and water supplies, we build appliances that can sense if either power or water supply go off and go into the hibernation mode.
For every product, we try to find at least one hook that can leverage the Indian need. In the last few years, we got strongly differentiated in the market. In May, we launched MuziPlay, a refrigerator with radio to the women who are closeted in the kitchen for hours. But every innovation has its life and the challenge is to innovate over and over again.
Every quarter, we want one innovation. We should be able to create something new, because of the severity of competition in the industry. On the topline front, we want to double turnover every three years.
We are focusing on appliances especially for the rural segment. After our low-cost refrigerator ChotuKool, we are working on a low-cost washing machine solution for the rural market, and a low-cost water purifier. We have a strategy to enter the hinterland through an altogether different business model and build a channel of self-help groups.
There has been erosion on pricing power across categories. But Indian consumers are migrating toward higher-end products, which is also higher on profit for all brands. We all have been able to sustain our growth and profitability only because of that.
Otherwise, the cost structures are swinging; the commodity prices are so volatile. Steel, copper, aluminum, plastic, polymers, chemicals… are all governed by metal prices and oil prices, and both are highly volatile and on an upward trajectory right now.
The last two months have been very difficult for the industry as people are not able to afford buying durables with cost of financing going up. Rupee depreciation is also hurting the industry as appliances are high on import content.
2011年12月20日星期二
Panasonic unveils eco-friendly appliances
Panasonic has unveiled an eco-friendly washing machine that uses less water and humidifying air purifiers that are effective against air borne impurities.
The washing machine models launched today (December 20) include the NA-148VB3, NA-127VB3 for the B series, and 140VG3 and 148VG3 for the G series, a statement from the company said.
It ensures optimum water and energy consumption by detecting waste. The Econavi machines reduce wash time and power consumption by 45 percent, and consumes less water.
The G series of washing machines comes with 3D sensor, perfect sense, hydroactive+ and inverter motor which works together to ensure clean results and the best resource savings.
“It’s A+++ energy label is a guarantee that it will help minimise energy consumption, while it’s high performance design, flexibility and ease of use mean washing has never been so efficient,” said Shoaib Tareen, deputy general manager, consumer electronics department, Panasonic marketing, Middle East.
The Panasonic hydroactive+ technology consists in 5 point multi-directional showers coming from 5 directions which rapidly penetrate items and guarantee efficient washing and rinsing.
In addition, the perfect sense technology detects precisely the amount of clothes to reduce waste of water and get the best washing results, the statement said.
The 3D sensor wash analyses the movement of the drum, detecting the movement of the laundry in the machine and makes adjustments to enable the laundry to tumble from the optimal position.
Panasonic washing machines allows the user to choose from a host of customised care programmes and options that deliver perfect results, the new drum further protects clothes during washing and assures an efficient rinsing, it said.
The 34 cm large aperture makes it easy to load and wash big volumes of clothes, and the advanced stain master technology provides 23 stain treatments to get rid of the toughest of common stains.
A new LCD screen on the front of the machine shows the programme being used and the time left in the cycle as well as the temperature and spin speed, putting the user in total control of every wash.
The eco/speed mode gives the option to save time: reduce the time of the wash by 40 percent with speed mode, or use 50 percent less energy and 30 percent less water with eco mode.
Panasonic also launched its new humidifier air purifiers, F-VXF70M, F-VXF35M, both of which are equipped with nanoe OH radicals.
“Now, with the new range of air purifiers, nanoe OH radicals can activate better since moisture in the air can be set by these machines in a comfortable and conducive manner, thanks to the humidifier function,” said Motoharu Sugaya, product manager, Panasonic marketing Middle East.
The new air purifiers are energy efficient which can reduce 40 percent of the normal energy consumption, EcoNavi function, which works like a sensor with memory, the statement said.
The F-VXF70M is equipped with a strong suction power called the mega catcher which has a powerful suction power, which enables dust and other air pollutants lying within 30 cm above the ground to be captured faster, it said.
The washing machine models launched today (December 20) include the NA-148VB3, NA-127VB3 for the B series, and 140VG3 and 148VG3 for the G series, a statement from the company said.
It ensures optimum water and energy consumption by detecting waste. The Econavi machines reduce wash time and power consumption by 45 percent, and consumes less water.
The G series of washing machines comes with 3D sensor, perfect sense, hydroactive+ and inverter motor which works together to ensure clean results and the best resource savings.
“It’s A+++ energy label is a guarantee that it will help minimise energy consumption, while it’s high performance design, flexibility and ease of use mean washing has never been so efficient,” said Shoaib Tareen, deputy general manager, consumer electronics department, Panasonic marketing, Middle East.
The Panasonic hydroactive+ technology consists in 5 point multi-directional showers coming from 5 directions which rapidly penetrate items and guarantee efficient washing and rinsing.
In addition, the perfect sense technology detects precisely the amount of clothes to reduce waste of water and get the best washing results, the statement said.
The 3D sensor wash analyses the movement of the drum, detecting the movement of the laundry in the machine and makes adjustments to enable the laundry to tumble from the optimal position.
Panasonic washing machines allows the user to choose from a host of customised care programmes and options that deliver perfect results, the new drum further protects clothes during washing and assures an efficient rinsing, it said.
The 34 cm large aperture makes it easy to load and wash big volumes of clothes, and the advanced stain master technology provides 23 stain treatments to get rid of the toughest of common stains.
A new LCD screen on the front of the machine shows the programme being used and the time left in the cycle as well as the temperature and spin speed, putting the user in total control of every wash.
The eco/speed mode gives the option to save time: reduce the time of the wash by 40 percent with speed mode, or use 50 percent less energy and 30 percent less water with eco mode.
Panasonic also launched its new humidifier air purifiers, F-VXF70M, F-VXF35M, both of which are equipped with nanoe OH radicals.
“Now, with the new range of air purifiers, nanoe OH radicals can activate better since moisture in the air can be set by these machines in a comfortable and conducive manner, thanks to the humidifier function,” said Motoharu Sugaya, product manager, Panasonic marketing Middle East.
The new air purifiers are energy efficient which can reduce 40 percent of the normal energy consumption, EcoNavi function, which works like a sensor with memory, the statement said.
The F-VXF70M is equipped with a strong suction power called the mega catcher which has a powerful suction power, which enables dust and other air pollutants lying within 30 cm above the ground to be captured faster, it said.
2011年12月19日星期一
Breathing in Beijing
Air pollution in China's big cities gets lot of attention, but one British entrepreneur says the challenge can be faced, Angela Shen reports.
Running from a problem does nothing to solve it - especially one as difficult and pervasive as air pollution. Chris Buckley, a British expatriate, felt the touch of pollution on his health soon after he moved to Beijing in 2000, where he developed mild asthma. Despite this, however, he never considered leaving Beijing to be an option.
"My life and job are here," says Buckley, referring to the two stores that he owns in Shunyi district of Beijing. "So, like everyone here in Beijing, [I had] to adapt and get on with life."
Buckley says he had wanted to come to China for a long time, but initially got a posting to Japan.
"When the chance came up to come here, I took it."
Later, he swapped his research and development job at P&G to open a shop for Tibetan art and rugs.
"My interest in 'things Tibetan' goes back a long way - I first visited the area in 1996 and liked the art and handicrafts immediately. I collected old Tibetan rugs for a while and then met a Tibetan workshop manager, Norbu Tsering, and founded the Tibet Tanva Weaving Workshop with him."
Buckley had a long interest in design that fit well with rug-making. "Our business is in new Tibetan rugs that we make at our own workshop," but he also sells other kinds of weavings made by Tibetan artisans, including Wangden meditation rugs, traditional aprons and yak-hair blankets.
Happy with his Tibetan rug business, Buckley says he had to do more than just try to cope with his asthma. He did extensive research on remediating air pollution, and became convinced that good air purifiers would make life easier not just for him but for expats making the transition to Beijing.
As a longtime scientist, Buckley says, he liked doing product research, so he didn't find the process of trying different models of air purifiers to be tedious.
So, even before his research into air pollution and air filters, Buckley was familiar with using and operating air filters. The hardest part of the research, he says, was measuring the amount of air pollution.
Blueair, a Swedish product that Buckley had shipped over from England, was the fifth model he had tested during his trial-and-error research. He says the machine works quickly, efficiently and quietly. The last factor would be critical to homeowners who want to keep it on at night and still get a good night's sleep.
"I use to wake up in the middle of the night, finding myself unable to breathe, which scared my wife," says Buckley, whose asthma had been much more active before his installation of Blueair in his bedroom.
While Buckley says a top-quality filter such as Blueair is good for children and people with respiratory problems, it is not a perfect answer.
In Beijing, unless you live like a hermit (without ever opening any windows or doors), no matter how much you clean there will always be a thin layer of dust on the table the next day.
"I am optimistic about the future of Beijing air, Buckley says, despite resorting to what some see as drastic measures. "It took Western cities - for example, Los Angeles - decades to solve air-pollution problems, so expecting Beijing to fix its issues overnight is unrealistic.
"Another point to bear in mind is that some of the improvements in air quality in the US and Europe have come from shutting down traditional industries (such as iron- and steel-making) and importing these goods from Asia instead. China has become the manufacturing workshop of the world, so it has a far more difficult job to control air pollution than the US or the average European country."
One consequence of this, he says, is that "there is sure to be a market for air purifiers here for some time to come."
Buckley says air pollution in the capital decreased in 2009 due to the "big push to improve air quality" during the Olympics, and the temporary closure of many industries and factories during the financial crisis later. However, with many people buying more cars, air pollution has returned to the level it was at in 2005 and 2006, he says.
Longterm solutions - top-of-the-line scrubbers for coal plants, replacing coal with nuclear power - are both costly and controversial.
Ultimately, however, it is the government and the people's decision. It is the government, he says, that "needs to find a balance between people's desire for economic growth and healthcare."
"My job is not really to educate people about pollution," says Buckley, though he will try to make the information about air pollution on his website more readily available to non-English speakers in the future. "My job is to answer the needs [of] people who already know about air pollution."
Most of his customers are foreigners, especially families with kids.
"The biggest thing you can do for your health here is to put an air purifier in your bedroom. After that, the next priority is to put air purifiers in living rooms and offices. We also sell N95-rated face masks for very high pollution days and for those who like to walk, cycle or get other outdoor exercise in the city."
Running from a problem does nothing to solve it - especially one as difficult and pervasive as air pollution. Chris Buckley, a British expatriate, felt the touch of pollution on his health soon after he moved to Beijing in 2000, where he developed mild asthma. Despite this, however, he never considered leaving Beijing to be an option.
"My life and job are here," says Buckley, referring to the two stores that he owns in Shunyi district of Beijing. "So, like everyone here in Beijing, [I had] to adapt and get on with life."
Buckley says he had wanted to come to China for a long time, but initially got a posting to Japan.
"When the chance came up to come here, I took it."
Later, he swapped his research and development job at P&G to open a shop for Tibetan art and rugs.
"My interest in 'things Tibetan' goes back a long way - I first visited the area in 1996 and liked the art and handicrafts immediately. I collected old Tibetan rugs for a while and then met a Tibetan workshop manager, Norbu Tsering, and founded the Tibet Tanva Weaving Workshop with him."
Buckley had a long interest in design that fit well with rug-making. "Our business is in new Tibetan rugs that we make at our own workshop," but he also sells other kinds of weavings made by Tibetan artisans, including Wangden meditation rugs, traditional aprons and yak-hair blankets.
Happy with his Tibetan rug business, Buckley says he had to do more than just try to cope with his asthma. He did extensive research on remediating air pollution, and became convinced that good air purifiers would make life easier not just for him but for expats making the transition to Beijing.
As a longtime scientist, Buckley says, he liked doing product research, so he didn't find the process of trying different models of air purifiers to be tedious.
So, even before his research into air pollution and air filters, Buckley was familiar with using and operating air filters. The hardest part of the research, he says, was measuring the amount of air pollution.
Blueair, a Swedish product that Buckley had shipped over from England, was the fifth model he had tested during his trial-and-error research. He says the machine works quickly, efficiently and quietly. The last factor would be critical to homeowners who want to keep it on at night and still get a good night's sleep.
"I use to wake up in the middle of the night, finding myself unable to breathe, which scared my wife," says Buckley, whose asthma had been much more active before his installation of Blueair in his bedroom.
While Buckley says a top-quality filter such as Blueair is good for children and people with respiratory problems, it is not a perfect answer.
In Beijing, unless you live like a hermit (without ever opening any windows or doors), no matter how much you clean there will always be a thin layer of dust on the table the next day.
"I am optimistic about the future of Beijing air, Buckley says, despite resorting to what some see as drastic measures. "It took Western cities - for example, Los Angeles - decades to solve air-pollution problems, so expecting Beijing to fix its issues overnight is unrealistic.
"Another point to bear in mind is that some of the improvements in air quality in the US and Europe have come from shutting down traditional industries (such as iron- and steel-making) and importing these goods from Asia instead. China has become the manufacturing workshop of the world, so it has a far more difficult job to control air pollution than the US or the average European country."
One consequence of this, he says, is that "there is sure to be a market for air purifiers here for some time to come."
Buckley says air pollution in the capital decreased in 2009 due to the "big push to improve air quality" during the Olympics, and the temporary closure of many industries and factories during the financial crisis later. However, with many people buying more cars, air pollution has returned to the level it was at in 2005 and 2006, he says.
Longterm solutions - top-of-the-line scrubbers for coal plants, replacing coal with nuclear power - are both costly and controversial.
Ultimately, however, it is the government and the people's decision. It is the government, he says, that "needs to find a balance between people's desire for economic growth and healthcare."
"My job is not really to educate people about pollution," says Buckley, though he will try to make the information about air pollution on his website more readily available to non-English speakers in the future. "My job is to answer the needs [of] people who already know about air pollution."
Most of his customers are foreigners, especially families with kids.
"The biggest thing you can do for your health here is to put an air purifier in your bedroom. After that, the next priority is to put air purifiers in living rooms and offices. We also sell N95-rated face masks for very high pollution days and for those who like to walk, cycle or get other outdoor exercise in the city."
2011年12月18日星期日
Shift in non-smoking strategy needed
I applaud the National Environment Agency's initiative to collect public feedback on the smoking ban. Extending the ban, though, may exacerbate the problem for non-smokers.
As it is already difficult to enforce the current ban, an extension alone would overload environment officers, resulting in little or even negative impact on the ground.
Reducing the number of places to smoke would lead to a concentration of smokers and second-hand smoke in those places. And despite past extensions of the ban, it has become more difficult to avoid second-hand smoke.
A new approach, to provide alternatives for smokers, is needed. Most smokers will not readily give up the habit, and we need to recognise that smoking is an addiction, not a lifestyle choice.
If we want to protect citizens, I propose there should be smoking rooms in all buildings (like those in Changi Airport). Non-smokers are freed from the health risks of second-hand smoke while the policy debates continue.
There should be mandatory air purifiers in public flats and private apartments whose residents are smokers (verified against insurance declarations), to protect children and neighbours.
Wantonly discarded cigarette butts in non-smoking areas should be tested for DNA/fingerprints, to ease the load on enforcement officers trying to capture culprits in the act.
Errant smokers would then receive a fine via mail for breaching non-smoking and/or littering laws. We may even see cleaner streets.
For now, the key is to help instil more responsibility among existing smokers. People have the right to smoke only if it does not affect others. And we should continue to educate and help those ready to quit. The most important proposal I have come across was that to deny access to tobacco to those born since 2000. This would plug the leaking boat and make the smoking problem more manageable.
While the long-term objective of achieving a smoke-free Singapore is clear, the imperative now is to protect non-smokers. Then fight to extend the ban.
As it is already difficult to enforce the current ban, an extension alone would overload environment officers, resulting in little or even negative impact on the ground.
Reducing the number of places to smoke would lead to a concentration of smokers and second-hand smoke in those places. And despite past extensions of the ban, it has become more difficult to avoid second-hand smoke.
A new approach, to provide alternatives for smokers, is needed. Most smokers will not readily give up the habit, and we need to recognise that smoking is an addiction, not a lifestyle choice.
If we want to protect citizens, I propose there should be smoking rooms in all buildings (like those in Changi Airport). Non-smokers are freed from the health risks of second-hand smoke while the policy debates continue.
There should be mandatory air purifiers in public flats and private apartments whose residents are smokers (verified against insurance declarations), to protect children and neighbours.
Wantonly discarded cigarette butts in non-smoking areas should be tested for DNA/fingerprints, to ease the load on enforcement officers trying to capture culprits in the act.
Errant smokers would then receive a fine via mail for breaching non-smoking and/or littering laws. We may even see cleaner streets.
For now, the key is to help instil more responsibility among existing smokers. People have the right to smoke only if it does not affect others. And we should continue to educate and help those ready to quit. The most important proposal I have come across was that to deny access to tobacco to those born since 2000. This would plug the leaking boat and make the smoking problem more manageable.
While the long-term objective of achieving a smoke-free Singapore is clear, the imperative now is to protect non-smokers. Then fight to extend the ban.
2011年12月15日星期四
Hiking Equipment Made in America, GPS Receivers and Solar Chargers
I spent last summer preparing for and then enjoying a rather unusual reporting assignment: a trip to the bottom of the Grand Canyon, on foot, followed by a black-tie dinner next to a remote waterfall. Insofar as the trip involved not getting lost in the middle of the desert and blogging frequently from what is arguably the remotest town in the lower 48, I feel qualified to offer gift-buying advice on GPS receivers and solar panels. (And, because I’m the sort of person who builds a database every time I do anything, I’ve also got some information on made-in-America hiking gear.)
Smartphones may be supplanting their in-car counterparts, but trail GPS receivers are still essential accessories for serious hikers: their batteries last longer than a smartphone’s; they’re not dependent on a cellular signal to work; and their ruggedized bodies make them much better able to withstand the punishment of a long trek.
The latest generation of outdoor GPS receivers comes in both touch-screen and buttoned varieties. I chose a model with buttons, Garmin‘s GPSmap 62stc ($600), for my trip because I figured it’d be easier to use with dirty hands and in blazing sunlight, and its smaller screen conserves batteries. The GPSmap’s form factor and interface have been refined over the course of more than a decade, and the current product is intuitive and fast, solidly built and unobtrusively sized. (See the track that it produced during my 8-hour hike out of the Grand Canyon last August on the excellent Garmin Connect Web site.)
If you’re used to the silky iPhone experience, the current generation of touchscreen GPS receivers will disappoint you. I tried both Magellan’s eXplorist 710 ($550) and Garmin’s Montana 650t ($700). Both have balky touchscreens that require a big, plodding fingerpress before they’ll respond.
The eXplorist is perhaps the better of the two for substantial hikes. It’s smaller, its basemap is more appealing and its user interface is somewhat more polished. Like the Montana, it has a built-in camera that takes geotagged photos. Unlike the Montana’s, the eXplorist’s camera can be activated by an external weather-sealed button rather than through a series of awkward menus.
The Montana seems oriented toward geocaching, a fun hobby that involves using a GPS receiver to find trinkets that other hobbyists hide in public parks. It’s got an enormous screen and a neat feature that can send tracks, routes or waypoints from one Montana to another wirelessly. And I’ll give it a few points for offering a choice of rechargeable battery or AAs.
If you intend to, say, blog over the course of your multi-day hike, you’ll need to either carry lots of batteries or take along a solar charger.
Most practical, portable solar panels don’t produce enough electricity to power your devices as you use them. Put aside notions of typing away on your solar-powered laptop all day while an army of trained monkeys attends to you. Most of these solar chargers amount to a rechargeable backup battery for phones or other small electronics that can be recharged by the sun in a pinch–and over a long period of time.
The largest panel I tried needed about 8 hours of direct sunlight to build up enough of a charge to power a small laptop for two hours. You’ll get similar ratios out of smaller panels that are oriented toward charging phones: you have to leave the panel in bright sunlight for a few hours to charge its own battery, then plug that battery into your phone.
GoalZero takes a modular approach to solar chargers, with several different sizes of panels and battery packs that you can chain together as needed. I tried both a Sherpa 50 kit, which includes a four-panel folding solar array and a hardcover-book-sized battery pack; and a Guide 10 Plus kit, which comes with a smaller array and a battery pack made up of four AA rechargeable batteries. Both kits include some means of recharging their batteries from an outlet, and the Sherpa 50 can connect to an inverter that will power a standard AC outlet. Generating direct current from the sun, converting it to alternating current with an inverter and then converting it again (usually) to DC inside your electronics is inefficient; you won’t be able to power anything for very long with this sort of setup, but it’s a useful safeguard against total loss of power.
Smartphones may be supplanting their in-car counterparts, but trail GPS receivers are still essential accessories for serious hikers: their batteries last longer than a smartphone’s; they’re not dependent on a cellular signal to work; and their ruggedized bodies make them much better able to withstand the punishment of a long trek.
The latest generation of outdoor GPS receivers comes in both touch-screen and buttoned varieties. I chose a model with buttons, Garmin‘s GPSmap 62stc ($600), for my trip because I figured it’d be easier to use with dirty hands and in blazing sunlight, and its smaller screen conserves batteries. The GPSmap’s form factor and interface have been refined over the course of more than a decade, and the current product is intuitive and fast, solidly built and unobtrusively sized. (See the track that it produced during my 8-hour hike out of the Grand Canyon last August on the excellent Garmin Connect Web site.)
If you’re used to the silky iPhone experience, the current generation of touchscreen GPS receivers will disappoint you. I tried both Magellan’s eXplorist 710 ($550) and Garmin’s Montana 650t ($700). Both have balky touchscreens that require a big, plodding fingerpress before they’ll respond.
The eXplorist is perhaps the better of the two for substantial hikes. It’s smaller, its basemap is more appealing and its user interface is somewhat more polished. Like the Montana, it has a built-in camera that takes geotagged photos. Unlike the Montana’s, the eXplorist’s camera can be activated by an external weather-sealed button rather than through a series of awkward menus.
The Montana seems oriented toward geocaching, a fun hobby that involves using a GPS receiver to find trinkets that other hobbyists hide in public parks. It’s got an enormous screen and a neat feature that can send tracks, routes or waypoints from one Montana to another wirelessly. And I’ll give it a few points for offering a choice of rechargeable battery or AAs.
If you intend to, say, blog over the course of your multi-day hike, you’ll need to either carry lots of batteries or take along a solar charger.
Most practical, portable solar panels don’t produce enough electricity to power your devices as you use them. Put aside notions of typing away on your solar-powered laptop all day while an army of trained monkeys attends to you. Most of these solar chargers amount to a rechargeable backup battery for phones or other small electronics that can be recharged by the sun in a pinch–and over a long period of time.
The largest panel I tried needed about 8 hours of direct sunlight to build up enough of a charge to power a small laptop for two hours. You’ll get similar ratios out of smaller panels that are oriented toward charging phones: you have to leave the panel in bright sunlight for a few hours to charge its own battery, then plug that battery into your phone.
GoalZero takes a modular approach to solar chargers, with several different sizes of panels and battery packs that you can chain together as needed. I tried both a Sherpa 50 kit, which includes a four-panel folding solar array and a hardcover-book-sized battery pack; and a Guide 10 Plus kit, which comes with a smaller array and a battery pack made up of four AA rechargeable batteries. Both kits include some means of recharging their batteries from an outlet, and the Sherpa 50 can connect to an inverter that will power a standard AC outlet. Generating direct current from the sun, converting it to alternating current with an inverter and then converting it again (usually) to DC inside your electronics is inefficient; you won’t be able to power anything for very long with this sort of setup, but it’s a useful safeguard against total loss of power.
2011年12月14日星期三
Just this side of winter
Well before the first hint of dawn, I listen to the sounds our house makes in the night. Whirring overhead fan. Purring air purifier. Just barely audible radio voices—KBIA at 5:30 a.m., connecting us automatically to NPR and the world. Click. The thermostat register checking its own temperature, set at 65 degrees for the night. Clink. Ice dropping onto a pile of cubes in the refrigerator’s freezer bin.
Still one more sound catches my attention. Unfamiliar, it is curious enough to have me leave the warmth of down feathers, wool blankets and Kit to find its source. But first, I slip my bare feet into chocolate-colored high topped, fleece-lined Ugg boots—replacements for my old pair purchased in New Zealand long before the world decided that these wooly boots from Down Under were in fact not so ugg-ly after all.
Ignoring traditional house robes, I opt for a warm, oatmeal-colored, oversized sweater that almost reaches my knees and add a sleeveless fleece-lined vest the color of Burmese garnets. Catching my image in the glass porch door, my white pajama pants float beneath the sweater and vest like Pakistani shalwar kameez. For an instant, I see my beautiful sisters Molly and Kim in the late 1970s. Dressed in traditional pajama-like pants and long tops, they are wrapped in cashmere pashmina shawls as a cold dawn rises over the ancient city of Gabedero in Sindh Province, Pakistan.
That sound again, and I’m back in the warming room where I discover that the fan switch on the front of the Buck stove has been blowing all night over hot embers stowed under a pile of gray ash. Sifting under the pile, I uncover two live shards of last night’s fire, add twigs and a small piece of split wood. Soon, I have fire humming back to life in the stove.
One final sound. A cat scratches at the basement door. Fanny, our sharp-eared calico Manx has heard me padding around. Still dark outside; nonetheless, morning is underway as far as this cat is concerned. Feed me, she insists while weaving in, around and just ahead of my feet—a feline skater executing perfect 8s on icy linoleum. The tinny-tight snap of a tuna can opening, instantly bringing our three cats to their bowls. Only then do I push in the coffee button. Clear water runs through dark ground java and cinnamon--drip, drip dripping dark brown into the carafe below.
Milk steamed and coffee poured, I head for the couch across from the now glowing Buck stove, adding a large piece of split firewood on my way. Pre-dawn. My favorite hour of the day. In touch with the house and its living, breathing sounds, I am fully awake and at peace. The fire, a plaid, wool blanket and two sprawling lap cats conspire to keep me warm. Settled in at last, I join the rich cast of characters in two books by Sri-Lankan born, Canadian author Michael Ondaatje--colorful companions for what remains of the night.
In The Cat’s Table, an 11-year old boy makes a life-altering journey by ship from Ceylon to England in 1954. In his lyrical travel memoir, Running in the Family, Ondaatje (in his early 40s) reconnects with his eccentric Ceylonese/Dutch family and the landscape he left as a child, moving first to England, then relocating to Canada in 1962.
Upon arriving back in Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon), Ondaatje identifies sounds in the night, linking him to his distant childhood there. Reading his description of a peacock’s disturbed cry when awakened from its perch high in the trees, I’m instantly linked through memory to a mysterious peacock on a walkabout many years ago that spent a night in a walnut tree at our former Breakfast Creek home.
Then, as light spills from Ondaatje’s pen over flaming tropical flamboyant trees, I look up to witness the arrival of dawn at Boomerang Creek, just this side of winter.
Still one more sound catches my attention. Unfamiliar, it is curious enough to have me leave the warmth of down feathers, wool blankets and Kit to find its source. But first, I slip my bare feet into chocolate-colored high topped, fleece-lined Ugg boots—replacements for my old pair purchased in New Zealand long before the world decided that these wooly boots from Down Under were in fact not so ugg-ly after all.
Ignoring traditional house robes, I opt for a warm, oatmeal-colored, oversized sweater that almost reaches my knees and add a sleeveless fleece-lined vest the color of Burmese garnets. Catching my image in the glass porch door, my white pajama pants float beneath the sweater and vest like Pakistani shalwar kameez. For an instant, I see my beautiful sisters Molly and Kim in the late 1970s. Dressed in traditional pajama-like pants and long tops, they are wrapped in cashmere pashmina shawls as a cold dawn rises over the ancient city of Gabedero in Sindh Province, Pakistan.
That sound again, and I’m back in the warming room where I discover that the fan switch on the front of the Buck stove has been blowing all night over hot embers stowed under a pile of gray ash. Sifting under the pile, I uncover two live shards of last night’s fire, add twigs and a small piece of split wood. Soon, I have fire humming back to life in the stove.
One final sound. A cat scratches at the basement door. Fanny, our sharp-eared calico Manx has heard me padding around. Still dark outside; nonetheless, morning is underway as far as this cat is concerned. Feed me, she insists while weaving in, around and just ahead of my feet—a feline skater executing perfect 8s on icy linoleum. The tinny-tight snap of a tuna can opening, instantly bringing our three cats to their bowls. Only then do I push in the coffee button. Clear water runs through dark ground java and cinnamon--drip, drip dripping dark brown into the carafe below.
Milk steamed and coffee poured, I head for the couch across from the now glowing Buck stove, adding a large piece of split firewood on my way. Pre-dawn. My favorite hour of the day. In touch with the house and its living, breathing sounds, I am fully awake and at peace. The fire, a plaid, wool blanket and two sprawling lap cats conspire to keep me warm. Settled in at last, I join the rich cast of characters in two books by Sri-Lankan born, Canadian author Michael Ondaatje--colorful companions for what remains of the night.
In The Cat’s Table, an 11-year old boy makes a life-altering journey by ship from Ceylon to England in 1954. In his lyrical travel memoir, Running in the Family, Ondaatje (in his early 40s) reconnects with his eccentric Ceylonese/Dutch family and the landscape he left as a child, moving first to England, then relocating to Canada in 1962.
Upon arriving back in Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon), Ondaatje identifies sounds in the night, linking him to his distant childhood there. Reading his description of a peacock’s disturbed cry when awakened from its perch high in the trees, I’m instantly linked through memory to a mysterious peacock on a walkabout many years ago that spent a night in a walnut tree at our former Breakfast Creek home.
Then, as light spills from Ondaatje’s pen over flaming tropical flamboyant trees, I look up to witness the arrival of dawn at Boomerang Creek, just this side of winter.
2011年12月13日星期二
Beijing Pollution at “Crisis Level”
No one who has visited Beijing recently will be surprised to learn that pollution in the capital has been so bad that the air quality monitoring system used by the U.S. Embassy here has described the pollution as being off the scale.
It’s little wonder that a city official has reportedly just described the air quality as having reached “crisis level.”
On the morning of December 5, I thought it was snowing when I first looked out my window. The smog was so dense that I couldn’t even see the restaurant that’s only about 50 meters from my house.
I checked the Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau’s reading. Data from the bureau for between 8 pm on December 4 and 8 am the next morning showed the pollution reading was 150 to 170, which equates to Level 3 on the bureau’s rating system. Level 3 is designated as “slight pollution” that will cause “some irritation amongst healthy people.”
So I checked with other media sources, and found that most were instead using air monitoring data from the U.S. Embassy in Beijing. The data was shocking.
The index used by the U.S. Embassy measures particles under 2.5 micrometers (PM2.5) compared with the between 2.5 and 10 micrometers used in China’s official readings. According to the U.S. index, at 7 pm on December 4, the concentration of fine particles in Beijing was 552. The maximum value on their scale is 500, meaning Beijing’s air quality was so poor that it was described as “beyond index.”
The city’s deteriorating air quality (this was the second time in about a month that Beijing’s pollution levels had exceeded the U.S. index) has prompted considerable frustration among many Chinese, and pressure is growing to include the PM2.5 data as the U.S. Embassy does.
Disappointingly, the bureau is resisting such pressure, despite the fact that informing the public would allow people to be more aware of the health risks and take necessary precautions. Following a series of days of heavy smog, a growing number of people have been buying masks and air purifiers. A friend who works at an electrical store told me that sales of air purifiers had recently jumped 200 percent on the usual number for this time of year.
The Environment Ministry is clearly aware of the problem, and says it has been seeking the public’s view on whether to include the finer particles in its readings. Unsurprisingly, a worried public does indeed appear to want the PM2.5 measure to be included in the standard air quality monitoring system.
Still, don’t expect a change anytime soon – the ministry says that it is listening, but that it needs time to discuss and evaluate the issue.
It’s little wonder that a city official has reportedly just described the air quality as having reached “crisis level.”
On the morning of December 5, I thought it was snowing when I first looked out my window. The smog was so dense that I couldn’t even see the restaurant that’s only about 50 meters from my house.
I checked the Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau’s reading. Data from the bureau for between 8 pm on December 4 and 8 am the next morning showed the pollution reading was 150 to 170, which equates to Level 3 on the bureau’s rating system. Level 3 is designated as “slight pollution” that will cause “some irritation amongst healthy people.”
So I checked with other media sources, and found that most were instead using air monitoring data from the U.S. Embassy in Beijing. The data was shocking.
The index used by the U.S. Embassy measures particles under 2.5 micrometers (PM2.5) compared with the between 2.5 and 10 micrometers used in China’s official readings. According to the U.S. index, at 7 pm on December 4, the concentration of fine particles in Beijing was 552. The maximum value on their scale is 500, meaning Beijing’s air quality was so poor that it was described as “beyond index.”
The city’s deteriorating air quality (this was the second time in about a month that Beijing’s pollution levels had exceeded the U.S. index) has prompted considerable frustration among many Chinese, and pressure is growing to include the PM2.5 data as the U.S. Embassy does.
Disappointingly, the bureau is resisting such pressure, despite the fact that informing the public would allow people to be more aware of the health risks and take necessary precautions. Following a series of days of heavy smog, a growing number of people have been buying masks and air purifiers. A friend who works at an electrical store told me that sales of air purifiers had recently jumped 200 percent on the usual number for this time of year.
The Environment Ministry is clearly aware of the problem, and says it has been seeking the public’s view on whether to include the finer particles in its readings. Unsurprisingly, a worried public does indeed appear to want the PM2.5 measure to be included in the standard air quality monitoring system.
Still, don’t expect a change anytime soon – the ministry says that it is listening, but that it needs time to discuss and evaluate the issue.
2011年12月12日星期一
Predawn hour is best time of day
Well before the first hint of dawn, I listen to the sounds our house makes in the night. Whirring overhead fan. Purring air purifier. Barely audible radio voices — KBIA at 5:30 a.m., connecting us to NPR and the world. Click. The thermostat register checks its own temperature, set at 65 degrees for the night. Clink. Ice drops onto a pile of cubes in the freezer bin.
Still one more sound catches my attention. Unfamiliar, it is curious enough to have me leave the warmth of down feathers, wool blankets and Kit to find its source. But first, I slip my bare feet into chocolate-colored, high-topped, fleece-lined Ugg boots — replacements for my old pair purchased in New Zealand long before the world decided these woolly boots from Down Under were, in fact, not so Ugg-ly after all.
Ignoring traditional house robes, I opt for a warm, oatmeal-colored, oversized sweater that almost reaches my knees and add a sleeveless fleece-lined vest the color of Burmese garnets. Catching my image in the glass porch door, my white pajama pants float beneath the sweater and vest like Pakistani shalwar kameez. For an instant, I see my beautiful sisters, Molly and Kim, in the late 1970s. Dressed in traditional pajamalike pants and long tops, they are wrapped in cashmere pashmina shawls as a cold dawn rises over the ancient city of Gabedero in Sindh Province, Pakistan.
That sound again, and I’m in the warming room, where I discover the fan switch on the front of the Buck stove has been blowing all night over hot embers stowed under a pile of gray ash. Sifting under the pile, I uncover two live shards of last night’s fire and add twigs and a small piece of split wood. Soon, I have a fire humming back to life in the stove.
One final sound. A cat scratches at the basement door. Fanny, our sharp-eared calico Manx, has heard me padding around. It’s still dark outside; nonetheless, morning is under way as far as this cat is concerned. Feed me, she insists while weaving in, around and just ahead of my feet — a feline skater executing perfect figure eights on icy linoleum. The tinny-tight snap of a tuna can opening, instantly bringing our three cats to their bowls.
Only then do I push in the coffee button. Clear water runs through dark ground java and cinnamon — drip, drip dripping dark brown into the carafe below.
Milk steamed and coffee poured, I head for the couch across from the now-glowing Buck stove, adding a large piece of split firewood on my way.
Predawn, my favorite hour of the day. In touch with the house and its living, breathing sounds, I am fully awake and at peace. The fire, a plaid, wool blanket and two sprawling lap cats conspire to keep me warm.
Settled in at last, I join the rich cast of characters in two books by Sri Lankan-born Canadian author Michael Ondaatje — colorful companions for what remains of the night.
In “The Cat’s Table,” an 11-year-old boy makes a life-altering journey by ship from Ceylon to England in 1954. In his lyrical travel memoir, “Running in the Family,” Ondaatje, who is in his early 40s, reconnects with his eccentric Ceylonese-Dutch family and the landscape he left as a child, moving first to England and then relocating to Canada in 1962.
Upon arriving back in Sri Lanka, formerly Ceylon, Ondaatje identifies sounds in the night, linking him to his distant childhood there. Reading his description of a peacock’s disturbed cry when awakened from its perch high in the trees, I’m instantly linked through memory to a mysterious peacock on a walkabout many years ago that spent a night in a walnut tree at our former Breakfast Creek home.
Then, as light spills from Ondaatje’s pen over flaming tropical flamboyant trees, I look up to witness the arrival of dawn at Boomerang Creek, just this side of winter.
Still one more sound catches my attention. Unfamiliar, it is curious enough to have me leave the warmth of down feathers, wool blankets and Kit to find its source. But first, I slip my bare feet into chocolate-colored, high-topped, fleece-lined Ugg boots — replacements for my old pair purchased in New Zealand long before the world decided these woolly boots from Down Under were, in fact, not so Ugg-ly after all.
Ignoring traditional house robes, I opt for a warm, oatmeal-colored, oversized sweater that almost reaches my knees and add a sleeveless fleece-lined vest the color of Burmese garnets. Catching my image in the glass porch door, my white pajama pants float beneath the sweater and vest like Pakistani shalwar kameez. For an instant, I see my beautiful sisters, Molly and Kim, in the late 1970s. Dressed in traditional pajamalike pants and long tops, they are wrapped in cashmere pashmina shawls as a cold dawn rises over the ancient city of Gabedero in Sindh Province, Pakistan.
That sound again, and I’m in the warming room, where I discover the fan switch on the front of the Buck stove has been blowing all night over hot embers stowed under a pile of gray ash. Sifting under the pile, I uncover two live shards of last night’s fire and add twigs and a small piece of split wood. Soon, I have a fire humming back to life in the stove.
One final sound. A cat scratches at the basement door. Fanny, our sharp-eared calico Manx, has heard me padding around. It’s still dark outside; nonetheless, morning is under way as far as this cat is concerned. Feed me, she insists while weaving in, around and just ahead of my feet — a feline skater executing perfect figure eights on icy linoleum. The tinny-tight snap of a tuna can opening, instantly bringing our three cats to their bowls.
Only then do I push in the coffee button. Clear water runs through dark ground java and cinnamon — drip, drip dripping dark brown into the carafe below.
Milk steamed and coffee poured, I head for the couch across from the now-glowing Buck stove, adding a large piece of split firewood on my way.
Predawn, my favorite hour of the day. In touch with the house and its living, breathing sounds, I am fully awake and at peace. The fire, a plaid, wool blanket and two sprawling lap cats conspire to keep me warm.
Settled in at last, I join the rich cast of characters in two books by Sri Lankan-born Canadian author Michael Ondaatje — colorful companions for what remains of the night.
In “The Cat’s Table,” an 11-year-old boy makes a life-altering journey by ship from Ceylon to England in 1954. In his lyrical travel memoir, “Running in the Family,” Ondaatje, who is in his early 40s, reconnects with his eccentric Ceylonese-Dutch family and the landscape he left as a child, moving first to England and then relocating to Canada in 1962.
Upon arriving back in Sri Lanka, formerly Ceylon, Ondaatje identifies sounds in the night, linking him to his distant childhood there. Reading his description of a peacock’s disturbed cry when awakened from its perch high in the trees, I’m instantly linked through memory to a mysterious peacock on a walkabout many years ago that spent a night in a walnut tree at our former Breakfast Creek home.
Then, as light spills from Ondaatje’s pen over flaming tropical flamboyant trees, I look up to witness the arrival of dawn at Boomerang Creek, just this side of winter.
2011年12月8日星期四
Beijing Air Pollution Brouhaha
Smog recently forced the cancellation of almost 700 flights at Beijing airport, igniting a mini media firestorm. Since flights at Beijing’s airport have been canceled on any number of occasions over the past two decades because of pollution, why all the attention now?
First, the flight cancellations have generally occurred in the spring as a result of the yellow dust storms that sweep across China’s northern plain. The city of Beijing has little ability to control these choking clouds of dust. This time, however, the pollution was all Beijing’s doing.
Second, the Beijing government is already under enormous popular pressure for its inability and/or unwillingness to tackle its air quality problems head on. Everyone in Beijing knows that on a daily basis the air quality ranges from fair to fairly awful. How else did it earn the distinction of being one of the world’s dirtiest capitals? But the local government simply refuses to acknowledge the reality of the problem. Thus, while it regularly reports blue sky days, the people in Beijing live in an almost perpetual state of gray.
But the real catalyst for the current contretemps is the U.S. Embassy. If Beijing citizens were once resigned to living in this alternative state of reality, then that’s no longer the case. The U.S. Embassy has changed the way the game is played. On a daily basis, the embassy tweets data reflecting the real air quality for the area in which the embassy resides. Last Sunday, for example, as NPR reported, the pollution recorded by the embassy hit a level described as “beyond index.” The Beijing Municipal Bureau of Environmental Protection, in contrast, reported the air pollution as “light.”
There are important differences in the pollutants on which Beijing reports (PM 10) and those on which the U.S. Embassy reports (PM 2.5 and Ozone) and how each rates air quality (the United States has much stricter standards for clean air). Environmental expert Steven Q. Andrews provides an excellent analysis comparing the two sets of measurements and standards. (Steven is a personal hero of mine having been the person who, a few years ago, uncovered the Chinese government’s habit of moving air pollution monitoring equipment to less heavily trafficked areas in order to improve the air quality ratings.)
Beijing has pledged to report on additional pollutants by 2016. Why 2016? My guess is that they are waiting for the 12th Five Year Plan to kick into gear in the vain hope that the government’s investment in alternative energies and alternative fuel vehicles will come to fruition and help them out.
I don’t think the people will wait that long. They know that the government has the capacity to measure and report on the additional statistics now. Real estate billionaire Pan Shiyi conducted an online poll and discovered that 91 percent of the more than 40,000 respondents believed that the government should monitor particle levels at the 2.5 micrometer level this year – people in Beijing care about their health and the health of their children. According to a deputy director of the Beijing Health Bureau, the lung cancer rate in Beijing over the past decade has increased by 60 percent, even though the rate of smoking hasn’t increased.
It doesn’t help the Beijing public to know that their own leaders have air purifiers in their offices and other government buildings.
Even as Beijing struggles to address the popular discontent with the city’s air pollution, it appears to be trying to get ahead of the curve on water issues. The Global Times announced that people in Beijing will be able to access daily an online system to check their water quality. Of course, they will be receiving information not about the water they drink, but rather about the quality of the water at the pumping station. As the article also notes, what happens as the water travels through “broken pipes” and “aging storage tanks” is anybody’s guess.
First, the flight cancellations have generally occurred in the spring as a result of the yellow dust storms that sweep across China’s northern plain. The city of Beijing has little ability to control these choking clouds of dust. This time, however, the pollution was all Beijing’s doing.
Second, the Beijing government is already under enormous popular pressure for its inability and/or unwillingness to tackle its air quality problems head on. Everyone in Beijing knows that on a daily basis the air quality ranges from fair to fairly awful. How else did it earn the distinction of being one of the world’s dirtiest capitals? But the local government simply refuses to acknowledge the reality of the problem. Thus, while it regularly reports blue sky days, the people in Beijing live in an almost perpetual state of gray.
But the real catalyst for the current contretemps is the U.S. Embassy. If Beijing citizens were once resigned to living in this alternative state of reality, then that’s no longer the case. The U.S. Embassy has changed the way the game is played. On a daily basis, the embassy tweets data reflecting the real air quality for the area in which the embassy resides. Last Sunday, for example, as NPR reported, the pollution recorded by the embassy hit a level described as “beyond index.” The Beijing Municipal Bureau of Environmental Protection, in contrast, reported the air pollution as “light.”
There are important differences in the pollutants on which Beijing reports (PM 10) and those on which the U.S. Embassy reports (PM 2.5 and Ozone) and how each rates air quality (the United States has much stricter standards for clean air). Environmental expert Steven Q. Andrews provides an excellent analysis comparing the two sets of measurements and standards. (Steven is a personal hero of mine having been the person who, a few years ago, uncovered the Chinese government’s habit of moving air pollution monitoring equipment to less heavily trafficked areas in order to improve the air quality ratings.)
Beijing has pledged to report on additional pollutants by 2016. Why 2016? My guess is that they are waiting for the 12th Five Year Plan to kick into gear in the vain hope that the government’s investment in alternative energies and alternative fuel vehicles will come to fruition and help them out.
I don’t think the people will wait that long. They know that the government has the capacity to measure and report on the additional statistics now. Real estate billionaire Pan Shiyi conducted an online poll and discovered that 91 percent of the more than 40,000 respondents believed that the government should monitor particle levels at the 2.5 micrometer level this year – people in Beijing care about their health and the health of their children. According to a deputy director of the Beijing Health Bureau, the lung cancer rate in Beijing over the past decade has increased by 60 percent, even though the rate of smoking hasn’t increased.
It doesn’t help the Beijing public to know that their own leaders have air purifiers in their offices and other government buildings.
Even as Beijing struggles to address the popular discontent with the city’s air pollution, it appears to be trying to get ahead of the curve on water issues. The Global Times announced that people in Beijing will be able to access daily an online system to check their water quality. Of course, they will be receiving information not about the water they drink, but rather about the quality of the water at the pumping station. As the article also notes, what happens as the water travels through “broken pipes” and “aging storage tanks” is anybody’s guess.
2011年12月7日星期三
Air purification needed
When the city struggles to breath while smothered in smog, all Beijingers can do is pray; either for some wind, rain, or snow to clear the air, or if this fails, that their air purifiers and facemasks will be able to protect them from the pollution.
Fortunately their prayers were answered on Wednesday and strong winds cleared the air.
However, this most unwelcome of visitors will all too soon return, as smog is a frequent guest on winter days.
Officials, however, are only slowly to acknowledge this fact and claim that the air pollution has been "moderate" or "hazardous" on only five days this winter.
This is something Beijingers can refute with their own eyes as it is very difficult to see anything but smog on some days.
Beijing residents are rightly concerned about the quality of the air they are breathing and the enthusiasm of officials in their attempts to call every day a blue-sky day.
But simply sticking our heads in the sand so we can't see the sky won't make the problem disappear.
The government needs to be brave enough to face up to problem.
China currently uses PM10, particulate matter with diameter under 10 micrometers, as the measure for air pollution, but Beijing's pollution is mostly caused by fine particles under 2.5 micrometers, so measuring PM2.5 would give a more realistic picture.
However, if China did measure PM2.5, there would be no escaping the reality that the air quality of 80 percent of Chinese cities is shocking.
Yet despite this, a proper indicator of air pollution, such as the amount of PM2.5 in the air, should be adopted, as particles of that size or less in diameter have the most serious long-term health effects.
China does plan to introduce a new standard that includes PM2.5 in 2016.
But the country can't wait that long. More and more people are suffering from the air pollution-induced diseases.
On Tuesday the Ministry of Environmental Protection admitted that most people are in favor of using PM2.5 as a measurement of air quality as soon as possible.
But in truth, action counts more than data. Unfortunately, cleaning up the air is going to be an even bigger challenge than merely telling people how polluted it is.
Dust, coal-fired power plant emissions and motor vehicle emissions are the main sources of PM2.5 particles that the government needs to control.
It is time to stop leaving people's health to the mercy of the weather.
Fortunately their prayers were answered on Wednesday and strong winds cleared the air.
However, this most unwelcome of visitors will all too soon return, as smog is a frequent guest on winter days.
Officials, however, are only slowly to acknowledge this fact and claim that the air pollution has been "moderate" or "hazardous" on only five days this winter.
This is something Beijingers can refute with their own eyes as it is very difficult to see anything but smog on some days.
Beijing residents are rightly concerned about the quality of the air they are breathing and the enthusiasm of officials in their attempts to call every day a blue-sky day.
But simply sticking our heads in the sand so we can't see the sky won't make the problem disappear.
The government needs to be brave enough to face up to problem.
China currently uses PM10, particulate matter with diameter under 10 micrometers, as the measure for air pollution, but Beijing's pollution is mostly caused by fine particles under 2.5 micrometers, so measuring PM2.5 would give a more realistic picture.
However, if China did measure PM2.5, there would be no escaping the reality that the air quality of 80 percent of Chinese cities is shocking.
Yet despite this, a proper indicator of air pollution, such as the amount of PM2.5 in the air, should be adopted, as particles of that size or less in diameter have the most serious long-term health effects.
China does plan to introduce a new standard that includes PM2.5 in 2016.
But the country can't wait that long. More and more people are suffering from the air pollution-induced diseases.
On Tuesday the Ministry of Environmental Protection admitted that most people are in favor of using PM2.5 as a measurement of air quality as soon as possible.
But in truth, action counts more than data. Unfortunately, cleaning up the air is going to be an even bigger challenge than merely telling people how polluted it is.
Dust, coal-fired power plant emissions and motor vehicle emissions are the main sources of PM2.5 particles that the government needs to control.
It is time to stop leaving people's health to the mercy of the weather.
2011年12月6日星期二
Santa Ana winds bothering your allergies? Try these tips
For people with asthma and allergies, the Santa Ana winds are still a daily nuisance. The unusually strong winds kick up allergens, causing a host of miserable symptoms.
You might be feeling it in your nose, throat and eyes. Thanks to last week's strong winds and the continuing Santa Anas, allergy doctors are reporting a boom of business. But you don't have to continue suffering.
"Once that wind blows we have several days afterwards that we're dealing with people that suffer from allergies having persistent symptoms, because it does bring up a lot of mold, it brings up pollen and it brings up a lot of dust that irritates people's symptoms," said Dr. Joseph Shapiro, Northridge Hospital Medical Center.
Those 90-mile-per-hour gusts kicked up buried soot and carried pollen and pollution from miles away.
Dr. Shapiro says allergy sufferers should continue to take cover.
"Keep the windows closed," said Shapiro. "You also want to keep your air purifiers going so you can filter out any of the allergens and irritants that get into the house. Make sure you change your filters on a regular basis."
But you've got to go out some time. So Dr. Shapiro recommends taking precautions before you head out.
"These include antihistamines and nasal decongestants, as well some of these sinus-irrigation techniques that allow a person to clean out the irritants that build up inside their sinus cavities and nasal cavities," said Shapiro.
Your nose and throat aren't the only things affected by the high winds. Doctors report many patients are complaining about dry skin and irritated eyes.
"There's some great over-the-counter eye drops and also, even better prescription eye drops, as well as saline eye drops that can be very effective with just washing out whatever irritants are getting in their eyes," said Shapiro.
Dr. Shapiro also recommends drinking plenty of water and keeping dry skin moisturized.
Dr. Shapiro says the change in barometric pressure can also trigger allergic symptoms.
If your symptoms persist, he recommends you see an allergist to create a long-term treatment plan, which may include regular medication and/or allergy shots.
You might be feeling it in your nose, throat and eyes. Thanks to last week's strong winds and the continuing Santa Anas, allergy doctors are reporting a boom of business. But you don't have to continue suffering.
"Once that wind blows we have several days afterwards that we're dealing with people that suffer from allergies having persistent symptoms, because it does bring up a lot of mold, it brings up pollen and it brings up a lot of dust that irritates people's symptoms," said Dr. Joseph Shapiro, Northridge Hospital Medical Center.
Those 90-mile-per-hour gusts kicked up buried soot and carried pollen and pollution from miles away.
Dr. Shapiro says allergy sufferers should continue to take cover.
"Keep the windows closed," said Shapiro. "You also want to keep your air purifiers going so you can filter out any of the allergens and irritants that get into the house. Make sure you change your filters on a regular basis."
But you've got to go out some time. So Dr. Shapiro recommends taking precautions before you head out.
"These include antihistamines and nasal decongestants, as well some of these sinus-irrigation techniques that allow a person to clean out the irritants that build up inside their sinus cavities and nasal cavities," said Shapiro.
Your nose and throat aren't the only things affected by the high winds. Doctors report many patients are complaining about dry skin and irritated eyes.
"There's some great over-the-counter eye drops and also, even better prescription eye drops, as well as saline eye drops that can be very effective with just washing out whatever irritants are getting in their eyes," said Shapiro.
Dr. Shapiro also recommends drinking plenty of water and keeping dry skin moisturized.
Dr. Shapiro says the change in barometric pressure can also trigger allergic symptoms.
If your symptoms persist, he recommends you see an allergist to create a long-term treatment plan, which may include regular medication and/or allergy shots.
2011年12月5日星期一
Victory for U.S. Embassy as Beijing Chokes on ‘Heavy Fog’
For years, China’s meteorologists have been telling the country’s urban residents that what looks and smells suspiciously like that latter is, in fact, just the former. With no way to disprove the claim, most Chinese urbanites have appeared content to accept it as true and go about their business minus the facemasks and indoor air-filters they might otherwise bring to bear.
Lately, however, there seems to have been a fundamental shift in the willingness of Chinese city-dwellers to accept the government’s definition of fog at face value.
Case in point: A thick grey cloud currently enveloping northern China that has closed highways across multiple provinces and caused more than 300 flights into Beijing to be delayed or cancelled.
While state media have described the cloud as a “heavy fog,” millions of posts on popular Chinese microblogging service Sina Weibo and other Internet sites are treating it as something else. “How many thousands died because of London’s fog back in the day?” Weibo user Zheng Wuxie wrote on Monday. “Beijing is dangerous.”
“Friends in Beijing, are you OK?” wrote another Weibo user, CAPF Green, attaching a screenshot of a mobile app powered by the U.S. Embassy’s @BeijingAir Twitter feed showing dangerous pollution levels.
The U.S. Embassy in Beijing, which broadcasts readings from its own pollution monitoring equipment on an hourly basis through Twitter and an iPhone app, has been instrumental in piercing the veil around air quality in China’s capital — particularly in the month or so since celebrity real estate mogul Pan Shiyi cited its readings in calling for tougher air monitoring standards.
Authorities in Beijing and most other Chinese cities measure air pollution by counting only particles between 2.5 and 10 micrometers in diameter. The embassy counts particles smaller than 2.5 micrometers (PM2.5), which experts say make up the most of the city’s air pollution and cause more damage to the lungs.
The most recent online outpouring seems to have been set off on Sunday night, when the embassy published a PM2.5 air quality index reading above 500 – a level expats refer to as “Crazy Bad” – that contrasted sharply with the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Environmental Protection’s description of air pollution over the weekend as “light.”
While many Internet users have marveled at the discrepancy, others have been busy trading advice on the best types of facemasks to wear and what brands of air purifiers offered the best cost-benefit ratios.
“I searched for half the day and asked some experts,” Caijing magazine editor He Gang wrote in a Weibo post on the topic of facemasks that had been forwarded more than 4600 times by Monday evening. “Everyone recommends 3M masks. There’s all kinds – I hear the ones most suited to Beijing are No. 8264 and No. 8210, 3-5 yuan a piece. I’m going out to buy a few tomorrow.”
All this may be a boon to producers of purification paraphernalia, but it bodes poorly for the credibility of the government.
An article in the state-run Global Times tabloid on Monday quoted Yu Jianhua, director of the air pollution division of the Beijing environmental protection bureau, insisting that pollution in Beijing has not gotten worse since the 2008 Olympics. “If you compare the air quality on an annual basis, it is actually improving,” he said, according to the paper. Yet the government’s pointed refusal last week to release PM2.5 readings – data that’s officially reserved for researchers and won’t be made public on a national level until 2016, according to current plans – has lately made that claim a hard sell.
The same holds for the government’s claim that what has kept planes from landing at the Beijing airport and blocked the city’s residents from seeing more than a couple blocks in any direction over the past few days is primarily fog. It’s a claim that might very well be true, but the online reaction suggests few are buying it.
Lately, however, there seems to have been a fundamental shift in the willingness of Chinese city-dwellers to accept the government’s definition of fog at face value.
Case in point: A thick grey cloud currently enveloping northern China that has closed highways across multiple provinces and caused more than 300 flights into Beijing to be delayed or cancelled.
While state media have described the cloud as a “heavy fog,” millions of posts on popular Chinese microblogging service Sina Weibo and other Internet sites are treating it as something else. “How many thousands died because of London’s fog back in the day?” Weibo user Zheng Wuxie wrote on Monday. “Beijing is dangerous.”
“Friends in Beijing, are you OK?” wrote another Weibo user, CAPF Green, attaching a screenshot of a mobile app powered by the U.S. Embassy’s @BeijingAir Twitter feed showing dangerous pollution levels.
The U.S. Embassy in Beijing, which broadcasts readings from its own pollution monitoring equipment on an hourly basis through Twitter and an iPhone app, has been instrumental in piercing the veil around air quality in China’s capital — particularly in the month or so since celebrity real estate mogul Pan Shiyi cited its readings in calling for tougher air monitoring standards.
Authorities in Beijing and most other Chinese cities measure air pollution by counting only particles between 2.5 and 10 micrometers in diameter. The embassy counts particles smaller than 2.5 micrometers (PM2.5), which experts say make up the most of the city’s air pollution and cause more damage to the lungs.
The most recent online outpouring seems to have been set off on Sunday night, when the embassy published a PM2.5 air quality index reading above 500 – a level expats refer to as “Crazy Bad” – that contrasted sharply with the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Environmental Protection’s description of air pollution over the weekend as “light.”
While many Internet users have marveled at the discrepancy, others have been busy trading advice on the best types of facemasks to wear and what brands of air purifiers offered the best cost-benefit ratios.
“I searched for half the day and asked some experts,” Caijing magazine editor He Gang wrote in a Weibo post on the topic of facemasks that had been forwarded more than 4600 times by Monday evening. “Everyone recommends 3M masks. There’s all kinds – I hear the ones most suited to Beijing are No. 8264 and No. 8210, 3-5 yuan a piece. I’m going out to buy a few tomorrow.”
All this may be a boon to producers of purification paraphernalia, but it bodes poorly for the credibility of the government.
An article in the state-run Global Times tabloid on Monday quoted Yu Jianhua, director of the air pollution division of the Beijing environmental protection bureau, insisting that pollution in Beijing has not gotten worse since the 2008 Olympics. “If you compare the air quality on an annual basis, it is actually improving,” he said, according to the paper. Yet the government’s pointed refusal last week to release PM2.5 readings – data that’s officially reserved for researchers and won’t be made public on a national level until 2016, according to current plans – has lately made that claim a hard sell.
The same holds for the government’s claim that what has kept planes from landing at the Beijing airport and blocked the city’s residents from seeing more than a couple blocks in any direction over the past few days is primarily fog. It’s a claim that might very well be true, but the online reaction suggests few are buying it.
2011年12月4日星期日
Pet Allergies Air Purifier - 5 Features A Highly Effective Cleaner Should Need
If being around your pet causes you to sneeze, become stuffed up, and rub applying water eyes, you may be allergic to your beloved pet. Using a good air cleaner will help. And here are generally 5 features that can insure effectiveness.
HEPA Technology - This can be the type of filtering hospitals use to insure clean air because it has proven itself to become incredibly efficient with removing airborne dust. As an allergy sufferer you are aware of all too well the many airborne particles that can trigger a flare-up. Pet related particulates such as dander can accumulate to this level that you can hardly stand to stay the same room with the pet you absolutely adore.
Other more normal particulates when paired with those from Beethoven, Light, or Rio may establish just as several problems. Normal household dust, dust mites, mold and mildew spores, bacteria and viruses can be found in everyone's dwelling, regardless of how clean it's. And these working in consultation with the pets' particle might make the air heavy with allergens.
By definition HEPA filters must be capable to remove airborne particulates no more than. 3 microns proportions with a micron being looked as one millionth on the meter. That makes any such filter able to eliminate the many airborne particles on top of with 99. 97% productivity.
Carbon-Based Filter -- Every animal has its own unique scent among them humans. We bathe in addition to use personal items to mask our more natural and not always more pleasant scent. Pets lack that option. So with animals there is going to be some smell.
To be a pet lover, you might be probably far more tolerant (or it could be that don't even notice) this smell. Friends, family, and others that visit your home are probably not as forgiving. Carbon has been recognized as the most effective type of filter lower gaseous pollutants. And there's merely no sense with bringing an air cleanser home that can't remove odor.
Carbon does possibly not discriminate about the species of odors it will remove. Gases, scents, and airborne chemicals from any source will be eliminated by filtering air with carbon.
360 Degree Daily allowance - This feature is really important because it provides the most options concerning placement of this cleaner. Because it may possibly pull air because of all sides with a 6 inch clearance it is possible to put it in the corner, down low, or up high and it's going to equally effective. Units without that feature often has to be placed in the heart of the room to operate well.
Split Capacitor Motor - It is critical to look for such a motor in that technical specifications of the unit. This type of motor should run safely and additionally continuously without needed time for them to rest or cool-down. This means that air can be continually filtered in the gaseous and particulate allergens that can cause flare ups.
5-Year Filter Service - A purifier that requires you to restore the filter every 6 months to a year to work and/or to useful warranty active provides significantly to the money necessary for the unit. Figuring out about this secured in a dark minor detail are able to derail your capacity to keep the air filtered and unfortunately your pet allergies mastered.
It will take a little attention to the fine print to check for these 5 features, but you will reap the benefits 24 hours a day every day. And you stand a better chance of having the capability to manage your allergies and save your pet. Doesn't making it all worthwhile?
HEPA Technology - This can be the type of filtering hospitals use to insure clean air because it has proven itself to become incredibly efficient with removing airborne dust. As an allergy sufferer you are aware of all too well the many airborne particles that can trigger a flare-up. Pet related particulates such as dander can accumulate to this level that you can hardly stand to stay the same room with the pet you absolutely adore.
Other more normal particulates when paired with those from Beethoven, Light, or Rio may establish just as several problems. Normal household dust, dust mites, mold and mildew spores, bacteria and viruses can be found in everyone's dwelling, regardless of how clean it's. And these working in consultation with the pets' particle might make the air heavy with allergens.
By definition HEPA filters must be capable to remove airborne particulates no more than. 3 microns proportions with a micron being looked as one millionth on the meter. That makes any such filter able to eliminate the many airborne particles on top of with 99. 97% productivity.
Carbon-Based Filter -- Every animal has its own unique scent among them humans. We bathe in addition to use personal items to mask our more natural and not always more pleasant scent. Pets lack that option. So with animals there is going to be some smell.
To be a pet lover, you might be probably far more tolerant (or it could be that don't even notice) this smell. Friends, family, and others that visit your home are probably not as forgiving. Carbon has been recognized as the most effective type of filter lower gaseous pollutants. And there's merely no sense with bringing an air cleanser home that can't remove odor.
Carbon does possibly not discriminate about the species of odors it will remove. Gases, scents, and airborne chemicals from any source will be eliminated by filtering air with carbon.
360 Degree Daily allowance - This feature is really important because it provides the most options concerning placement of this cleaner. Because it may possibly pull air because of all sides with a 6 inch clearance it is possible to put it in the corner, down low, or up high and it's going to equally effective. Units without that feature often has to be placed in the heart of the room to operate well.
Split Capacitor Motor - It is critical to look for such a motor in that technical specifications of the unit. This type of motor should run safely and additionally continuously without needed time for them to rest or cool-down. This means that air can be continually filtered in the gaseous and particulate allergens that can cause flare ups.
5-Year Filter Service - A purifier that requires you to restore the filter every 6 months to a year to work and/or to useful warranty active provides significantly to the money necessary for the unit. Figuring out about this secured in a dark minor detail are able to derail your capacity to keep the air filtered and unfortunately your pet allergies mastered.
It will take a little attention to the fine print to check for these 5 features, but you will reap the benefits 24 hours a day every day. And you stand a better chance of having the capability to manage your allergies and save your pet. Doesn't making it all worthwhile?
2011年12月1日星期四
Why IIT-B can't crack food poisoning case?
Three months after the food poisoning incident, the Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay (IIT-B) has still not figured out why more than 600 students had fallen ill after dinner at the hostel mess.
Despite the fact-finding committee probing into the matter for two months, the institute, which takes pride in scientific research has been unable to figure out how klebsiella, the bacteria that was found in the stool samples of the affected students, was present in the food.
"Around 80% of gastrointestinal diseases are caused by bad handling of food and unhygienic methods. Not all food contamination is caused by the raw material. In fact, on most occasions, food gets contaminated when it is not handled hygienically,"said Ashwin Bhadri, head business relations, Equinox Lab, a professional expert agency in hygiene auditing.
"If the food handler is suffering from an illness, he or she can pass the contamination to the food. Hence, maintaining a clean kitchen and hygiene of the workers is important."
Questions are now being raised if the institute went about finding answers in a scientific manner or is it simply brushing the issue under the carpet.
In a bid to quell reports in the media, IIT-B went to the extent of issuing a gag order on students and even conducted an opinion poll last month to see if a blanket ban on media should be implemented.
The key questions that the institute doesn't have answers to are how the fact-finding committee would probe into the incident when it was formed as late as the last week of October — almost a month later. Obviously, it did not have food samples to check.
The institute was quick to rule out water contamination believing a report submitted by the purifier manufacturer, and the food handlers were not subjected to medical examinations immediately to check if they were had any infections.
The committee reportedly also overlooked other sources of infection such as seepage in the walls of the hostel mess that could lead to mold.
Bhadri said the panel should have checked the possibility of contamination by air as the walls of the hostel mess were extremely moist.
While professor Urjit Yagnik, dean of student affairs at IIT-B, admitted no medical checks were conducted on the food handlers, he gave an assurance it has been made mandatory in the new contract.
"Routine medical check-ups and regular training for the canteen workers to maintain basic hygiene will be part of the canteen contract. All canteen staff has been asked to use sanitizer for washing with immediate effect."
Yagnik admitted that the suspect food samples were not made available to the panel.
"We have not been able to take samples of the food and water consumed by students on September 25, because they started showing symptoms and reporting to the campus hospital at different points. Some even complained of stomach ache a day later. The samples could be taken only of the items that were available after students started complaining of illness," he said.
He, however, denied claims that the water at the campus was being tested by a purifier manufacturer. "Students do not have complete information. The water was properly tested by experts at the IIT-B labs. But, it would not be correct to completely rule out water as a cause of contamination as the director-appointed committee's report is yet inconclusive."
In one of the issues of Insight, an official IIT-B students' magazine, Prasoon Thapliyal, general secretary of hostel number 13 (one of the messes affected by food poisoning), mentioned how the purifier manufacturer staff had conducted tests. He also lamented the poor construction of the kitchen and uncontrolled seepage in the walls.
Despite the fact-finding committee probing into the matter for two months, the institute, which takes pride in scientific research has been unable to figure out how klebsiella, the bacteria that was found in the stool samples of the affected students, was present in the food.
"Around 80% of gastrointestinal diseases are caused by bad handling of food and unhygienic methods. Not all food contamination is caused by the raw material. In fact, on most occasions, food gets contaminated when it is not handled hygienically,"said Ashwin Bhadri, head business relations, Equinox Lab, a professional expert agency in hygiene auditing.
"If the food handler is suffering from an illness, he or she can pass the contamination to the food. Hence, maintaining a clean kitchen and hygiene of the workers is important."
Questions are now being raised if the institute went about finding answers in a scientific manner or is it simply brushing the issue under the carpet.
In a bid to quell reports in the media, IIT-B went to the extent of issuing a gag order on students and even conducted an opinion poll last month to see if a blanket ban on media should be implemented.
The key questions that the institute doesn't have answers to are how the fact-finding committee would probe into the incident when it was formed as late as the last week of October — almost a month later. Obviously, it did not have food samples to check.
The institute was quick to rule out water contamination believing a report submitted by the purifier manufacturer, and the food handlers were not subjected to medical examinations immediately to check if they were had any infections.
The committee reportedly also overlooked other sources of infection such as seepage in the walls of the hostel mess that could lead to mold.
Bhadri said the panel should have checked the possibility of contamination by air as the walls of the hostel mess were extremely moist.
While professor Urjit Yagnik, dean of student affairs at IIT-B, admitted no medical checks were conducted on the food handlers, he gave an assurance it has been made mandatory in the new contract.
"Routine medical check-ups and regular training for the canteen workers to maintain basic hygiene will be part of the canteen contract. All canteen staff has been asked to use sanitizer for washing with immediate effect."
Yagnik admitted that the suspect food samples were not made available to the panel.
"We have not been able to take samples of the food and water consumed by students on September 25, because they started showing symptoms and reporting to the campus hospital at different points. Some even complained of stomach ache a day later. The samples could be taken only of the items that were available after students started complaining of illness," he said.
He, however, denied claims that the water at the campus was being tested by a purifier manufacturer. "Students do not have complete information. The water was properly tested by experts at the IIT-B labs. But, it would not be correct to completely rule out water as a cause of contamination as the director-appointed committee's report is yet inconclusive."
In one of the issues of Insight, an official IIT-B students' magazine, Prasoon Thapliyal, general secretary of hostel number 13 (one of the messes affected by food poisoning), mentioned how the purifier manufacturer staff had conducted tests. He also lamented the poor construction of the kitchen and uncontrolled seepage in the walls.
订阅：
博文 (Atom)