Category: medical news

India’s Mounting Plastic Challenge

Taking forward the commitment to eliminate single-use plastics, the Environment Ministry has notified comprehensive guidelines on Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) for plastic packaging under Plastic Waste Management Rules, 2016. According to the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, the guidelines on extended producer responsibility coupled with the prohibition of identified single-use plastic items, which have low utility and high littering potential, with effect from July 1, 2022, are important steps for reducing pollution caused by littered plastic waste in the country.

Many have woken up to India’s plastic waste generation problem after worrying data was presented in Parliament. But alarm bells have been ringing for a long time. According to the Centre, plastic waste generation has more than doubled in the last five years, with an average annual increase of 21.8%. A 2018-2019 Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) report puts India’s annual plastic waste generation at 3.3 million metric tonnes. This, according to experts, is an underestimation. Seven states — Maharashtra, Delhi, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, West Bengal, and Tamil Nadu — contribute to 66% of the country’s total plastic generation. And, Goa and Delhi’s per capita plastic use is six times higher than the national average. A 2018 study by IIT Kharagpur found that 49% of waste in Delhi drains was plastic.

    There is need for robust national plan, ensure transparency and to involve every stakeholder- from Government and industries to every last citizen.

   Centre Notifies guidelines on plastic packages

   Centre Notifies guidelines on plastic packages

New Delhi [India], February 18 (ANI): Taking forward the commitment to eliminate single-use plastics, the Environment Ministry has notified comprehensive guidelines on Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) for plastic packaging under Plastic Waste Management Rules, 2016.

According to the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, the guidelines on extended producer responsibility coupled with the prohibition of identified single-use plastic items, which have low utility and high littering potential, with effect from July 1, 2022, are important steps for reducing pollution caused by littered plastic waste in the country.

The minister said that the guidelines provide a framework to strengthen the circular economy of plastic packaging waste, promote the development of new alternatives to plastics and provide further next steps for moving towards sustainable plastic packaging by businesses. “Reuse of rigid plastic packaging material has been mandated in the guidelines to reduce the use of fresh plastic material for packaging,” Yadav said.

The Ministry said that the enforceable prescription of a minimum level of recycling of plastic packaging waste collected under EPR along with the use of recycled plastic content will further reduce plastic consumption and support the recycling of plastic packaging waste.

The EPR guidelines will give a boost for formalization and further development of the plastic waste management sector. As a significant first, the guidelines allow for the sale and purchase of surplus extended producer responsibility certificates, thus setting up a market mechanism for plastic waste management.

“The implementation of EPR will be done through a customized online platform which will act as the digital backbone of the system. The online platform will allow tracking and monitoring of EPR obligations and reduce the compliance burden for companies through online registration and filing of annual returns. In order to ensure monitoring on fulfilment of EPR obligations, the guidelines have prescribed a system of verification and audit of enterprises,” it said.

The guidelines prescribe a framework for the levy of environmental compensation based upon the polluter pays principle, with respect to non-fulfilment of extended producer responsibility targets by producers, importers and brand owners, for the purpose of protecting and improving the quality of the environment and preventing, controlling and abating environment pollution, the Ministry added.

It further said that the funds collected shall be utilized for collection, recycling and end of life disposal of uncollected plastic waste in an environmentally sound manner.

Under these producers, importers and brand owners may operate schemes such as deposit-refund system or buy-back or any other model in order to prevent the mixing of plastic packaging waste with solid waste. (ANI)

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South Asians at higher health risks: Low lean mass


The research further establishes that this low lean mass has been a constant in South Asians for almost 11,000 years.

South Asians, even those who move to other countries, are at a higher risk of diabetes than people of most other ethnicity, and according to a study published last week in Nature Scientific Reports, the reason for this is their relatively low lean mass

The research further establishes that this low lean mass has been a constant in South Asians for almost 11,000 years.

Higher lean mass is associated with superior performance in some, but not all, sports.

Mesolithic hunter-gatherer ancestors of South Asians were much taller, but low lean mass has characterised South Asians for at least 11,000 years, putting them at higher risk of type-2 diabetes and other non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as heart disease, according to the study which analysed 197 archaeological and recent South Asian adult skeletons.

Height decreased by 8.5cm in men and 7.7cm in women when South Asians transitioned from hunting and gathering to farming around 9,000 years ago, but their lean mass (organ and muscle mass) has remained unchanged over the past 11,000 years, the study said.

Since changes in lean mass are unlikely over the next four to five generations, making lifestyle interventions are crucial to containing NCDs, which account for 60% of all deaths in India.

The study suggests that while height is determined by nutritional factors, physique (bone breadth and lean mass) reflects ecological pressures. “The decrease in height probably took place very quickly (over hundreds of years rather than thousands). After the initial drop in height with the adoption of farming, it then continued to decrease very slowly between about 5,000 years ago and today,” lead author Dr Emma Pomeroy, lecturer in the Evolution of Health, Diet and Disease, Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge, said in an email interview. “The ancient origins of low lean mass in South Asians would be most consistent with long-term adaptations to ecological pressures, rather than more recent dietary change or the impact of 19th-20th century famines exacerbated by British colonial policy,” said the study. Ecological pressures include adaptation to a predominantly hot, equatorial climate, which may have led to selection for lower body mass (which generates less heat and increases heat loss through a greater surface area to volume ratio) to reduce thermal load. “Low lean mass is present at birth in South Asian babies compared with European babies; even after South Asian families migrate to other parts of the world, such as the UK, after several generations in this new environment, their children still have low lean mass compared with children of European ancestry. This strongly suggests a major heritable component to South Asian low lean mass, but the contributions of genetic, epigenetic and environmental conditions are still unclear,” said Dr Pomeroy, referring to a study on type-2 diabetes in migrant South Asians published in The Lancet in 2015. People of South Asian ancestry are at a higher risk of diabetes even after risks like unhealthy diet, sedentary lifestyles and obesity are factored in. For example, South Asians in London have a two to three times greater type 2 diabetes compared with those of European ancestry, with onset typically five years earlier and at a lower body mass index (by 5 kg/m2). “The implications of the study are that low lean mass is a very ancient characteristic, so it is unlikely to change much in the coming generations. This means that other interventions, especially the promotion of healthy lifestyles, are particularly critical to manage the growing health and economic burden of chronic diseases,” said Dr Pomeroy.

Building muscle mass and high fitness levels have the potential for averting diabetes, and even heart disease.

 

 

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