Mese: febbraio 2022

Those findings forced the Department

About 200 residents of the Special Commitment Center have filed a federal lawsuit alleging that the facility is violating their rights by forcing them to drink contaminated water that causes stomach pain and skin rashes and has been blamed for unexplained deaths.The residents allege in their lawsuit that there have been several unexplained deaths or cancer-related deaths since the centre opened and a high cancer rate among the population.In early 2015, one of the treatment plant operators told the health department that he had “no confidence” that drinking water standards were being met when it came to turbidity.The Department of Corrections has asked the Legislature for money to replace pipes and drill test wells, but lawmakers have yet to approve any.“Just because we did a crime, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t have clean water,” McManus said.

At issue was the way they measured turbidity, or cloudiness, in the water.While giving a reporter a recent tour of the island, neither the centre’s chief executive nor Craig Mingay, an assistant attorney general who is handling the lawsuits filed by residents, said he knew anything about the agreement.Scores of sex offenders ordered to live on a secluded island in Washington state say the often cloudy, brown water there is making them sick, and records show the water system has been plagued by problems for more than a decade.The drinking water, also used for laundry, cooking and brushing teeth, is pulled from the nearby Butterworth Reservoir before being sent to a treatment plant and a holding tank. It then moves through corroded underground pipes to offices, housing units and a kitchen.The executive who oversees the centre says the water turns brown periodically when the pipes are flushed, and he insists the cloudiness is only an esthetic effect that causes no harm.D.

McManus, who has lived at the centre southwest of Seattle since 2001, said his friends on McNeil Island in south Puget Sound have contracted diseases from the water and he has suffered ill effects such as developing hives after taking a shower. Another 20 residents live next door in transitional housing.” At the end of their prison sentences, the state convinced a judge that these inmates were too dangerous to be released, resulting in a civil commitment that requires them to undergo treatment that could someday make them safe enough to be released.”But when a corrections official gave health officials an update on the agreement last year, the official acknowledged that the water treatment plant’s ability to maintain water quality was “in question.The Special Commitment Center is home to the state’s worst sex offenders — those who have been deemed “sexually violent predators.Health officials warned plant operators back in 2014 that they were not correctly measuring and reporting data used to verify the removal of potential pathogens.”

He also said the dam holding the water in the reservoir was at risk of failure.J. When Jones died in November, Malone took over the case.The centre consists of a half-dozen buildings encircling a grassy recreational area and surrounded by multiple rows of razor-wire fencing. But an Associated Press review of state Department of Health records shows that the water has repeatedly exceeded standards for various chlorine-related chemicals and has been cited for violations dating back to 2006.Platt’s concerns bothered him so much that he resigned, he said in a letter describing the suspect system. Some have lived there for many years. They moved forward without a lawyer until the judge appointed one Sept. The EPA says a person drinking water contaminated with these chemicals over many years could suffer liver or kidney problems or be at risk for cancer.The chlorine-related chemicals that exceeded state and federal standards were trihalomethane and heloacetic acid, which are “disinfection byproducts” that result from an interaction between chlorine and organic material.Twenty-seven residents joined him in the complaint, and that list grew to 195 by May. “If the water was perfectly fine, why would they carry water from the mainland onto the site or use bottled water from the kitchen when the residents have to drink water from the pipes?”Taunus Newton, a scheduling supervisor at the centre, confirmed cake depositing machine Manufacturers that he and other workers will not drink the water.“None of the staff drinks the water here,” Malone said.If the water stains clothes and has high levels of chemicals, Malone said, “it cannot be good for anyone.Health officials investigated Platt’s claims and told the plant operator in April 2015 that they questioned the “validity” of the plant monitoring and said the facility appeared to be “at the end of its useful life” and “vulnerable to treatment and equipment failures. But their complaint does not cite specific examples.”

Those findings forced the Department of Corrections into an agreement with health officials in late 2015 to fix the problems or face penalties. 8.A federal judge dismissed Jones’ case, but an appeals court sent the case back.The original federal lawsuit was filed by resident James Edward Jones in 2014. It holds about 225 men and one woman.Turbidity can cause health problems if bacteria, viruses and parasites attach to particles in the water, risking nausea, cramps, diarrhea and headaches, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Bill Platt said the system had been set up to create “a false reading for the record” and the actual levels were high.“I don’t think there’s any evidence that the water has caused a single case of illness out here,” CEO Bill Van Hook said, adding that the water treatment plant “takes care of all of the health issues. He claimed the water had floating debris and caused severe stomach cramps, vomiting and other digestive problems.”. The state responded by saying testing in accordance with state and federal regulations showed that the water was safe.Calvin Malone, a resident leading the legal challenge, said the water contains high level of chemicals and fecal matter. When some deadlines were not met, the agency asked for an extension to December 2017.Health reports say the facility’s water treatment plant has been “on the verge of failure” since 2013, and a former plant operator told health officials in 2015 that the water’s cloudiness readings were being manipulated to make the water look cleaner than it was

The soil quality is affected by the unbalanced

India is already reeling under the burden of lifestyle diseases and air pollution makes it far worse.com. But it’s not just them.5) levels between 2008 and 2013.If Delhi’s air quality has improved marginally, it’s due to sustained public pressure which made it hard to ignore.But consider the evidence. The Kanpur Municipal Corporation’s safai karamcharis burn waste collected from residential areas and shopping areas in those localities instead of taking them to primary collection points. During winter, the city’s poor tossed plastics and tyres in bonfires to warm themselves. It is also where many activist organisations are based. India’s media has begun to focus on air pollution, not just in Delhi but across the nation. There are miles to go, but a start has been made. The 10 cities that spewed the most pollutants into our planet’s air include Allahabad, Gwalior, Patna and Raipur.Early this year, a newspaper report pointed out the alarming situation in Kanpur, one of the most polluted cities. So as long as the economy is growing, there is room for nothing but celebrations.

Why can’t India The writer focuses on development issues in India and emerging economies. The city now has higher emission standards for vehicles. But the disturbing news is that small-town India is taking a hit.As India is caught up in an ecological crisis playing out in many directions, we increasingly hear that environmental damage and the toll it takes on our health is the price we pay for a growing economy. This comes along with low public awareness and thus lack of public pressure. So are children. Young people who breathe highly polluted air day in and day out are also badly hit. Not so in all other parts of the country.

Thermal power plants and steel plants exist worldwide, but they don’t poison the air around them this way. But it doesn’t have to be that way. There will be backlash, resistance. A survey by the Centre for Science and Environment in 2013 noted the grim situation in several Uttar Pradesh towns.You don’t have to be an Einstein to understand any of this but you have to have the political commitment to change the palpably unsustainable situation. Like them, India’s plants too have electrostatic precipitators in their chimneys, designed to trap most pollutants. Solutions exist, and there’s no dearth of evidence on what works — cleaner fuel, energy efficient public transport and household gadgets, water-saving taps, strict implementation of environmental regulations. These include pollutants like sulphates, nitrates and black carbon, which penetrate deep into the lungs and into the cardiovascular system, posing the greatest health risks. Young people moving around with masks, foreigners in the China mooncake Machine Factory city openly saying they fear for the health of their children, more emergency visits to hospitals due to respiratory diseases and so on.N.

The soil quality is affected by the unbalanced use of chemical fertiliser and poor-quality pesticides” and so on. On top of that, small towns in India mostly don’t have action plans to clean up their air.Delhi has taken some control measures, and not just the contentious “odd-even” scheme.There are flickers of promise — public conversation about these vital issues is starting. The elderly are among the worst-affected.In this season of political storms and landslides, does polluted air stand a chance of grabbing India’s attention Nah! For days at a stretch now, there are slim chances of dirty air being at the heart of the high-decibel discussion about India’s future.

Needless to say, it also affects productivity. It gets worse — India has 16 of the world’s 30 worst cities with polluted air. Many cities are motorising rapidly, and more vehicles with lower emission standards are hitting the road in small towns. She can be reached at patralekha. Top economic journalist T. And weaving this line of argument with the political discourse, it’s being said that the Narendra Modi government was elected to rev up India’s economic growth.What does this have to do with our future The short answer: dirty air enhances the risk of stroke, heart disease, lung cancer and chronic and acute respiratory diseases, including asthma.chatterjee@gmail. Not just that, residents, too, thought nothing of burning domestic waste on the road. There has also been lots of construction activity in smaller towns in recent years.

Ninan reminds us in his 2015 book The Turn of the Tortoise: The Challenge and Promise of India’s Future: “India has about the worst index for air quality; the situation of its water — once abundant — is moving steadily from ‘stress’ to ‘scarcity’; its tree cover, vital as a carbon sink and for preserving the natural habitat, is not growing, and some of it is now being sacrificed in order to access mineral and other resources. But other places did it — London, Mexico City, California. A report released by World Health Organisation (WHO) last week shows that Delhi no longer has the dubious honour of being at the top of the list of cities with the worst air pollution. This contributes to dust, that again dirties the air.The data comes from comparisons done by WHO of 795 cities in 67 countries for small particulate matter (PM10 and PM2. And we are beginning to see higher penalties for burning of trash and enforcement of regulations to control road dust. A senior official in Chhattisgarh’s Bhilai Steel Plant once said it was cheaper to pay the fine than hire chimney cleaners.. Ghaziabad and Allahabad have emerged as the worst cities in UP in air pollution. The difference is that environmental laws in India are so weak and their implementation so lax that nobody bothers to clean those chimneys. The coal-based power plant at Rajghat has been shut.It’s not just vehicles and bad fuel.But this is a flawed argument — many cities and countries worldwide have shown that economies can grow without plunging people into acute ill-health. Inhaling polluted air can affect lung capacity, putting one at risk of respiratory diseases later. But the air quality in small town India is also worsening rapidly.It’s tempting to frame the current scenario as an inevitable tradeoff between economic growth and keeping the environment clean.Delhi’s air woes at least get an occasional hearing as it is India’s capital and whatever happens here makes news