Eight purifiers tested did not conform to USEPA standards - Health News

Despite loud promises that these gadgets suck out disease-causing bugs from drinking water, most purifiers sold across India do not completely eliminate water-borne viruses like Hepatitis E, says Pune-based National Institute of Virology.

A study by the government-funded body that conducts research on communicable diseases and viruses evaluated eight domestic water purifier brands. It found only two - one equipped with a hollow fibre membrane and the other with a gravity-fed filter - could completely remove the viruses.

The study also found no standards existed for virological evaluation of water purification devices in India and called for well-defined parameters.

The NIV relied on the United States Environment Protection Agency's (USEPA) guide, standard and protocol benchmark for testing microbial purifiers.

The study was conducted by senior deputy director and head of the NIV's hepatitis division, Vidya Arankalle, and scientist Vikram Verma. The Indian Council of Medical Research ( ICMR), ministry of health and family welfare, government of India, extended financial suppo rt to the study conducted by the NIV scientists.

The purifiers that were tested included those using activated carbon filters, ceramic candle filters, sediment filters, iodine resin gravity filters, polyster filters, ultraviolet irradiation, reverse osmosis and hollow fibre membrane filters. These features were either employed singly or in a combination.

The purifiers were evaluated using Hepatitis E vir us (HEV) as a model. The viral log reduction value (LRV) - the capacity to eliminate viruses - was calculated for each purifier.

"The log reduction value (LRV) is the difference in the amount of virus particles between raw water (spiked with HEV) and purified water," said Verma. The US EPA criterion for reduction of viruses is 4.0 log. This means that if there are 10,000 particles in the water that is going to be processed, there should be no viral particles in the water after purification.

"We evaluated one purifier of each brand. The batch-to-batch or unit-to-unit variation was not evaluated. However, even with this limitation, the results indicated that six of the eight purifiers tested did not conform to USEPA standards. The purifiers did not remove the viruses completely," said Arankalle.

"We need a national policy for the evaluation of such purifiers by the regulatory authorities and at the factory level. This will ensure availability of quality domestic water purifiers," she said.

According to Arankalle, viruses remain longer than bacteria in water. "In India, the standard to evaluate the microbial performance of a purifier is for the device to provide bacteria-free water from water in which a fixed amount of Escherichia coli bacteria has been added. However, it is unsafe to rely only on bacteriological standards to assess the virological quality of water. Virological standards should be established immediately," she said.

The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), which looks into the standardisation, certification and quality of purifiers, has already appointed a commitee to look into the NIV report.

"The first sectional meeting on water purification equipment was held at the BIS on April 28 this year. The committee discussed the nitty-gritties involved in formulating a regulation regarding the quality of water purifiers. We have also formed sub-committees to look into the bacteriological and microbiological aspects of water purifiers," said Pawan Labhshetwar, who is heading the committee formed by the BIS on water purification equipment.

The meeting was attended by representatives from NIV Pune, NEERI, Chennai, Eureka Forbes, Bangalore and Dehradun, Unilever R&D, Bangalore, Ion Exchange and Whirlpool India, Faridabad. The next meeting will be held in October.

When contacted, K V Thomas, Union minister of state for agriculture, consumer affairs, food and public distribution, told TOI that the upgradation of existing standards was on the anvil. "We need to address the upgradation issue urgently. I will ask the BIS to speed up the process," he said.

While NIV did not reveal to TOI brands of the water purifiers it tested, Hindustan Unilever Ltd insisted that their purifier, Pureit, met all standards.

Vikram Surendran, general manager (water), Hindustan Unilever, said, " Pureit meets the germ removal criteria of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the toughest drinking water regulatory agency in the US. The EPA standard requires a 4.0 log reduction value with respect to virus removal and Pureit meets the same. It is pertinent to clarify that Pureit also removes enteric viruses from water, including the Hepatitis A and Hepatitis E viruses." "The study by NIV in fact identifies Pureit as the device which meets US standards," he said.

Eureka Forbes Limited (EFL), which manufactures water purifier Aquaguard, differed on the methods adopted by the NIV for its study. Marzin R Shroff, CEO, (direct sales) and senior vice-president (marketing), EFL, said, "The Real Time-Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) method used in this specific study has been declared unreliable in citations by the global research community for measuring the virus inactivation efficacy of UV-based products, because the method is known to give false positives and is also not approved by global regulatory authorities like the USEPA."

Raman Venkatesh, EFL's senior vice-president (technology), said, "The NIV study does not cite whether the flow rates of products tested are in compliance with the design or rated flow rates, as that will have a great impact on the contact time and dosage of UV-based products, which will impact disinfection efficacy."

Commenting on EFL's objection to the method used in the evaluation, Verma said, "The methodology used in the virological evaluation of water purifiers was recently published in UK-based journal, Tropical Medicine and International Health, after a thorough review. This peer-reviewed journal had been in the public domain for the last one year. If the methodology was unreliable, it would not have found a place in such a prestigious journal."

Verma further said, "We have amplified the complete genome of the virus present in the purified water samples and this is sufficient to prove the infectivity of the virus. We have also taken proper measures to rule out any false positive results with the help of the RT- PCR technique."

Repeated attempts to contact Ion Exchange and Whirlpool India Limited were unsuccessful.

Increasing temperature and concentration of greenhouse gases have made people more susceptible to allergies

Suffering from cold, watery eyes and sinus? You may be a victim of global warming. According to Indian College of Allergy, Asthma and Applied Immunology Secretary Dr A B Singh, increasing temperature and concentration of greenhouse gases have made people more susceptible to allergies. He was speaking at a symposium held at Panjab University on Friday.

Explaining the correlation between climatic changes and allergies, Dr A B Singh said factors like depletion of the Ozone layer and erratic rainfall have led to increase in temperature. “High temperature promotes plant growth and hence concentration of pollen increases in the air,” he said. Pollen is one of the chief allergy-causing substances. According to Singh, there has been a 30 per cent increase in the number of people suffering from allergies in the last few years.

Apart from pollen, other common allergy-causing substances (allergens) are fungi, mould, mites and dust. Pollen of crops like jowar, bajra, congress grass, acacia (keekar), too, have emerged as common allergens. “Humidity levels are also rising with global warming, which has subsequently increased allergic reaction among people,” said Singh. The cases increase April-May and September-October, the harvesting period of various crops.

“Cases of severe asthma and prolonged asthma, too, have increased, with environment products being the common factor. Family history and genetic make-up are the two key factors that determine a person’s resistance level to allergens. The best cure to any allergy is to avoid exposure to the allergen,” said Singh. “Vaccines for allergies are also being devised world over. The first step to use these is to identify the real source of allergy. For instance, if someone is allergic to pollen, he needs to know pollen of which flower or crop he is allergic to,” he added.

In the three-day 35th annual conference of Environment Mutagen Society of India (EMSI) and International Symposium on Mutagens and Genetic Diversity for Health and Agriculture, the keynote address was delivered by Prof P K Seth, Chief Executive Officer, Biotech Park, Lucknow. Prof Emeritus A B Prasad of the Centre for Bioinformatics, Ranchi, lectured on the impact of environmental toxicants on human health.

kissing and making up with your partner before going to bed really does improve your mood the next day

Kissing and making up with your partner before sleeping really does improve your mood the next day, a new study has suggested.

After fighting, couples with high activity in a certain outer brain region are less likely to be upset the next day, while those with low activity are more likely to be in a bad mood, continue to mull over the argument in their heads, and turn to alcohol or drugs, the study found.

The lateral prefrontal cortex is thought to be involved in the way people control their emotions, with more activity linked to more emotional resilience, reports The Daily Express .

The study was conducted by Harvard and California University psychologists and is published in the Biological Psychiatry journal. Lead author Professor Christine Hooker said: "What we found, as you might expect, was that everybody felt badly on the day of the conflict with their partners. But the day after, people who had high lateral prefrontal cortex activity felt better and the people who had low lateral prefrontal cortex activity continued to feel bad."

Having two cups of tea a day can help cut down risk of developing ovarian cancer in women

If you are a tea lover there is good news for you! You have less chances of having ovarian cancer suggest couple of recently conducted researches. Two studies, one carried out by The University of Washington and the other by National Institute of Environmental Medicine in Stockholm, hint towards this fact.

Ovarian Cancer is the eighth most common cancer found in women. Also, it ranks fifth when it comes to be a major of cause of cancer deaths. Lung and bronchus, breast, colorectal, and pancreatic cancers, are the only ones that cause more cancer deaths than ovarian cancer.

The University of Washington performed the study on 2,000 women. Its findings suggest that Women who have at least one cup of green tea intake in a day, have 54% less chances of the cancer formation. The National Institute of Environmental Medicine in Stockholm showed similar results. It was conducted on 61, 057 women, falling between the age group of 40 to 76 years of age.

The results show that women consuming two cups of black tea daily reduce the chances of ovarian cancer by 50%. It's the impact of Antioxidants found in tea that actually leads to preventing a critical illness like cancer. And earlier researches confirm that tea has many other health benefits too, besides being a good cancer preventing agent. Reducing risks of heart attacks, enhanced blood vessel function, better dental health are the major ones among others.

Consumption of coffee reduces the risk of diabetes especially type 2 diabetes

While previous studies had reported controversial results regarding the link between drinking coffee and diabetes, a new study reveals the protective effects of the beverage.

According to the study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, individuals drinking at least a cup of coffee per day are one-third less likely to develop type 2 diabetes in the long run.

Only coffee taken during lunchtime regardless of being decaf or caffeinated, with or without sugar influences the risk of diabetes, the study found.

Black coffee was also reported to be more effective than coffee with milk; the significance of this finding, however, was unclear.

The high content of magnesium and chlorogenic acid in coffee is believed to be responsible for the protective effect of the beverage against diabetes due to their antioxidant properties.

Saffron can prove to be an effective weapon in the fight against sight loss, age-related macular degeneration (AMD) - Health News

The new research indicates that saffron, traditionally used to colour and flavour curries and Mediterranean dishes, can prove to be an effective weapon in the fight against one of the commonest causes of sight loss, age-related macular degeneration (AMD).

The first trials of saffron on human vision shows it significantly enhanced eyesight, reports The Daily Express.

Lead researcher Professor Silvia Bisti said, “When patients were tested with traditional eye charts, a number could read one or two lines smaller than before. Others said they could read newspapers and books again.”

Bisti hailed the results as ‘remarkable’ and claimed saffron “may hold the key to preventing sight loss in the elderly”.

Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com

Plastic surgeons are reporting a record number of "man boob" reduction operations - Health News

Plastic surgeons are reporting a record number of "man boob" reduction operations as the rise in demand outstrips that for all other procedures, including women's breast enlargement.

Figures published by the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons showed operations to correct gynecomastia in men grew by 80%, while overall male cosmetic surgery grew by 21%.

The association's audit reveals 581 male breast reduction operations were performed by members in 2009, up from 323 in 2008. Five years ago, just 22 gynecomastia operations were performed on men. The association represents one in three plastic surgeons, so the UK total is likely to be more than 1,000 operations.

"Probably, heightened media attention … has allowed men to realise the positive outcomes that can be achieved," said Rajiv Grover, the consultant and association secretary who collated the audit.

"There's a lot of pressure on men now to shape up. Men's grooming is on the rise, and big fashion houses are using half-naked men, such a David Beckham, to advertise."

The procedure typically costs £2,000, takes 90 minutes, and removes as much as a litre of fat.

Overall, 36,482 procedures were done by association members for men and women in 2009, compared with 34,187 in 2008, a rise of 6.7%. Women accounted for 32,859, a rise of 5%. The audit reported 8,537 female breast augmentation operations.

Source: www.guardian.co.uk