HEALTH

NIPER to prepare database on medicinal plants
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 8
The SAS Nagar-based National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER) is one of the four national research institutes associated by the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) to prepare a database on the quality and analytical standards of the Indian medicinal plants.

The database, Ayurveda Pharmacopoeia of India, would enable the regulatory authorities and the industry to set quality standards for manufacturing of drugs based on medicinal plants. Initially, the database of 160 species of medical plants is being prepared.

Dr K.K. Bhutani, Head of the Department of Natural Products, NIPER, said, “An effective collaboration between scientists and different specialists holds the key to success of discovery programmes on new bioactive plant constituents.”

He said an effort was being made to outline the most important aspects in the investigation of bioactive constituents used in the traditional system of medicine.

Out of 15,000 varieties of medicinal plants, around 2,500 were being used in manufacturing of ayurvedic medicines. Of these, the ICMR has prioritised 160 species. The requirement of information has become all the more important after Parliament passed the Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) Act on ayurvedic and indigenous plants.

Dr Bhutani said the profile of the quality of the material and active pharmaceutical ingredients of 10 medicinal plants had so far been provided by NIPER.

Other institutes associated in the project are the Tropical Botanical Garden Research Institute, Thiruvananthapuram, the National Botanical Research Institute, Lucknow, and the BV Patel Pharmaceutical Education and the Research Development Centre, Ahemdabad.

In another project, the CSIR was engaged in digitalisation of information on medicinal plants.

Mobile phones long-term health hazard, says study
A.S. Prashar
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 8
Mobile phone users have been warned against the long-term health hazards posed by the device in a scientific paper prepared by two professors of Punjab Engineering College (PEC) here.

"It is the time to err on the side of caution by following what is known as precautionary approach," says the paper presented by Dr Gurjit Kaur and Dr R.S. Prasad of the Electronics Department of the PEC at a two-day national symposium on "emerging trends in networking and mobile communication" held here over the weekend. "Prevention is better than cure", emphasised the paper.

The paper noted that mobile phones had become an indispensable part of modern life but they had also sparked off a debate over the possible long-term health consequences of the use of mobile phones.

The paper said that various researches indicated that between 20 and 60 per cent of the energy emitted from a mobile phone was absorbed by the user's head. The types of aerial or antenna, which could not be extended, were worse because they concentrated energy into the user's brain. "Mobile phones heat up brain structures. The rate of death from brain cancer among hand-held phone users was higher than the rate of brain cancer death among those who used non-hand held phones".

According to the paper, a study by Prof Kjell Mild reveals that "there is a 30 per cent increase in brain tumours found in regular mobile phone users. Brain cancer was most frequently found developed on the side of the head to which the person held his phone. The biggest increases in cancerous growths were in acoustic neuromas, which form behind the ear. Mobile phone radiation can destroy brain cells and may led to the early Alzheimer's disease".

The paper says that mobile phone radiation also affects the brain's blood-brain barrier, a biological filter which isolates the brain and central nervous system from material in blood supply which could create problems with memory and processing functions. The radiation also disturbs sleep patterns.

Electromagnetic fields from mobile phone use in bed significantly increases brain activity during early, non-rapid eye movement sleep. The use of mobile phones just before going to sleep can disturb the normal sleeping EEG patterns. As reported by 22 medical doctors of the German Interdisciplinary Association for Environmental Medicine, learning, concentration and behavioural disorders, extreme fluctuations in blood pressure which are harder to influence with medications, heart rhythm disorders, heart attacks and strokes among an increasingly younger population, brain degenerative diseases, epilepsy, leukemia and brain tumours are consequences of this technology.

Pre-adolescent children are potentially at more risk than adults. Absorption of microwaves of the frequency used in mobile is greater (particularly at 900 mhz) in an object about the size of a child's head — the so-called head resonance — than in adults in consequence of the thinner skull of a child.

PGI engineers oppose deputation
Our Correspondent

Chandigarh, September 8
The PGI Engineers’ Association have sought the filling of the post of Superintending Hospital Engineer “from eligible bona fide PGI engineers”. In a letter to Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare Sushma Swaraj, the association members have alleged that the administration had illegally and arbitrarily selected a candidate on deputation from the CPWD.

The members said they were of the opinion that the department had already suffered a lot with deputation.

Hospital engineering, they had added, was a specialised field involving multifarious services including electrical, biomedical, air-conditioning, medical gases and fire fighting in addition to civil engineering. A person on deputation from the CPWD could not have any knowledge pertaining to these fields, they claimed.

The PGI Engineering Department, they asserted, had become a platform for those who are on deputation for staying at Chandigarh. After getting training they go back to their previous organisations.

They further asserted that cadre review in the Engineering Department had not been implemented even after seven years, whereas all other departments were enjoying its benefits since 1996.

There has been no expansion of the Engineering Department for the past than 10 years, they alleged.

The PGI engineering cadre had to its credit the execution of prestigious projects, including advanced pediatric centre, new OPD block, national institute of nursing education, emergency block and working women hostel. It reflected that there was no dearth of talent and competence in the PGI.

The members added that the Centre had issued instructions from time to time which specified that incumbents shall not be called on deputation wherever eligible candidates were available in the cadre.

The post of the Superintending Hospital Engineer was held by the PGI engineer cadre upto 1984, after that the post was being filled through deputationist from different sate governments, the PWD and the CPWD incumbents.

PGI engineering cadre being very small provided meagre promotional avenues to the engineers.

Inviting deputationist in the institute totally blocked the promotional avenues in contraventions of Article 16 of the Constitution.

They added that the process of filling the post of the Superintending Hospital Engineer on deputation should be stalled and the process of filling the post from eligible PGI engineers should be initiated.

SPORTS

Ganesh Chaudhary is best judoka
Tribune News Service

Overall champions: U-14 boys: Shah Satnamji, Sirsa; and Police DAV, Jalandhar. U-16: Shah Satnamji, Sirsa; and Sanjay Public School, Chandigarh. U-19: Sharda Sarvhitkari — Chandigarh; and Shah Satnamji, Sirsa.

Karate meet

Saupin’s School, Panchkula, won the trophy in the two-day karate meet organised by the United Panchkula District Karate Association at the Community Centre, Sector 7, Panchkula, on Monday.

The SP, Panchkula, Mr Ranbir S. Sharma, was the chief guest. Aurobindo School and Bhavan Vidyalaya, Panchkula, finished second and third, respectively.

The results: Girls: Kata — 7 to 9 years: Sunakshi 1, Sakshi 2; Sneha 3; 9 to 10 years: Kiran C. Bhardwaj 1, Monica Thakur 2; 11 and above: Varsha Gupta 1, Kanchan Saini 2.

Boys: Kata — below 7 years: Samar Bagai 1; Aditya Trikha 2; Namil 3; 7 to 8 years: Vaibhav Gupta 1; Danish Tanveer 2; 8 years to 10 years: Samrat Bansal 1; Sunny Dhingra 2; Mayank Gupta 3; 10 years to 11 years: Chimal Singla 1; Yuvraj Sharma 2; Hemant Goel 3; 11 years and above: Siddharth Verma 1; Sunil Kumar 2; Lakshay Prabhakar 3.

Girls: Kumite: 7 to 9 years: Sakshi 1; Sneha 2; Sunakashi 3; 9 to 10 years: Gunjan 1; Kiran 2; Tarannum 3; 10 to 11 years: Sugandhi 1; R. Preet 2; Jasrup 3; 11 and above: Kanchan Saini 1; Raskirat 2; Maneeva 3.

Boys: Kumite: Below 7 years - Aditya Trikha 1; Samar 2; Namit 3; 7 to 8 years: Danish Tanveer 1; Gurjot Singh 2; Vaibhav 3; 8 to 9 years: Mayank Sharma 1; Sunny 2; Kushmeet 3; 9 to 10 years: Gaurav Rana 1; Shubham 2; Samrat 3; 10 to 11 years: Hemat 1; Basu Gaur 2; Surya Bhan 3; 11 to 12 years: Siddharth Varma 1; Amritanshu 2; Sahil Garg 3; 12 to 13 years: Vikas Chaudhary 1; Arun Kumar 2; Bhrigu Nodda 3; 13 to 14 years: Madandeep Singh 1; Aditya Goyal 2; Sahil Manocha 3.

Ramchand’s demise

Dronacharya awardee D.P. Azad expressed his shock over the sad demise of former Indian captain G.S. Ramchand. Azad said India had registered its first-ever win against Australia in 1959-60 at Kanpur under his leadership. Ramchand was a useful all-rounder. He played 33 Test matches, scoring 2180 runs with two centuries and took 41 wickets.

ADMINISTRATION

MC plans to upgrade traffic lights
Our Correspondent

SAS Nagar, September 8
For better traffic management, the Municipal Council here is upgrading traffic lights in the town. The conventional system is being replaced with a modern set-up, which apart from saving power will help in the smooth flow of traffic.

Sources say conventional lamps are being replaced by light emitting diodes which will help save about 80 per cent of the power being consumed by traffic lights at present.

They will be much more brighter and will also have a power back-up system which will run on batteries. The traffic lights will be able to function without power for 15 to 20 hours.

Traffic on roads becomes unruly whenever there is a power breakdown as traffic lights stop functioning. Though at some chowks cops start manning the traffic during power breakdowns, due to shortage of traffic police personnel most chowks remain unattended.

Sources say the new traffic lights can be programmed differently for different time schedules depending on the flow of traffic from various directions.

To begin with, the conventional traffic lights are being replaced at two chowks at a cost of over Rs 9 lakh. They are the Amb Wala Chowk and the Stadium Chowk. There is heavy flow of traffic at these two points.

MC seeks 10 cr for road repair
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 8
Within two days of the UT Administration approving a plan to recarpet V-4, V-5 and V-6 roads and augment storm water drainage system in southern sectors of the city, the Municipal Corporation of Chandigarh (MCC) today sought a special package of Rs 10 crore from the administration for the purpose.

In a letter to the UT Administrator, Justice O.P. Verma (retd), the Mayor, Mr Subhash Chawla, said since the corporation was an elected body, the expectation of the residents was high. He said due to financial constraints the condition of roads and storm water drainage could not be improved.

Citing monsoon rains as cause for water logging in labour colonies and southern sectors, he said certain roads required urgent repair. The mayor said after consultation with the engineering staff, a budget of around Rs 10 crore was immediately required to improve the basic amenities.