The Shalimar Hospital management has formed a committee of senior doctors and experts to probe the incident of selling hospital waste to some people in the Raiwind Road area.

According to a press release issued on Thursday, the hospital administration has also suspended all the staff of Hospital Waste Management Unit and directed the committee to submit its report in this regard within a week.

According to the administration, the waste management unit is a separate entity led by its Director Junaid Habibullah. It has no direct link with any doctor or staff of the hospital.

Ministry of Industry has formed a committee to study the impact of industrial pollution on locals at different industrial areas, according to secretary Uma Kanta Jha.

“Locals residing in the adjacent areas of industrial zones are facing difficulties due to pollution and hazardous chemicals produced by the industries,” he said, adding that even the rivers are contaminated putting the lives of locals at risk.

The industries should abide by safety measures according to the licence conditions, he added. “But most of them are found to be breaching the laws.”

SIVASAGAR, Feb 7 – Muga, or the “golden silk”, has always been the pride of Assam. Over the years, muga silk has become a unique part of Assamese culture and tradition. This Assam’s golden silk has also got recognition in the international arena. Recently, it was declared by skin specialists of the world that dresses made of muga or eri, prevent skin diseases.

They are setting up sewage and effluent treatment plants

Many industrial estates in the city are setting up sewage and effluent treatment plants in an effort to promote eco-friendly practices and reduce burden on civic agencies. The industrial estate in Ambattur is the forerunner among the estates with two sewage treatment plants set up in north and south phase.

Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) raided on Monday two illegal dyeing units in Tirupur knitwear cluster.

The units were located at Pitchampalayam Pudur and Thottiamannarai and found discharging effluents into the open despite the Madras High Court directive last year asking dyeing/bleaching units to strictly follow zero liquid discharge in the dyeing process.

China has ordered relocation of all smelting plants in a southwestern city in five years after a spill of toxic cadmium in a river threatened drinking water supplies for millions of people.

Metals companies that refuse to move out of town would be shut down, said Mr Liao Jincheng, Director of the Development and Reform Commission of Hechi city in Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region.

Selenium contamination from a phosphate mine in southeastern Idaho is linked to fish deformities such as two-headed trout, and the problem would worsen if discharge limits were eased, a new government report found.

The findings come as Smoky Canyon Mine, run by the J.R. Simplot Company near the Wyoming border, is asking the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality to relax restrictions on the amount of selenium that the mine may drain into tributaries of the Snake River, a world-class trout stream.

Leaks of radioactive water have become more frequent at Japan’s crippled nuclear power plant less than two months after it was declared basically stable.

The problem underlines the continuing challenges facing Tokyo Electric Power Company as it attempts to keep the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant under control. A massive earthquake and tsunami badly damaged the plant last March, resulting in the melting of three reactor cores.

The European Commission has unveiled a new set of water pollution rules, which will for the first time include certain pharmaceutical products. The Commission is proposing to add 15 chemicals to the list of 33 pollutants that are currently monitored and controlled in EU surface waters. The popular pain-relieving drug Diclofenac is one of three pharmaceuticals to be put on the European water watch-list, which law-makers say is another step towards improving the quality of rivers, lakes and coastal waters.