Monday, December 11, 2006

Why vote for a mayor who knows not how to keep a city clean?

All of us are voting for the Mayoral candidates with hope that the new incumbent would take measures to clean up the city, already a huge reservoir of waste, garbage and other unhygienic material. It is the Mayor who is supposed to spearhead this drive.
But what if those in fray for the mayoral candidature themselves show no regard for the cleanliness of the city?
The same is happening in the city of Lucknow. Huge hoardings have come up all over the city. This is in spite of the fact that it is common knowledge that plastic and polymeric waste is the most hazardous of all as it cannot be recycled.
What's more, the SP candidate Dr. Madhu Gupta has gone a step ahead to plaster the entire city with posters, including posters at places like the Vidhan Sabha building, where none else but with political muscle can dare put them up. Once she becomes the mayor, it will be her job to remove all these posters from the city.

Box
Industrial Toxicology Research Centre, situated at MG Marg, Lucknow is working on Plastic Waste Management for several years now. The results of its findings are here for all of you:
"Plasticizers have been used to impart flexibility to variety of plastic products. Di (2-ethyl-hexyl) phthalate (DEHP) is the most widely used plasticizer in PVC formulations for a wide variety of applications including medical devices, clothing etc. DEHP is also used in non-polymer materials such as lacquers, paints adhesives, fillers and printing inks. However, DEHP is not chemically bound to PVC and migrates out from plastic items with time and use. Plasticizers in general and phthalates in particular, are currently the subject of considerable media, legislative and scientific debate. Concerns regarding plasticizers have been raised on a variety of topics at regular intervals ever since the early 1980's. These have included environmental effects, oestrogen mimicking, phthalates in toys and most recently exposure via bio-medical devices. As a consequence, phthalates have been found everywhere in the environment and is universally considered to be a ubiquitous environmental contaminant leading to hepatic and reproductive toxicity. Phthalates long-term toxicity and tissue disposition have been well documented in animal models. It has also been found to produce developmental effects in males and reproductive tract effect in females. The metabolites of phthalates exhibit a genotoxic effect in human mucosal cell of the upper aerodigestive tract and in lymphocytes in vitro. According to another school of thought the environmental impact of phthalates is considered to be low due to their ready biodegradability and low toxicity.

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