MOSAIC: Air quality in Asia -DAWN Magazine; January 18, 2004

January 18, 2004

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MOSAIC: Air quality in Asia POLLUTION in the skies over Asia’s booming cities is responsible for 500,000 deaths every year and the working lives of many are shortened by health problems from breathing filthy air, experts said recently. Nepal’s capital, Katmandu, now tops a list of 17 Asian cities with the dirtiest air, followed by New Delhi, according to a World Bank report presented at a conference titled Better Air Quality. Jakarta and Chongqing, China’s second-largest city, share third place. Every 1,000 people in urban East Asia and the Pacific lose more than 12 productive years due to disability caused by air pollution. But the situation can improve — and is improving — through better air quality management by governments backed by greater public awareness of the problem. For instance, in Bangkok the visibility at the city’s airport improved from about five kilometres (three miles) in 1996 to nine kilometres (five miles) in 2000. And, in Bangladesh capital Dhaka, the phase-out of two-stroke engines on motorcycle taxis has slashed concentrations of fine, airborne particulate matter by 41 per cent. People are demanding cleaner air and there is a shift toward longer-term solutions. The private sector is getting involved and regional initiatives to control air quality are on the upswing, said the vice-president of the Asian Development Bank. “These trends, together with rapid developments in technology, which can substantially reduce pollution from both stationary and mobile sources gives us reason to be optimistic that air quality in Asia will improve in the years to come.” The acting World Bank director for the Philippines listed among immediate priorities the removal of the smoky oil-burning two-stroke engines, better management of high-polluting buses and trucks as well as maintenance of commercial vehicles and control of road dust. Governments in Asia have adopted policy guidelines that focus on reducing pollution from vehicles, including motorcycles and three-wheel taxis that are common in the region. They cover emission standards, traffic planning and management, use of clean fuels, as well as inspections and maintenance. — Samina Iqbal Battling liquid tumours LYMPHOMA, leukemia and myeloma are cancers of the blood-forming cells, states a recent issue of Medicine Digest. They form two to three per cent of all cancers and are called liquid tumours as they cannot be removed surgically. Chemotherapy and radiation are the choice treatments. The good news is the breakthrough therapy of molecularly targeted therapies or drugs that attack diseased cells directly and produce lesser side effects. The cause for these cancers is not known. Benzene, a widely used chemical, found in car emissions and furniture wax, has been postulated as a causative agent for some leukemias, whereas the Ebstein Barr virus has been linked to some lymphomas. Gleevec, one of the most successful molecularly targeted drugs offers a breakthrough for people with chronic myeloid leukemia. The drug inhibits an enzyme that pushes cells to reproduce uncontrollably. Within three to four weeks of therapy, blood counts return to normal. Prior to Gleevec, a bone marrow transplant was the only possible cure for CML. Velcade, a proteasome inhibitor is being used for multiple myeloma cases. It inhibits proteins that interfere with normal cell death. A new monoclonal antibody, another targeted therapy prevents recurrence of lymphomas. It is a new approach and is called immunotherapy, which involves developing antibodies that attack part of the diseased cell’s surface, causing the cell to die. These targeted therapies have started to find their way into the armamentarium of treating tumours. But there is still a long way to go and win the battle. — Fatema Jawad Do cell phones cause cancer? CELL phones certainly do emit low levels of electro-magnetic radiation. While it is widely known that sufficient levels of non-ionising radiation heat up body tissue and increase the risk for tumour growth, no conclusive link between cell phones and cancer has been found. It’s difficult to collect reliable data on the potential harm caused by cell phone use because of the newness of the devices. In 2001, a study of 420,000 cell phone users in Denmark was published in the US Journal of the National Cancer Institute. The researches concluded that there was no link “between the use of (cellular) phones and brain tumours and cancers of the brain or salivary gland or leukemia.” They noted that a typical cell phone functions at a low power level, resulting in “a very low rise in brain temperature.” However, in a report published in the June 2002 issue of European Journal of Cancer Prevention, Swedish scientist Lennart Hardell made a link between brain cancer and older analog cell phones used for at least eight years. If you don’t want to wait for widely accepted scientific evidence, and would rather be safe than sorry, a wireless technology impacts expert says, “Cell phone users can limit their calls to less than two minutes. Don’t drive and talk, and use a hands-free kit to decrease the amount of radiation.” — S.I.

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