India | Huma Lung Foundation launches radio advisories on air pollution and health

What if, along with the traffic and weather updates on the radio, you could also learn about the current air quality and how it affects your health? A radio station in Chennai, India, is doing just that.

In a first-of-its-kind effort, Huma Lung Foundation (HLF) in collaboration with Fever FM 91.9 are providing “Air Check” – air quality and health updates to the city of Chennai through its popular daily show Lose Control and on HLF’s website. Modeled around the traffic updates on radio, “Air Check” gives information about the Air …

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India | Toxic metals contaminate villages near coal facilities in Chhattisgarh

India | Toxic metals contaminate villages near coal facilities in Chhattisgarh

The air, water, soil, and sediment in and around several villages in the Raigarh district in Chhattisgarh state are severely contaminated with various toxic heavy metals, according to a new report by Healthy Energy Initiative’s partner in India, Community Environmental Monitoring, along with a local community group.

The environmental sampling and testing was undertaken to investigate complaints of severe pollution and health problems from the coal mines, thermal power plants, and coal ash ponds by the residents of the region.

These findings strengthen the evidence that coal-fired power generation …

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India | Health professionals urge implementation of power plant standards to protect public health

A group of public health professionals and medical doctors sent a letter of concern to the Indian Environment Minister — who is a medical doctor himself — in response to recent reports that the Ministry of Environment, Forests & Climate Change (MoEFCC) is in the process of diluting and extending deadlines for critical air emission and water use norms for thermal power plants that were announced in December 2015 and are being phased in during 2017.

The letter emphasized the importance of strict air emission norms to protect public …

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India | Stories from Ennore, where an oil spill only piled on to older, nastier disasters

India | Stories from Ennore, where an oil spill only piled on to older, nastier disasters

Credit: Archanaa Seker and Dharmesh Shah

A doctor alarmed by a stark increase in respiratory diseases.

A grandmother fretting over her grandson’s constant hospital visits.

Fishermen with skin lesions that the local hospital can’t heal.

Teenaged boys with itchy feet from trudging through sludge in order to play cricket.

A fisherman lamenting the loss of a river that was once beautiful, that once cleansed and provided a steady livelihood.

These are some of the stories from the port town of Ennore, on the outskirts of Chennai, told through images and words …

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India | Environmental health expert visits coal plants to jumpstart research

India | Environmental health expert visits coal plants to jumpstart research

From September 12 to 23, 2016, Dr. Peter Orris, Professor and Chief of Occupational and Environmental Medicine at the University of Illinois Hospital and Health Sciences System and scientific adviser to Health Care Without Harm (HCWH), visited several coal plant communities that will undergo an environmental health impact assessment as part of HCWH’s Healthy Energy Initiative work in India.

Facilitated by Community Environmental Monitors (CEM), our Healthy Energy Initiative partner in India, Dr. Orris’s visit also included lectures and workshops delivered in several academic and research …

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India | Study reveals toxic air near coal plants in Chennai

India | Study reveals toxic air near coal plants in Chennai

Alarmingly high levels of harmful air pollutants can be found in communities in the Ennore region, a suburb of Chennai surrounded by a cluster of coal-fired power plants, according to a new report by the Chennai-based Coastal Resource Centre (CRC), a partner of the Healthy Energy Initiative.

The report, entitled “Unfit to Breathe,” notes that the fine particle pollution found in the air samples collected from residential rooftops in Ennore is comprised of a high fraction of four elements (aluminum, calcium, iron, and silicon) that occur in high levels …

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Global | New Solutions Article on Global Campaign for Healthy Energy

Global | New Solutions Article on Global Campaign for Healthy Energy

“From Extraction to Renewal: A Global Campaign for Healthy Energy”

The Healthy Energy Initiative team is pleased to share a new article published in the peer-reviewed journal New Solutions: A Journal of Environmental and Occupational Health Policy. The article appears in a special issue on “Health, Environmental Policy and the Extractive Industries.”

To download the full text of the article (authors’ accepted manuscript), click here.
For additional information from New Solutions, and to download the version published in the journal, click here (subscription required; DOI: 10.1177/1048291115610433).
For additional resources from the Healthy Energy Initiative, …

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India | National Meeting on Climate, Energy and Health

India | National Meeting on Climate, Energy and Health

Indian launch event for the report of the Lancet Commission on Health and Climate Change

October 26th, 2015 – India Habitat Centre, New Delhi

Report from the Public Health Foundation of India

The National Meeting on Climate Change and Health was the Indian launch event for the report of the Lancet Commission on Health and Climate Change and was supported by Health Care without Harm (HCWH) and the Lancet Commission. The purpose of this meeting was to generate awareness about the health impacts of climate change, to emphasize the …

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India | Healthy Energy Speaking Tour / Toxic Tour Launched at PGI Chandigarh

Healthy Energy Initiative – India presented a Speaking Tour and Toxic Tour at the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh. The program at PGI Chandigarh marked the debut of an ongoing series of speaking tours and toxics tours developed by Healthy Energy Initiative – India, organized in conjunction with leading public health educational institutes, to sensitize students, faculty, and researchers on issues surrounding energy, industrial pollution, and environmental health.

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India | Lung specialist: Draft emission rules allow new coal plants to pollute

In an op-ed, an eminent Chennai-based lung specialist issues an unflattering critique of the health implications India’s proposed emissions standards for coal-fired power plants. Noting the proposed standards’ failure to adequately address the persistent health impacts of mercury pollution, the cumulative health impacts from multiple pollution sources, air pollution from existing coal plants, and the regional nature of air pollution, Dr. Husamuddin Papa concludes that “India’s environmental policy and regulations do not reflect a health-based understanding.” Dr. Papa cautions that, “well-planned development can contribute to national economy; ill-planned development that does not …

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