A survey of 71 cities across the country conducted by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) has shown that officially 82 per cent of all the water that municipalities of these cities supply comes from surface water resources, and the rest comes from groundwater resources. But of these 71 cities, 11 depend almost completely on groundwater for public water supply. In the remaining, agencies supply water from surface sources by digging public tube wells. Concern “However, what is of particular concern is the connection between growing volumes of untreated sewage and contaminated groundwater. The circle of contamination is clearly what should worry city planners, as less and less sewage is treated even as more is generated. The groundwater comes under threat of contamination and public health is compromised,” the survey “Excreta Matters” warns. In general, in a greater part of the country, groundwater is of good quality and suitable for drinking, agricultural or industrial purposes. There is salinity problem in the coastal tracts; high incidence of fluoride, arsenic, iron and heavy metals etc. in isolated pockets has also been reported, according to the Central Ground Water Board report 2010. Inland salinity Inland salinity in groundwater is prevalent mainly in the arid and semi-arid regions of Rajasthan, Haryana, Punjab, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. In some areas of Rajasthan and Gujarat, groundwater salinity is so high that the well water is directly used for salt manufacturing by solar evaporation. The report itself claims that 85 per cent of rural population of the country uses groundwater for drinking and domestic purposes. Concentration of fluoride in groundwater beyond the permissible limit of 1.5 mg/l poses health problems. The presence of fluoride beyond the permissible limit has been observed based on the chemical analysis of water samples collected from groundwater the observation wells. Arsenic in ground water is mainly in the intermediate aquifers up to a depth of 100m. The deeper aquifers are free from arsenic contamination. Apart from West Bengal, arsenic contamination in groundwater has been found in Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh & Assam. High concentration of iron (>1.0 mg/l) in groundwater has been observed in more than 1.1 lakh habitations in 22 States and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Nitrate, again, is a very common constituent in the groundwater, especially in shallow aquifers. The source is mainly from anthropogenic activities. High concentration of nitrate in water beyond the permissible limit of 45 mg/l causes health problems. Oblivious to extraction The survey has found a shocking fact: In the public domain, no one knows how much water is extracted. Every city today extracts more and more groundwater to meet its thirst. Water agencies formally indulge in extraction. Households do it privately, especially when the official pipeline fails to supply water to them. When water agencies hike water tariffs, commercial establishments quietly shift to the informal water economy, also predicated on groundwater extraction. The bottling water industry is thriving. “Use of contaminated water is a serious public health issue as groundwater is used without any kind of treatment. It is contaminated with nitrates, heavy metals, and pesticides that can cause cancer, mental retardation. Pesticides enter the food chain through agricultures, hence it is important to protect the groundwater,” says Nitya Nacob, Programme Director (Water), CSE. It is lack of proper sewerage that adds to the problem as 78 per cent of sewage seeps back into the ground, he adds while drawing attention to the highly toxic discharges that are drained into rivers in industrial belts, which ultimately find their way into groundwater. Related keywords you may be interested: Toms Shoes Sale.

Included among the redesign is a new COOP Lifestyle page featuring lifestyle-specific products for the beach, backyard, sideline or pool. A new COOP Community page will keep those most interested in the brand in-the-know through social media links, promotions and events. "It was time to take our web presence to the next level, and we are excited to kick off the summer season by launching the new COOP site," said Darrin Bryan, SwimWays brand manager. "The new design better reflects COOP's brand personality that focuses on all things fun, but more importantly, it will provide a better experience for our customers and retail partners." Work on the new design began five months ago, and a strong emphasis was placed on adding enough detail so that people who search for COOP products through any search engine will land on the COOP web site first. New features include a Team COOP section that has more information about the brand's teenage surfing champion Vanina Walsh, along with photos and information about the 2012 COOP Beach Soccer Championship. The championship makes its annual return to Oceanside Harbor, Calif., this weekend in what has become the second largest beach soccer festival in the world. More than 30,000 people are expected to watch and participate over the three days of activities that combine sand soccer competitions with beach festival fun. The new web site will feature photos, videos, a competition leader board and Twitter updates covering the weekend activities. Phase II of the web project will include a "where to buy" interface, which will simplify a consumer's search for COOP products while giving more visibility to the brand's retail partners. The next phase will also include a media portal that will provide media outlets with quick and easy access to low- and hi-res product images and press releases. "Our goal with this new site is to elevate the user experience," Bryan said. "Whether a first time visitor, a returning customer, or a die-hard fan of the brand, the new COOP web site will be engaging at every visit." Related keywords you may be interested: toms glitter pink.

Despite the fact that Americans spend more on their health care than citizens of 12 other developed nations, a new report finds that more does not necessarily equal better when it comes to quality of care. The Commonwealth Fund report, led by senior research associate David Squires, revealed that the United States is shelling out roughly $8,000 per capita for health care, according to 2009 figures. By contrast, the Japanese and New Zealanders spend just one-third of that amount on health care, while Norwegians and the Swiss cough up about two-thirds. Yet Americans now fare the worst in terms of preventable asthma fatalities among patients aged 5 to 39. The country also ranks poorly -- alongside Germany -- in diabetes-related amputations. As for in-hospital heart attack and stroke death rates, the United States stacks up as average at best. "It is a common assumption that Americans get more health care services than people in other countries, but in fact we do not go to the doctor or the hospital as often," Squires said in a Commonwealth Fund news release. "The higher prices we pay for health care and perhaps our greater use of expensive technology are the more likely explanations for high health spending in the U.S. Unfortunately, we do not seem to get better quality for this higher spending." Released on Thursday, the report analyzed health spending in Sweden, Australia, New Zealand, France, Canada, Germany, Norway, Japan, Switzerland, Denmark, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, as well as the United States -- the only nation among those studied that does not provide universal health care. The authors found that in 2009, the United States ranked No. 1 (followed by the Netherlands) in the proportion of its gross domestic product devoted to health care: a full 17 percent. By comparison, the other countries in the report spent 12 percent or less, with Japan ranking as the lowest spender at about 9 percent. Despite their country's spending, Americans can expect poorer access to physicians than people in other industrialized nations, with just 2.4 doctors for every 100,000 citizens. On that score, only Japan fared worse, according to the report. Other troubling indicators included the fact that Americans also have the second-worst rate of physician consultations (behind Sweden), relatively few hospital beds, fairly short hospital stays in acute-care situations and a low rate of hospital discharges. It wasn't all bad news, however. The United States is No. 1 in survival rates among breast cancer patients. It also shares the top spot (with Norway) for survival rates among colorectal cancer patients. But when it comes to both hospital and prescription drug costs, Americans are at the highest peak by far. By the time a U.S. patient is discharged from a hospital, he or she will have cost the health care system about $18,000 on average. Care for a similar Canadian patient comes to just $13,000, while in many other countries (Sweden, Australia, New Zealand, France and Germany) it dips below $10,000. When comparing the cost of the 30 most common prescription medications, the report found that Americans are paying one-third more than Canadians and Germans, and twice as much as their Australian, French, Dutch, British and New Zealand counterparts. Americans can take some solace in the report's observation that every nation in the study is battling a trend of ever-increasing health care costs. Karen Davis, president of the Commonwealth Fund, noted that recent legislative changes have the potential to help improve the financials of health care across the country. "The Affordable Care Act gives us the opportunity to build a health care system that delivers affordable, high-quality care to all Americans," Davis said in the news release. "To achieve that goal, the United States must use all of the tools provided by the law, including new methods of organizing, delivering and paying for health care, that will help to slow the growth of health care costs while improving quality." Related keywords you may be interested: Womens MBT Chapa Beige/Black

Western companies seeking to find their way into China’s largely state-run health care system face heightened risks now that the Chinese government is planning to investigate drug-procurement and medical-device tendering. The tendering and procurement process is opaque and fragmented, giving companies more headaches when they try to enter the market, experts said. It becomes a bigger problem given news that China’s government, according to recent reports, is going to start inspecting hospitals’ invoices in a bid to curb commercial bribery and money laundering during the procurement process. The problem isn’t new, though. The U.S. entered into a deferred-prosecution agreement in 2008 with medical-device firm AGA Medical Corp., fining it $2 million for paying bribes to doctors through its local Chinese distributor from 1997 to 2005 in exchange for their directing government-owned hospitals to purchase AGA products over its competitors. There’s a two-tiered system in the drug procurement process that allows for “rent-seeking behavior,” said Lizheng Shi, a professor in Tulane University’s global health and development department. The first tier, he said, is for essential medicine, mainly for primary care facilities such as community health centers. That process has been centralized. But the other part, outside the essential medicine list, involves a lot of procurement done by hospitals and large health systems, Lizheng said. Not all of the medicine is covered for reimbursement by the national insurance system, so some manufacturers might seek their way in through bribery, he said. “Outside of the essential medicine list, procurement is very, very fragmented,” Lizheng said. “Even though the price setting is regulated by the government, usually there’s an allowance for markups and some profit-seeking behaviors.” Last year, 3,030 people were punished for their roles in appropriation of government funds intended for drug procurement or other medical services, Xinhua reported last week. The deals involved 32.9 million yuan ($5.23 million). In many cases, the Xinhua report said, drug makers or sellers will bribe hospital staff into buying their products, and doctors will get kickbacks if they prescribe their drugs for patients. A similar problem exists in the medical-device industry, Lizheng said. Government tendering for medical devices in China is implemented and regulated at different levels using different standards, increasing the difficulty in monitoring the tendering process, he said. With most of China’s health-care system being run by the state, everyone from hospital employees to doctors could be considered foreign officials under the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The law bars the use of bribes to foreign officials in order to seek or keep business, and bribery is a common occurrence in both industries. “It’s difficult to get these products into the hospitals if you’re not willing to give them free samples, take them out to dinner or treat them well,” said Wendy Wysong, a partner for Clifford Chance based in Hong Kong. The U.S. Justice Department has been in the middle of sweeping probes into both the pharmaceutical and medical-device industries. For example, orthopedic manufacturer Biomet Inc. agreed in March to pay the U.S. $22 million to settle FCPA charges that the company paid more than $1.5 million in direct and indirect payments to employees of state-owned health care providers in Argentina, Brazil and China to secure lucrative business with hospitals. The company didn’t enter a guilty plea, but accepted responsibility for the allegations laid out in court documents. In many cases, companies use distributors to get access to Chinese hospitals. The distributor working for Biomet, according to a complaint filed in the case, boasted of offering to send a Chinese doctor on a trip — on the company’s dime — to Switzerland to visit his daughter. “The cases become pretty easy under the FCPA” when the conduct is that blatant, Wysong said. She said companies are trying to find other ways to convince doctors that their products are the ones to use, including a study in which medical-device companies would distribute samples directly to hospitals so it couldn’t be seen as a bribe yet they still could get the product in the door. The idea was the topic of a 2009 Justice Department Opinion Procedure Release (pdf), which said such a program wouldn’t bring about an enforcement action because it “fall[s] outside the scope of the FCPA in that the donated products will be provided to the foreign government, as opposed to individual government officials.” Related keywords you may be interested: Womens MBT Lami Black

A B.C. Supreme Court judge has given Health Canada one year to respond to his ruling that the restriction to dried marijuana in Health Canada’s Marijuana Medical Access Regulations is unconstitutional. On Friday, Justice Robert Johnston suspended his declaration for 12 months but said the suspension will not affect people authorized to use medical marijuana. On April 12, Johnston ruled that people authorized to use medical marijuana could make cannabis-infused oils, drink it in their tea or bake it into brownies and cookies — not just smoke it. Health Canada applied to the court asking for a year to respond to the ruling. “While it may seem like a simple ruling, it has anything but simple impacts and the government needs some time to figure out how to most appropriately respond,” said federal prosecutor Peter Eccles. “And that’s what the court did. They gave the government a year to respond to the ruling while protecting the rights of patients who are authorized to possess marijuana for medical purposes. The ruling, as I understood it, was never intended to extend to producers, who are a different category.” Designated producers are in the same legal position they were in prior to the ruling, said Eccles. They are not allowed to make secondary products. “Some time in the next year, this will get resolved in a legislative response,” he said. The decision arises out of a constitutional challenge by Owen Smith, the head baker for the Cannabis Buyers’ Club of Canada. Smith, 29, was charged on Dec. 3, 2009, with possession for the purpose of trafficking and unlawful possession of marijuana, two years after the manager of an apartment complex complained to police about a strong, offensive smell wafting through the building. Police obtained a search warrant and found substantial quantities of cannabis-infused olive and grapeseed oil and pot cookies. At the time Smith was charged, he was producing topical and edible cannabis-based products to be sold through the club. Smith’s trial began in January with a voir dire — a trial within a trial — on an application challenging the restrictions that allow authorized users to possess medical marijuana in dried form only. Defence lawyer Kirk Tousaw argued the laws were unconstitutional and arbitrary and did not further the government’s interests in protecting the health and safety of the public. Instead, they forced the critically and chronically ill to predominantly smoke medical marijuana, which was potentially harmful. “Even an authorized person, under Health Canada’s regime, is unable to produce cannabis butter to make cookies to eat before bed or when they get up in the morning to deal with chronic pain,” he told the court. On Friday, after Johnston suspended the order, Tousaw said he had successfully defended the rights of patients to be able to use cannabis derivative products, topicals, salves, and baked goods. “At least in B.C., those patients will be protected from criminal charges and deprivation of their liberty,” said Tousaw. “We were not successful in extending that protection, at least for the next 12 months, to designated producers, those who are producing cannabis for the medical marijuana users.” Tousaw said he hopes Health Canada will take the decision and use it to craft sensible reforms for patients that are not largely based on the concerns of law enforcement. In the meantime, Smith has been ordered to stand trial. Jury selection is scheduled for Feb. 4, 2013. “My hope is the effect of the judge’s ruling, coupled with our medical necessity defence, will convince a jury what Mr. Smith was doing was important and necessary and he ought not to be convicted of a crime for helping sick people,” said Tousaw. Related keywords you may be interested: toms classic canvas red.

A case of bedbugs — and a little motherly misunderstanding — led to a Delta plane being held on lockdown at Midway airport Thursday. Lise Sievers, 50, of Red Wing, Minn., was flying back to Chicago via Detroit from Uganda, where she was trying to adopt a special needs boy and girl. She called her mom, Sally Lansford, earlier Thursday from Detroit and told her that she personally had bedbugs, and that the ill boy she was trying to adopt had pustules. But her mom got “confused,” Sievers said, and believed Sievers was sick with postules, or pus-filled lesions. The boy and the girl Sievers is trying to adopt are still in Uganda, but Lansford, believing Sievers to be potentially contagious, called her local hospital in La Porte, Ind., and asked for advice. While the plane was en route from Detroit to Chicago, the La Porte Hospital called the Centers for Disease Control, which held the plane on the runway when it landed at Midway while officials investigated. “It’s just a case of bedbugs,” an embarrassed Sievers said after she and other passengers were eventually released at 6 p.m., a couple hours after the plane arrived. “I think I’m going to empty a jar of bedbugs on my mom’s bed tonight.” In a statement, the CDC said it had learned about a passenger “who had a rash. Since the passenger had been in Africa, a family member had reported concerns that the rash might be monkeypox. The passenger was evaluated by Chicago Emergency Medical Services. Medical staff at CDC and the Chicago Department of Public Health reviewed the case and, based on the patient’s symptoms and photographs of the rash, it does not appear that the signs and symptoms are consistent with a monkeypox infection.” Sievers and her mom both said authorities were “just following protocol” and that they were “very nice about everything.” Sievers added that she was sitting near the bathroom on the plane and that all the other passengers were looking at her once it became clear she was the cause of the delay. “You could see them thinking, ‘Is it safe to use the bathroom?’” she said. Related keywords you may be interested: toms classic canvas red.

Your feet bear the weight of your body and can become rough and calloused from normal daily use. To remove rough spots, you should take steps to protect your feet from the friction and wear that cause corns and calluses. Proper maintenance not only removes existing problems, it can prevent future corns and calluses and keep your feet soft. Consult your physician if you experience pain, itching or swelling in your feet in addition to flaking skin or cracks 1 Wear shoes and socks that fit properly. Ill-fitting footwear can rub against your feet causing corns, calluses and blisters. Wearing shoes also protects your feet from rubbing against the ground. 2 Moisturize your feet regularly. A good moisturizer will prevent calluses and rough spots from forming and, if you have rough spots, soften them for removal. 3 Wash your feet with an exfoliating scrub to remove dead skin on the surface. The exfoliating scrub will also help you remove any rough spots that have already formed. 4 Soak your feet in a mixture Related keywords you may be interested:Ash Canvas Women's Classics.

Your feet bear the weight of your body and can become rough and calloused from normal daily use. To remove rough spots, you should take steps to protect your feet from the friction and wear that cause corns and calluses. Proper maintenance not only removes existing problems, it can prevent future corns and calluses and keep your feet soft. Consult your physician if you experience pain, itching or swelling in your feet in addition to flaking skin or cracks 1 Wear shoes and socks that fit properly. Ill-fitting footwear can rub against your feet causing corns, calluses and blisters. Wearing shoes also protects your feet from rubbing against the ground. 2 Moisturize your feet regularly. A good moisturizer will prevent calluses and rough spots from forming and, if you have rough spots, soften them for removal. 3 Wash your feet with an exfoliating scrub to remove dead skin on the surface. The exfoliating scrub will also help you remove any rough spots that have already formed. 4 Soak your feet in a mixture Related keywords you may be interested:Ash Canvas Women's Classics.