Stewart Petrie reports from Ventura Beach

The 60th Annual education symposium of the California Environmental Health Association took place in Ventura Beach this month. A varied programme saw excellent attendance with over 456 attendees. The requirement for continuing education credits may well have had something to do with this.

Keynote speakers each morning fired delegates up for the day. Dr Chuck Wall inspired with stories of ‘irrational acts of kindness’ in typically amusing and self- deprecating style. Jason MacDonald left his native Canada to enjoy the balmier weather of California. He described his African experiences in ‘Notes from the roof of the world.’ The packed programme included climate change,pool safety, lead in housing, drinking water and food hygiene.

The social networking was also well-organised and busy. A harbour cruise, Hollywood themed banquet and Mexican buffet were the more formal manifestations of this. But the bar, coffee shop and courtyards were filled with people discussing all manner of things to do with environmental and public health, from Africa to Ecuador, Alaska to Mexico. Western Exterminator, a pest control company, were even dispensing edible salt and vinegar flavoured fried crickets.

Doug Turner, a stalwart of CEHA,was attending his 48th consecutive AES. His 49th opportunity will be in April 2012 in Sacramento.

News digest India

Chain reaction

Learning lessons from the Fukushima nuclear accident, Indian nuclear power stations may soon have arrangements to bring extra water to reactors in case of emergency overheating. New technology would ensure automatic shutdown of reactors on sensing seismic activity and additional shore protection would be installed at Madras and Tarapur. Extra hook-up points to fetch water would be created for spent fuel pools at six older reactors at Tarapur, Rajasthan and Madras. These are the outcomes of the Nuclear Power Corporation of India’s safety review, undertaken after Fukushima at the behest of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Deccan Herald, April 13 2011

Nuclear bond

Kazakhstan has announced it will supply 2,100 tonnes of uranium to India’s nuclear plants by 2014 as India plans a fivefold increase in energy production in the near future. The two nations have been co-operating in civilian nuclear power since January 2009, when Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd and Kazakh firm KazAtomProm signed a Memorandum of Understanding during Kazakh PM Nursultan Nazarbaev’s India visit. Under the contract, KazAtomProm supplies uranium to Indian nuclear reactors. Kazakhstan has already supplied 200 tonnes of uranium to India. India is exploring possibilities for joint uranium exploration in Kazakhstan.

Industrial Fuels and Power, April 18 2011

Superbug shrug

The Indian government misleadingly claimed drug-resistant bacteria in water from Delhi posed no threat to public health, Indian and British microbiologists said. The scientists said officials had disregarded studies revealing emergence of similar bacteria in India over five years ago. British microbiologists last week reported finding bacteria with the New Delhi metallo-beta lactamase (NDM1) gene, which makes them resistant to carbapenems, last resort antibiotics. Senior Indian officials claimed discovery of NDM1 bacteria in water did not reflect patterns of drug resistance, and carbapenem resistance was not a serious problem. ‘Indian health officials are being incredibly and dangerously complacent,’said Mark Toleman, microbiologist at Cardiff University and co-author of the study, published in Lancet Infectious Diseases.

Calcutta Telegraph, April 17 2011

Download to get original article