The consequences of electronic media
December 10, 2019My father used to tell me, repeatedly and emphatically, that too much television watching will rot your brain. What study documented this, and how this process occurred, these were all very mysterious questions. You did not interrogate my father, so I am uncertain as to how this decision, to limit viewing, was reached. Regardless, he, like many parents then and today, tightly controlled our tv watching time.
Was this an appropriate “request”? Why is this so important to some parents? What evidence exists giving us facts about the hazards of “tube time”? There are many questions but, predictably, few answers. Studying something like television, as well as the many forms of digital media, something so varied, so pervasive, something so much a part of our culture, that is an incredibly difficult task. Despite the importance of these questions, the effects of excessive gaming and television, few good long term studies have been conducted
See more at : https://www.miningjournal.net/life/tuesday-health/2019/12/the-consequences-of-electronic-media/
Electronic devices ‘need to use recycled plastic’
October 24, 2019Plastic in waste electronics (e-waste) is an environmental time bomb that has been overlooked, say campaigners.
Plastic accounts for about 20% of the 50 million tonnes of e-waste produced each year, which is expected to more than double to 110m tonnes by 2050.
A UN-supported campaign is calling on consumers to favour electronic devices that use recovered plastic.
The PolyCE campaign, funded by the European Commission, also calls on manufacturers to use less plastic.
Drowning in plastic
“The amount of e-waste increasing annually is tremendous,” warned Ruediger Kuehr, director of the Sustainable Cycles Programme at the United Nations University.
“At the moment, we are generating roughly 50 million tonnes per year globally, and it is expected that it will reach 110 million tonnes in 2050 if we do not change our existing business and consumption practices.”
Image copyrightGETTY IMAGESDr Kuehr explained that, currently, most of the plastic in electronic devices was not designed for recovery or recycling. As a result, it ended up untreated in landfill sites.
“That means, if we were confronted with a long line of trucks fully loaded with the plastic from e-waste, there would be more than 62,000 trucks stretching from Rome to Frankfurt,” he told BBC News.
“What is astonishing in all of this is that the recovery rate is so low. We can do substantially better.”
One driver for the unprecedented growth in e-waste includes the notion of “leap-frog” technology.
This may involve parts of the world going straight to communicating and working on mobile networks (in some cases straight to 5G).
In this way, they skip the extensive and costly infrastructure associated with landline infrastructure.
This means that more than half of the world’s population now have access to the internet or a mobile phone.
This means that there has been an explosion in the volume of demand for electronic devices, such as laptops, tablets and mobile phones.
Also, the amount of time before someone replaced their device with a newer model has fallen in recent years.
All of this is driving up the annual volume of e-waste.
The health hazards of the unregulated disposal sites of e-waste in regions of Africa and Asia have been well documented.
We also have a good understanding of the risks to people involved in the unregulated recycling of e-waste components.
For example, mercury poisoning is a serious risk to those who use soldering irons to free electronic components.
Thinking less, acting more
While there is a growing awareness of the threats posed by plastic waste in general, little or no attention is placed on the impact of the waste plastic from the millions of disposed electronic devices around the world.
“Firstly and foremost, we want to raise awareness among consumers on the benefits of recycled plastics in electronics,” explained Violeta Nikolova from PolyCE (Post-Consumer High-tech Recycled Polymers for a Circular Economy).
“We would also like consumers to start thinking more about the components of products, in the same way they’re looking into appearance or design quality,” she told BBC News.
The project’s campaign is scheduled to run for two years until 2021.
While plastics are essential for making many different components of electronic and electrical products, industry experts in the PolyCE consortium’s network said products can be designed in ways that make material recovery of plastic components easier.
Ms Nikolova added: “It is the beginning of this conversation. We are aware that it’s not going to have immediate results but it would perhaps be the beginning of something that will that will create momentum.”
Source : BBC (https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-50046859)
India e-cigarettes: Ban announced to prevent youth ‘epidemic’
September 27, 2019An executive order had been approved banning vaping products because of their impact on young people, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said.
It is not clear if the order will also prohibit the use of vaping equipment.
India has more than 100 million adult smokers, making it a huge potential market for e-cigarette companies.
Vaping – which involves inhaling a mix typically made of nicotine, water, solvents and flavours – is seen as an alternative to smoking which can help you quit, but its impact on health is still not fully known.
The ban will include jail terms of up to three years for offenders. Traditional tobacco products are not affected.
“This means the production, manufacturing, import and export, sale, distribution and advertising related to e-cigarettes are banned,” Ms Sitharaman told a news conference.
She said evidence from the US and India suggested some young people saw vaping as a “style statement”.
India is the world’s second-largest consumer of tobacco products after China, and more than 900,000 people die in the country each year from tobacco-related illnesses.
Proponents of vaping say it helps people stop smoking and that banning it would encourage ex-smokers to pick up the habit again.
But India’s health ministry, which proposed the ban, says it is in the public interest to ensure vaping doesn’t become an “epidemic” among young people.
While the Indian market seemed ripe for the expansion of popular e-cigarette companies like Juul, it hadn’t taken off like it has in the US or the UK.
Vapers in the US, UK and France spent more than $10bn (£8bn) on smokeless tobacco and vaping products in 2018.
According to the World Health Organization, there has been a small but steady decrease in the estimated number of smokers globally, to just over one billion.
But it’s a different matter when it comes to vaping.
The number of vapers has been increasing rapidly – from about seven million in 2011 to 41 million in 2018.
Market research group Euromonitor estimates that the number of adults who vape will reach almost 55 million by 2021.
In the US, where the potential health risks of e-cigarettes are in the spotlight, there have been 450 reported cases of lung illness tired to vaping this year. There have also been at least six deaths across 33 states.
Health investigators in the US are trying to establish whether a particular toxin or substance is behind the outbreak, or whether it’s the result of heavy usage.
India’s ban came a day after New York became the second US state to prohibit the use of flavoured e-cigarettes. Critics of vaping say flavours appeal particularly to children and risk them becoming addicted to nicotine.
E-Cigarette harmful for women during pregnancy, Know the side-effects
September 9, 2019
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In fact, these days a large number of young and pregnant women are considering e-cigarettes as safe and are using e-cigarettes as an alternative to smoking. E-cigarettes are popular in men as well as women. But women have no idea about the impact of fertility and pregnancy on them. “We found in our study that if e-cigarettes are used prior to conception, fertilized embryos have late implantation in the uterus, which reduces fertility,” said Kathleen Caroon, lead author of the study at the University of North Carolina.
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Apart from this, it was also found in the study that if a woman uses e-cigarette during pregnancy, it also affects the growth, metabolism and long term health of the child. This study has been published in the Journal of Endocrine Society. Rats were used in this study to know the effect of e-cigarettes. That is, the e-cigarette is very dangerous for women.
Know how e-cigarette affect heart
September 9, 2019
Nowadays the craze of e-cigarette has increased significantly among cigarette lovers. Today’s youth believe that e-cigarettes are less harmful than other cigarettes. If you think the same way, let me tell you that this is not the case at all. It is as dangerous as a normal cigarette. A research has revealed that e-cigarettes contain the same toxic chemical substances found in tobacco smoke. This disrupts the anti-bacterial defense mechanism of the lungs. Therefore, it is very important to be banned.
What is an e-cigarette
An e-cigarette is a type of electronic inhaler filled with nicotine and other chemical liquid. This inhaler converts this liquid into steam using the energy of the battery, which makes the drinker feel like smoking cigarettes. ENDS are devices that are used to heat an solution to make aerosols, which also have different flavors. But the liquid used in e-cigarettes is sometimes nicotine and many times even more dangerous chemicals. In addition, some brands use formaldehyde in e-cigarettes, which are extremely dangerous and carcinogenic.
Serious heart problems
Doctors say that nicotine used in e-cigarettes is a narcotic, so the drinker gets addicted to it. Its addiction occurs in a short time. If after a few days of use, if the drinker stops drinking it, then he starts feeling restless. Giving information, the doctors said, since e-cigarettes do not use tobacco like normal cigarettes, people consider it safe. But it can be fatal for the heart.
Medical experts have demanded the new government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to stop the addiction of electronic cigarettes (electronic cigarette), which is spreading rapidly among children and youth. On this subject, doctors say that the misconception has been spread in society that e-cigarettes are less harmful than tobacco-containing cigarettes. Due to this misconception, its trend is increasing among the youth. This is the reason that addiction to e-cigarette smoking is increasing rapidly in children and young people, while all studies and research have proved that e-cigarette is as harmful as normal cigarette.
Sales restricted in 36 countries
Experts say that in the 12 states of the country, including Punjab, Karnataka, Kerala, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Puducherry, Jharkhand and Mizoram have banned e-cigarettes. The sale of e-cigarettes is also banned in 36 countries worldwide.
Source : https://english.newstracklive.com/news/e-cigarette-harmful-for-health-ban-campaign-mc23-nu-1034096-1.html?fbclid=iwar2miplegwe1ssp_wyptlag8x20dwmfwxp5sqesinyjrxhiapdd_xfdahxs
