Glyphosate Poisoning with Acute Fulminant Hepatic Failure

Background: Glyphosate containing herbicides are widely used the world over. They are marketed as nontoxic to humans, but numerous studies have showed that these glyphosate-based herbicides (GlySH) can cause multiorgan damage.1 Recent reports of animal studies on rats have raised a doubt of liver damage after long term exposure to GlySH. Case Presentation: a young male had chronic exposure to Glyphosate for 5 years in the form of spraying GlySH in farm and eating cereals sprayed with GlySH. He developed fulminant liver failure after accidental consumption of glyphosate containing herbicide. His liver function deteriorated in spite of supportive treatment. He developed hepatorenal syndrome later and died. Discussion: Studies done on rats have showed that chronic consumption of extremely low levels of a GlySH formulation (Roundup), at admissible glyphosate-equivalent concentrations, is associated with marked alterations of the liver proteome and metabolome.2 It has been reported that chronic exposure to Glyphosate of more than 5 years’ duration due to consumption of food grains sprayed with this herbicide or inhalation of particles results in development of Fatty Liver, i.e., non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. Any acute insult can result in decompensation and development of fulminant liver failure. Although this herbicide is relatively safe, other complications like Acute renal failure, Acute pulmonary edema with respiratory distress and shock can also occur. Conclusion: Chronic as well as acute exposure to GlySH can lead to NAFLD and fulminant liver failure. As there is no antidote to glyphosate, clinicians must depend only on intensive supportive management which might not always be fruitful as in our case. It is important to be aware of systemic complications of this commonly used herbicide so that appropriate preventive measures can be taken

Isolation of polyvinyl chloride degrading bacterial strains from environmental samples using enrichment culture technique

Plastic causes serious damage to the environment, both during its production and disposal. Biodegradation of plastic waste using microbial strain could offer a solution to the problem. Microorganisms have been a good resource for solution to this problem due to their diverse metabolic capability, adaptability to different environment and possibility of isolation using artificial growth media for utilization in situ. In the present investigation, potent microbial strains degrading plastic constituting polymer polyvinyl chloride (PVC) were isolated using enrichment culture technique. To increase the chances of isolating such strain which could have adapted to metabolize plastic constituting polymers, samples were collected from different environmental sites that were rich in plastic waste. These samples were used as a source of microbial culture for enrichment of potential PVC degraders. After then, some bacterial species were subsequently isolated on solid agar medium containing emulsified PVC polymer. The strain PVC 4 characterized as Micrococcus species was found to be more efficient among the other isolates and was chosen for further studies. The biodegradability of PVC by Micrococcus species with PVC as a sole carbon source was determined by their ability to release chloride from PVC polymer, increase their cell density in test media, carbon dioxide production and growth on the surface of PVC film in plate assay. The Micrococcus species showed 0.36% release of chloride and 8.87% mineralization measured in terms of carbon dioxide evolution respectively over a period of 70 days in PVC containing media. The increase in cell density in liquid growth media constituting PVC polymer as a sole source of carbon and growth of cells on the surface of PVC film further substantiate the potential of isolated strain for PVC utilization.Keywords: Polyvinyl chloride, biodegradation, Micrococcus species, enrichment cultur

Social Security Code 2020: An Analysis

The Indian labour market has beencontinuously and predominantly unorganised. In theyear 2018-19,the nature of employment for around 90 percent workers in India’s labour market was unorganised. These workers are either inadequately covered or are not at all covered under  existing labour legislations, social protection schemes, and other employment benefits. Due to the lack of governmental oversight, a large proportion of these workers work in exploitative and precarious conditions. According to International Trade Union Confederation, India is amongst the Ten worst countries in the world in terms of the worker rights in 2020 (ITUC, 2020). The first Sustainable Development Goal, seeks to end the poverty, and among its targets isformulation of national social protection floors, and the implementation of comprehensive social welfare programmes.Similarly, the ILO Recommendation 204 suggests the implementation of minimum social security guarantees to facilitate the transition from an informal to a formal economy. In the context of the widespread chronic poverty and the unrelenting wealth inequality, the social security can offer resilience against socio-economic shocks, such as the one we are faced with today because of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. In this context, it is attempted to analyse the provisions of  the Social Security Code,2020 to verify the extent and scope of the Code and to understand its limitationsof the Code in providing comprehensive social security measures to ameliorate the conditions of poor and needy. &nbsp

Role of intrapartum amnioinfusion in meconium-stained amniotic fluid: A case-control study

Background: Intrapartum amnioinfusion in meconium-stained amniotic fluid has been known to dilute the meconium and prevent meconium aspiration syndrome (MAS). However, the literature available on intrapartum amnioinfusion is varying. Objective: To assess the neonatal outcomes following intrapartum transcervical amnioinfusion in full-term pregnant women. Methods: This case-control study included pregnant women in active labor, divided into case group (n=63) receiving amnioinfusion and control group (n=63) without amnioinfusion. In the case group, 500 mL of warm, normal saline was infused into the uterine cavity. Both groups were compared for liquor quality, mode of delivery, and neonatal outcomes like APGAR score, resuscitation, meconium presence, MAS, neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) admission, and length of NICU stay. Chi-square test was used to analyze the difference between cases and controls. Results: Mode of delivery was spontaneous vaginal delivery in most cases (71%), with only 19% undergoing cesarean section. APGAR score at 1 min was >7 in cases compared to controls, which was significant (12.69% vs 0%, P=0.005). Resuscitation was required less in cases than controls (9.52% vs 50.79%, P<0.001). Presence of meconium below the vocal cord was more in controls (34.92% vs 4.76%, P=0.003). MAS was observed more in controls (26.98% vs 4.76%, P<0.001

Engaging youth in anti-tobacco awareness campaigns in India

Background and challenges to implementation Tobacco use among school children is a serious problem in India. Lack of proper guidance, urge to imitate elders, peer pressure, misconceptions, easy availability of variety of tobacco products and innovative advertisements attract the children to tobacco. Salaam Bombay Foundation (SBF), under its leadership program conducts tobacco control awareness campaigns engaging the school children. Intervention or response Since 2006 Salaam Bombay Foundation has launched various long term tobacco control awareness campaigns engaging the youth. The accompanying table has detailed information on the year/date of launch of awareness campaigns with their objectives and modes of implementation. Launch of Campaign Objective Implementation Quit Tobacco Movement (2008) Launched in 2008, it is implemented every year in the schools having SBF's Super Army Leadership Program To promote freedom from tobacco Inspired by the Quit India Movement Used freedom struggle imagery to promote freedom from tobacco. Street plays, rallies, poster exhibitions at railway stations and public places. Life Se Panga Mat Le Yaar (2011) This campaign was launched involving a celebrity from Indian film industry to get the attention of youth on the important issue of tobacco and its harmful effects. The campaign had a long term impact due to media coverage. To counteract positive images of tobacco in popular cinema. Launched using a celebrity ambassador Street plays, rallies at public places. Audience engagement through radio, social media. Election Campaign (2014) This campaign was done during the parliamentary elections in India in 2014. The similar campaign will be conducted during the state and municipal elections to create awareness on tobacco To encourage people to stop using tobacco as part of New Year's resolution. The students took on the role of campaigners and voters for a hypothetically created "Tambakhu Mukta Party". Automated voting machine was created to showcase various voting options to choose from various tobacco products. ''Tambakhu Ko Dhishum'' (2015) It is a long term online campaign which makes the use of social media like Facebook where photographs clicked by children are posted on a continuous basis. To collect cases of violation of COTPA 2003 act Online campaign launched on 'World No Tobacco Day 2015' with NGOs in Mumbai. The campaign monitored the violations of the act related to sale and promotion of tobacco products. [Tobacco Control Campaigns of SBF] Results and lessons learnt Quit Tobacco Movement campaign in now extended to every school to advocate for quitting consumption of tobacco among children, communities etc. 'Life Se Panga Mat Le Yaar' campaign reached out to 165,000 to 227,000 people through radio stations and got 2,581 youtube views. It also earned print media attention in Times of India and Hindustan Times. In 'Election Campaign' program 692 children from three municipal schools in Mumbai participated. 2290 campaign slogans were collected from participating schools. "Tambakhu ko Dishum" was an innovative online campaign to create awareness on tobacco which grabbed the attention of youth as well as media. After submission of demand charter during "Right to Tobacco Free School", government authorities discussed it with children and assured that official letters would be sent to all the schools in Mumbai to fulfill all the demands mentioned in demand charter. Conclusions and key recommendations Engagement of empowered youth in the tobacco awareness campaigns helps to create awareness on tobacco control among their peers, community. Such campaigns involving youth will prove beneficial in reducing the tobacco habits in future generations of India. But, the effectiveness of the campaigns rests in utilizing energy and innovative minds of youth appropriately

Prevalence and patterns of use of smokeless tobacco in Mumbai schools

Background Smokeless tobacco use among children is a serious problem in India. Smokeless tobacco products like gutkha, khaini, mawa and misheri and surrogate products like 'supari', 'pan masala' are commonly used by children in Mumbai. Maharashtra state government has banned the manufacture, storage, and sale of such products in the state. Salaam Bombay Foundation conducted a survey in 2014 in Mumbai schools to study the prevalence and patterns of use of tobacco products among children. Methods A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 1558 students of 7 th , 8 th and 9 th grades in 50 randomly selected government schools. Students were asked about smokeless tobacco use, perceptions of harm associated with these products and family use of tobacco products. The results were analyzed using SPSS. Results Mava 2.8% (n=44) was the most commonly reported form of smokeless tobacco ever used by students followed by mishri 2.2% (n=34), gutkha 1.9% (n=30) and khaini 1.2% (n=19). Male students were more likely to report both current and ever use of smokeless tobacco compared to female students (p=0.03). (71.9%, n=1120) students reported gutkha harmful to health. Students who used smokeless tobacco were significantly less likely to believe that smokeless tobacco are harmful (p=0.01). Students who used surrogate tobacco products (supari, pan masala) were more likely to report using smokeless tobacco products than their peers (supari: OR=0.2,95%CI=0.1-0.3) pan masala (OR=0.07,95%CI=0.04-0.09). Students whose fathers used gutkha were more likely to report using gutkha (OR=2.8,95% CI=1.2-6.2) compared to their peers. Conclusions Despite the ban, gutkha continues to be used by students in Mumbai schools along with other smokeless tobacco products like mava, mishri and khaini. Proposed efforts to enforce the ban and increase health warnings on tobacco packages in India should be supported to boost awareness of the health effects of these related products. School-based programs targeting kids should consider involving parents in campaigns

Building capacity for tobacco-free schools in rural Maharashtra: the Salaam Mumbai model

Background and challenges to implementation Tobacco is a significant public health risk faced by youth in rural India. In rural Maharashtra, up to 45.4% of youth use tobacco. India's tobacco control law, the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act (2003) prohibits the sale of tobacco within 100 yards of school grounds. Still, sale of tobacco is commonly seen around schools across the state. Intervention or response In 2008, Salaam Mumbai Foundation (SMF) began a tobacco-free schools initiative in rural Maharashtra. Awareness meetings were held with the Direct of State Education and District Education Officers to build motivation to promote the tobacco-free schools programme. District-level workshops were held with Master Trainers for the Education Ministry. Master Trainers included training on tobacco-free schools as part of their regular training curriculum. Once trained, teachers conducted tobacco control initiatives with students. SMF rewards schools for reaching levels of compliance with the 11 criteria created in accordance with an education board. Bronze-level awards are given to schools reaching 4 criteria, silver-level awards to schools reaching 8 criteria and Gold-level awards to school reaching all 11 criteria. Results and lessons learnt Yavatmal district has 2,137 government run schools. In 2016-17 all these schools attained the tobacco free status by fulfilling all 11 criteria. Celebrating 31 st December 2015 as 'Tobacco Free Life Resolution Day' 406,384 people at 2,109 Government run schools across Yavatmal took the oath for Tobacco Free Life. This has been recorded in the 'Limca book of Records' in 2016. Conclusions and key recommendations Using the existing infrastructure, Maharashtra's rural teacher training programme has been a successful and efficient strategy to make schools in the state tobacco free. Using a graded system to reward schools provides an incentive for schools to expand compliance and serves as a useful tool for measuring increases in compliance over time. Maharashtra State Government recognized SMF's work and felicitated the organization with Mahatma Gandhi Vyasanmukti Award

Capacity building for female community health workers - an effective tool for tobacco control and empowerment

Background and challenges to implementation Tobacco is a significant public health concern in rural India. In Maharashtra, India's second largest state, 31.4% of adults report tobacco use (Global Adult Tobacco Survey India, 2009). In villages, tobacco use is endemic. Smokeless tobacco use is engrained in social and cultural norms. At the same time, poor rural health care infrastructure poses challenge to diagnosis and treatment of tobacco-related diseases. Intervention or response Under rural initiative 'Salaam Mumbai Foundation' (SMF) started by Salaam Bombay Foundation (SBF) in 2007, initial needs assessment was conducted in nine villages across Chandrapur district in Eastern Maharashtra. This assessment reported 45% of all villagers using tobacco which also included two years old children. After needs assessment, SBF initiated capacity building sessions with 60 female community health workers known as "sakhis" to empower them to become the primary implementers of tobacco control in villages they serve. Capacity building activities included sensitization workshops covering tobacco's harmful health effects, existing tobacco legislation; follow up sessions to assess progress, and specific guidance to address tobacco control issues in villages. Results and lessons learnt 60 trained female community health workers implemented various tobacco control activities at village level using methods like songs, street plays, puppet shows, anti-tobacco rallies, and incorporated anti-tobacco messages into their other health activities. Through these activities they reached to 28,000 residents in 60 villages. An evaluation conducted one year after the program revealed that awareness on harmful effects of tobacco use increased up to 90% among the residents of intervention villages and tobacco consumption had reduced. Conclusions and key recommendations Community health workers are uniquely situated to implement tobacco control programmes due to their access to community members, their role as trusted sources for health information, and
their ability to understand the unique issues faced in their communities. Hence, they can be trained to implement tobacco control activities in villages and work with all the stakeholders

Eagilla: An Enhanced Mobile Agent Middleware for Wireless Sensor Networks

Agilla is the most common mobile agent middleware to facilitate adaptive applications in WSN. But due to lack of bandwidth and energy level in agilla, it is restricted to local tuples. This article presents eagilla, a middleware to support remote level multicasting wireless sensor networks. Eagilla organizes multicasting communication in different tuples, integrating mobile agents to the network for sensing data and to regulate the data to organize global communication. Eagilla model comes up with a hybrid multi-layered architecture to reduce the complexity and to support interoperability, heterogeneity in WSN. Eagilla provides non-functional requirements such as Qos, scalability, flexibility and reliability. The effectiveness of eagilla middleware is proved by conducting experiments in a professional environment. Keywords: Agilla, Middleware, Wireless sensor networks, Agent