Evaluation of excessive lifetime cancer risk due to natural radioactivity in the rivers sediments of Northern Pakistan

Naturally occurring radionuclides 226Ra, 232Th and 40K present in the rivers sediments of Northern Pakistan were measured using HPGe γ-ray spectrometer to evaluate the radiation health hazard indices and excess lifetime cancer risk (ELCR). Average concentrations of 226Ra, 232Th and 40K in the sediments were found to be 50.66 ± 1.29, 70.15 ± 1.45 and 531.70 ± 5.45 Bq kg−1 respectively. Radium equivalent activity (190.89 Bq kg−1), outdoor external dose (87.47 nGy h−1), indoor external dose (165.39 nGy h−1), and total average annual effective dose (0.92 mSv) were calculated. The hazard indices are higher than the world's average values. Total excess lifetime cancer risk (ELCR) was found to be 3.21 × 10−3 which is relatively higher. Numerous cancer deaths are annually reported from the Northern areas of Pakistan, which may be related to high radioactivity in the area. Keywords: Activity concentration, 226Ra, 232Th and 40K, Hunza, Gilgit and Indus Rivers, Radiation indices, Annual effective dose, Excess lifetime cancer risk (ELCR

Patterns of suicide and self-harm in Pakistan: a retrospective descriptive study protocol

Introduction Suicide is a major global public health problem. Low-income and middle-income countries contribute 78% of all suicidal deaths. Pakistan, a South Asian country, lacks official statistics on suicides at national level. Statistics on suicide are neither collected nationally nor published in the annual national morbidity and mortality surveys. Medicolegal reports on suicides and self-harm are extremely rich and important source of information but greatly underused in Pakistan. We aim to examine the patterns of suicides and self-harm retrospectively in patients who were registered with medicolegal centres (MLCs) in Karachi, during the period January 2017 to December 2021. Methods and analysis Using retrospective descriptive design, the data will be collected from the medical records maintained at the main office of the Karachi police surgeon. Data from all nine MLCs of Karachi are collated and stored at the main office of Police surgeon. Information on suicide and self-harm cases will be extracted from records of all MLCs. The data will be collected using structured proforma and it will be analysed using descriptive and inferential analysis. Ethics and dissemination The study was approved for exemption from Aga Khan University, Ethical Review Committee. The findings of the study will be disseminated by conducting seminars for healthcare professionals and stakeholders including psychiatrists, psychologists, counsellors, medicolegal officers, police surgeons, mental health nurses, general and public health physicians and policy makers. Findings will be published in local and international peer-reviewed scientific journals

Landslide environment in Pakistan after the earthquake-2005: information revisited to develop safety guidelines for minimizing future impacts

The 2005 earthquake in Pakistan engraved one of the worst natural hazards in the history of mankind.The mass destruction caused by nature in several parts of Azad Jammu Kashmir is revisited to assess the public impact. Several visits were paid to the most affected areas of the region, especially Muzaffarabad, to collect data on debris flow patterns, loss of vegetation, instability of the surface structure and buildings, impacts on social structure etc. Influences of pre-slide activities, both natural and man-made, on the pattern of landslides and triggering factors were investigated. The major landslide catastrophe that took place in Attabad in January 2010 was discussed as a case study. Attempts were made to correlate observations elsewhere with collected data, pertinent to 2005 earthquake in Pakistan with the objective of proposing safety guidelines to prevent or at least minimize such human catastrophes in the future, in the case of such an event

First steps into the landslide inventory of the Karakoram National Park using a new generation of high quality DTM

The northeastern part of Pakistan is known to be a region of extremes, where the highest reliefs of the world are and where the geology can be considered young from an orgogeny point of view. In this environment, a big multidisciplinary project, named SEED (Social, Economic and Environmental Development in the CKNP Region Project), is taken by Ev-K2-CNR project. SEED is made by several different projects, each one focused on a different theme (e.g. glaciology, meteorology, land cover) that permit to characterize, from different points of view, the new Central Karakorum National Park. One of it is focused on a better knowledge of the territory trough the analysis of the hazardous areas, important instrument to for a future rational planning. The geostatic evidences, better known as landslides, will be firstly identified using a new generation of high quality DTM (Digital Terrain Model) at a spatial resolution better than the one obtained through traditional techniques. These high quality data permit to individuate different slope morphologies and to recognize possible geostatic phenomena. The methodology will permit to identify the geostatic phenomena that will be secondarily identified on the field, only in sample areas in order to validate the tool. This permit to create the first, upgradable in real time, landslide inventory for the area of the Central Karakorum National Park

First landslide inventory in the Karakoram National Park: the Chogo Lungma glacial valley.

The northeastern part of Pakistan is known to be a region of extremes, where the highest reliefs and the longest glaciers of the world can be found. In this environment, the multidisciplinary Social, Economic and Environmental Development Project SEED, developed by Ev-K2-CNR and composed of smaller projects focusing on different themes (e.g., glaciology, meteorology, land cover) will permit the characterization, from different points of view, of the Central Karakoram National Park area. One of the themes is focused on improving the knowledge of the territory through the analysis of geological hazards; the output of the project can be an important tool for a future rational territorial planning. In fact, the project has the general aim to promote the sustainable development of the local communities of the Gilgit-Baltistan Region. In this context, an inventory of landslide bodies and a map of landslide- or rock fall-prone areas is useful to identify the areas where human settlements must be avoided and therefore it provides the stakeholders with an important updatable tool for territorial planning, as required by the new management plan for the national park, where zoning system for conservation of the ecosystem, and promotion of tourism is recommended. The project started one and half year ago mainly focusing on three different areas located inside the park areas (Fig. 1). Bagrot, Haramosh, Chogo Lungma and Biafo valleys were partially surveyed and the main landslides were identified. The field work has been used as validation tool to verify the location of landslides previously identified trough GIS techniques adapting the AHP methodology to the investigated areas. Debris flow, rotational and translational (Fig. 2) landslides and rock falls were outlined and the first cadastre for the Central Karakoram National Park was initiated. Acknowledgments This research was developed in the framework of SEED (Social Economic and Environmental Development in the CKNP Region, Northern Areas, Pakistan) Project, funded by Government of Italy and Pakistan in collaboration with Ev-K2-CNR Committee and Karakoram International University

Comparison between the tectonic movements of Mt Everest and the Nanga Parbat-Haramosh Massif.

If the Himalayas are a land of extremes from the topographical, geophysical and geological point of view (Windley 1984, 1988), the Karakorum is a land of superlative, having the highest concentration of mountains beyond 8000 m, having the longest glaciers beyond the poles, being the source of one of the longest rivers. From the geophysical point of view it contains the largest gravity anomalies (Poretti et al. 1983) and thickness of the earth crust (75 km) (Finetti et al. 1978, 1983) and the highest values of deflection of the vertical. It contains also the highest relief (4000 m from the Indus plains to the summit of Nanga Parbat). It seems also that this area is subjected to the highest uplift. This has been mentioned by many authors deriving it through indirect methods, but not yet confirmed by accurate direct observations. Owen (1981) reports 0.7 mm/year using fission-track methods. Higher values (2 mm/year) are inferred by several researchers (Zeitler 1985; Gorniz and Seeber 1981; Lyon-Caen and Molnar 1983; Ferguson 1985; Owen 1989). Finally an average value of 6-10 mm/yr is in the hypothesis of Zeitler et al. (1985) including uplift and erosion. The present study presents the preliminary results of a first survey consequent to the recent installation (2009) of GNSS network including three permanent GNSS stations between Islamabad and the northern areas of Pakistan and four points located on the Nanga Parbat-Haramosh massif. since a permanent GPS station was located near the Pyramid Laboratory at Lobuche in the Khumbu region in 1994 providing long records of data during the last 15 years; the goal of the project is to compare data obtained from Everest with the ones from Nanga Parbat in order to evaluate, not only the total uplift (if quantifiable) of the two massifs, but also the direction of the crustal movements

Attabad landslide on 4th January 2010: a pakistani disaster

Pakistan is a land of extremes where the mountains are extremely young and gravitational processes are on the agenda. On 1974 before and on 2002 after, two particularly violent earthquakes occurred in Hunza area producing tension cracks in the slope where the so called Attabad landslide happened in 2010. These tensional cracks and ruptures in a so vulnerable area remained unchanged for a long period of time until the paroxysmal moment came and the phenomena has been triggered again. The present paper focus its attention on the importance of on field monitoring technique in remote areas in order to prevent social economic disasters like the one occurred. Focus Humanitarian Assistance, Pakistan produced the first reconnaissance field assessment reports on the Active Landslide at Attabad in 2002, and subsequently in 2006 and 2007. The 1974 Hunza earthquake and the 2002 Astor valley earthquake (6.5 Richter scale) produced some tensional cracks and displacements at points of contact between a rocky and overburdened slope (scree slope) and material of colluvial nature comprised of sub-angular to sub-rounded boulders, cobbles and gravel with sand and silt matrix at Attabad. These tensional cracks and ruptures in a vulnerable area remained unchanged for a long period of time. The downward movement along the main scarp observed were about 6 to 260 cm in 2002. These cracks became wider (1- 80 cm) when the earthquake on October 8, 2005 hit the entire region. With distant aftershocks, potential amplification effects, and thunder storm rains, a slope mass began moving downward in the form of slump and debris flow two years ago. However, due to lateral movement of slope, lateral gaps in tensional cracks and wedge failure, a strong downward movement of this vulnerable, threatened area was triggered, putting locals at high potential disaster risk on 4 January 2010, at Sarat, Attabad. The Hunza river formed a landslide-dammed lake of about 10 km upstream of Sarat-Gogal Gulmit. The daily water level in this lake is continuously rising. In 1858 historically important landslides also dammed the Hunza river 35 kilometres upstream, from Salmanabad to Khabar in the Hunza region. The slide debris mass in Attabad on 4 January 2010 fell for about 1.5 kilometres (Figure 1). The movement can be divided essentially into four different phases: 1. Rock fall of large boulders from the right hydrographic side which occluded part of the riverbed, squeezing the clay deposits derived from the lake created downstream by the event of 1858. 2. The squeezed materials invested the opposite banks reaching an elevation of 2,460 m and collapsed over the previously deposited rocky material, covering it all. 3. Another rock fall, again from the right side, submerged the previous one, running through it and giving the actual shape to the deposit (Figure 1). 4. The material squeezed through a mud flow reached 0.8 km upstream and 1.2 km downstream to the dam that had been created. The colossal amount of clay deposit is due to sedimentation caused by the blockage of the Hunza river by the ancient landslide. When the dam formed, a new lake was created. The disaster affected several small settlements, mainly Sarat, Salmanabad, Attabad Bala, Payeen and Ayeenabad. Burial of villages under the debris flows and rock avalanches was followed by the lost of at least nineteen lives, with numerous persons injured or missing. Attabad, comprised of about forty-three houses, numerous cattle and thousands of fruit and timber trees, is completely buried under the landslided rubble. The Sarat and Salmanabad villages, however, had relocated due continuous landslides in the area

Landslide Susceptibility Analysis in Arandu Area Shigar Valley, CKNP (Gilgit-Baltistan- Pakistan)

The Pakistani Gilgit-Baltistan are recognised as being one of the most beautiful and interesting places in the world due to the presence of the longest glaciers and the highest reliefs. This area remained remote and inaccessible before 1965, after which began the construction of the first roads (Karakoram Highway \u2013 KKH). In 1992, the Pakistani Government delegated the responsibility for initiating a preliminary survey to outline the borders of the Central Karakoram National Park (CKNP). These surveys resulted in the preliminary outline of the CKNP area (about 3.000 km2), in which the major mountain massifs (as Mt. K2), watersheds, and glaciers were included. Since then, several proposals followed. With the aim of preserving this natural beauty for future generations as well as providing the CKNP of a Management Plan, a 5-year multidisciplinary project called SEED (Social, Economic, Environmental Development) started. One of the project\u2019s objectives was the analysis of the landslide geohazards aiming at the implementation of a landslide inventory and the realization of a susceptibility map. The Arandu village, which is part of Shigar valley, where the Chogolungma glacier is, was chosen as test area. During the summer survey had in 2012, part of the landslide-prone areas, previously identified through DEM analysis (derived from ASTER and Remote Sensing (RS) images) and GIS techniques were identified validating the obtained maps. The Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) was used to extract the factor weights in a pairwise comparison matrix. Frequency ratio (FR) method was adopted to drive each class weight. The Weighted linear combination was used in the end to determine the landslide susceptibility index value (LSI)

Comparison between the tectonic movements of Nanga Parbat- Haramosh Massif and Mt. Everest

The initial results obtained by an international research project named 'Monitoring of the horizontal movements of the Nanga Parbat Haramosh Massif', funded by the Italian Ministries of Culture and Foreign Affairs through the Ev-K2-CNR Committee, concerning the Karakoram \u2013 Himalaya mountain ranges in the north eastern part of Pakistan. The purpose of the study is to determine the horizontal shift of the Nanga Parbat Massif and to compare it with the results obtained from a permanent GNSS station located at the Ev-K2-CNR Pyramid laboratory near the Mount Everest Base Camp. The determination of plates and arcs movements through surface GNSS systems could be a solid contribution to the structural geologists to conirm or deny some theories on the tectonic movements of the Himalayan mountain ranges. The project started in April 2009 and to obtain reliable quantitative results it should go on for at least 10 years. To arrive at the irst measure, the project, in its starting phase, went into three different steps: (1) the choice of the measuring points; (2) the monumenting of the benchmarks; and (3) the irst measure in November 2009. At the present time a irst measure has been realized on solid monuments net; in the following years results will be available for future researches