Climate and health

Sir,

Both climate and wealth have a powerful impact on human life and health. The extremes of weather over a long period or a short period of time can extremely affect health of the people. The poor people are much more vulnerable to the health hazards because of variability in climate than rich ones. The deaths which occur world wide as a result of natural disaster are in poor countries. Heat waves can cause heat related illness and death. In cities stagnant weather conditions can trap both warm air and air pollutants.

Climate plays an important role in vector borne diseases. A major cause of illness & death in trophical countries-transmitted by insects such as mosquitoes, ticks and sandflies. Malaria transmission' is particularly sensitive to weather and climate. Unusual weather conditions, for example a heavy downpour can greatly' increase the mosquito population and trigger an epidemic. This is what happened in the Wazir district of Kenya in 1998.

The average temperature in many regions has been increasing in recent decades. Many areas have experienced increase in rainfull. In some regions the frequency and intensity of drought have been observed to increase in recent decades. Human societies are very vulnerable to climate extremes (droughts, floods and storms).

A changing climate would entail changes in the frequency & intensity of such extremes. This is a major concern for human health. To a large extent, public health depends on safe drinking water, sufficient food, secure shelter and also in good social conditions. All these factors can be affected by climate change.

Therefore, it becomes imperative for the Governments both State as well as Central to take measures so that these basic amenities are provided to the people.

Yours etc...
S N Raina
H.No. 5/12
Swaran Vihar
Jammu.

Ban on religious symbols

Sir,

May I through your esteemed newspaper, impress upon all the Hindu religious associations, preaches, leads and persons who matter on the religious side, to come up with a ban, that is, a total ban on the publication of photographs of the revered Hindu Gods and Goddesses in the newspapers and other magazines/periodical, except the religious ones, so that complete respect, faith and obeisance is accorded to them. It is seen that during the festive days and otherwise also the newspaper and periodicals carry the photographs of a God or Goddess in one form or the other, which is derogatory in the sense, that once the newspaper, periodical is read it is either sold to the scrap-vendor or made use of in other manners unethically thus derogating the photograph, the image of the God or Goddess printed in the newspaper and the very massage it carries for the believers. Religion should be taken to the personal, confined to the home and the temple and not white washed in this manner to be derogated later.

Yours etc..
B B Singh
Advocate
Jammu