Top
AIChE Annual Meeting in Philadelphia, USA, during November 16 – 21, 2008 , on the Development of Chemical Engineering Curricula for the coming decades
IIChE - AIChE joint symposium was held on November 16-21, 2008 , in Philadelphia , USA , which has gone very well. It was a great success. About 4800 delegates and 1600 students participated in this programme. It was recorded as the highest meeting participation in the history of AIChE.
Dr Ganeshan, President, IIChE, Chaired the Session. Prof D Bhattacharyya, University Alumni Professor, Dept. of Chemical and Materials Engineering, University of Kentucky , USA , Co-chaired the session. Among the other participants from IIChE were Prof G D Yadav, Past President, IIChE ; Prof P Ray, Dept of Chemical Engineering, Calcutta University ; Prof Ramkrishna of Purdue and Prof J Modak of IISc, Bangalore. Everybody from IIChE made a highly informative and excellent presentation.
IIChE would like to continue cooperation with AIChE in various technical areas in future.
Top
Awareness of toxicology must for public: Experts say
For a society bombarded with various forms of poisons in the air, food and water, a set of precautions can go a long way in preventing complications, which sometimes result in death, P Chandra Sekharan, President, Forensic International, Bangalore, said.
Delivering the ‘Dr C R Krishnamurthi Endowment Lecture, hosted by the Madras Science Foundation, Mr Chandra Sekharan called for better toxicology awareness among the public, as anything in excess – whether it was alcohol, paracetamol tables, coffee or even water – could have fatal consequences.
In a part-scientific, part-instructional talk, the forensic expert illustrated as an example the avoidable phenomenon of “well deaths” (persons entering unused wells die of asphyxia). This was because sedimentation of carbon-di-oxide, which is heavier than air, creates a critical depletion of oxygen with fatal results. According to Mr Chandra Sekharan, the Centre could in one stroke eliminate carbon monoxide poisoning if it advocated natural gas as a replacement for coal gas. Taking a cue from some countries, a few States such as Delhi had initiated the phase-out of carbon monoxide.
Among all substances classified as poisons, alcohol was the most ruinous and accounted for more deaths owing to direct toxic action than all the other poisons put together, he said.
Methyl alcohol, often laced in illicit brew, was a regular killer during festival seasons, Mr Chandra Sekharan said. The antidote for people developing bouts of nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain on consuming hooch was to administer regular liquor (ethyl alcohol) in small doses at intervals. A strict no-no was taking in paracetamol along with alcohol.
Toxicology, in a nutshell, is the study of the relationship between dose and its effects. However, new forensic thinking does not attach too much weightage to the dose as the single most important determinant of poisoning. “Dose does make the poison, but so do other factors, such as concentration of the chemical and the threshold required to exert a particular effect.” The interplay between dose and this set of factors was considered key to each exposure scenario, he said. Mr Chandra Sekharan urged more youngsters to take up specializations in toxicology, ranging from ecotoxicology to environmental toxicology.
V Mohan, diabetologist and President of the Madras Science Foundation, paid tributes to Dr Krishnamurthi, environmental scientist, in whose honour the endowment was organized.
Courtesy: The Hindu, Chennai, 5 th November 2008.
Top
French company offers to sell nuclear reactor
French nuclear power company Areva has offered to sell its next generation Duropean Pressurised Reactor (EPR) of 1600 MWe to India.
The company is presently installing this technology for setting up a nuclear reactor in Finland and is also looking at the Chinese market.
Union Minister of State for Power Jairam Ramesh said that Areav CEO Anne Louvergeon recently held talks with the Atomic Energy Department and the Power Ministry. “I along with Atomic Energy Commission Chairman anil Kakodkar held talks with Ms Louvergeon in Mumbai and she offered India the next generation EPRs. There will be further talks on the issue and a decision would be taken accordingly,” he added.
Mr Ramesh said Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd. (NPCIL) officials had already held talks with the Areva representatives and even the public sector Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) was in touch with the French company for technology tie-up with a long-term perspective.
The visit by the Areav representative is the result of the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to France last month. He had held talks with his French counterpart for civil nuclear cooperation in the light of the passage of the India-US nuclear deal and the go-ahead given to India by the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG).
The biggest reactor working in India is the 540 MWe model that debuted in Tarapur, Maharashtra, a couple of years ago. All other domestic reactors are of 235 MWe capacity or smaller. Although the talks are at a preliminary stage, the understanding is that Areav, majority of whose shares are owned by the Government, and the one that has built the 56 nuclear power reactors working in France, will supply equipment for the four reactors and that the NPCIL is setting up a Jaitapur in Maharashtra. The French officials have already inspected the site.
Courtesy: The Hindu, Chennai, 5 th November 2008.
Top
|
Home
Contact
