What's lurking in your granite countertop?
By KATE MURPHY
THE NEW YORK TIMES
August 03, 2008
Shortly before Dr. Lynn Sugarman of Teaneck, N.J., bought her summer home in Lake George, N.Y., two years ago, a routine inspection revealed it had elevated levels of radon, a radioactive gas that can cause lung cancer. So she called a radon measurement and mitigation technician to find the source. “He went from room to room,” says Sugarman, a pediatrician. But he stopped in his tracks in the kitchen, which had richly grained cream, brown and burgundy granite countertops. His Geiger counter indicated that the granite was emitting radiation at levels 10 times higher than those he had measured elsewhere in the house.
When the technician told her to keep her daughter several feet from the countertops just to be safe, she says, “I had them ripped out that very day,” and sent to the state Department of Health for analysis. The granite, it turned out, contained high levels of uranium, which is not only radioactive but releases radon gas as it decays. “The health risk to me and my family was probably small,” Sugarman says, “but I felt it was an unnecessary risk.”
As the popularity of granite countertops has grown in the last decade — demand for them has increased tenfold, according to the Marble Institute of America, a trade group representing granite fabricators — so have the types of granite available. For example, one source, Graniteland (graniteland.com) offers more than 900 kinds of granite from 63 countries. And with increased sales volume and variety, there have been more reports of “hot” or potentially hazardous countertops, particularly among the more exotic and striated varieties from Brazil and Namibia.
“It’s not that all granite is dangerous,” says Stanley Liebert, the quality assurance director at CMT Laboratories in Clifton Park, N.Y., who took radiation measurements at Sugarman’s house.
DUELING OPINIONS
Allegations that granite countertops may emit dangerous levels of radon and radiation have been raised periodically over the past decade, mostly by makers and distributors of competing countertop materials. The Marble Institute of America has said such claims are “ludicrous” because although granite is known to contain uranium and other radioactive materials like thorium and potassium, the amounts in countertops are not enough to pose a health threat.
Indeed, health physicists and radiation experts agree that most granite countertops emit radiation and radon at extremely low levels. They say these emissions are insignificant compared with so-called background radiation that is constantly raining down from outer space or seeping up from the earth’s crust, not to mention emanating from manmade sources like X-rays, luminous watches and smoke detectors.
But with increasing regularity in recent months, the Environmental Protection Agency has been receiving calls from radon inspectors as well as from concerned homeowners about granite countertops with radiation measurements several times above background levels. “We’ve been hearing from people all over the country concerned about high readings,” says Lou Witt, a program analyst with the agency’s Indoor Environments Division.
In June, Suzanne Zick, who lives in Magnolia, Texas, a small town northwest of Houston, called the EPA and her state’s health department to find out what she should do about the salmon-colored granite she had installed in her foyer a year and a half ago. A geology instructor at a community college, she realized belatedly that it could contain radioactive material and had it tested. The technician sent her a report indicating that the granite was emitting low to moderately high levels of both radon and radiation, depending on where along the stone the measurement was taken.
TAKING ACTION
The EPA recommends taking action if radon gas levels in the home exceeds 4 picocuries per liter of air (a measure of radioactive emission); about the same risk for cancer as smoking a half a pack of cigarettes per day. In Sugarman’s kitchen, the readings were 100 picocuries per liter. In her basement, where radon readings are expected to be higher because the gas usually seeps into homes from decaying uranium underground, the readings were 6 picocuries per liter.
The average person is subjected to radiation from natural and manmade sources at an annual level of 360 millirem (a measure of energy absorbed by the body), according to government agencies like the EPA and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The limit of additional exposure set by the commission for people living near nuclear reactors is 100 millirem per year. To put this in perspective, passengers get 3 millirem of cosmic radiation on a flight from New York to Los Angeles.
A “hot” granite countertop like Sugarman’s might add a fraction of a millirem per hour and that is if you were a few inches from it or touching it the entire time. Nevertheless, Witt says, “There is no known safe level of radon or radiation.” Moreover, he says, scientists agree that “any exposure increases your health risk.” A granite countertop that emits an extremely high level of radiation, as a small number of commercially available samples have in recent tests, could conceivably expose body parts that were in close proximity to it for two hours a day to a localized dose of 100 millirem over just a few months. David J. Brenner, director of the Center for Radiological Research at Columbia University in New York, says the cancer risk from granite countertops, even those emitting radiation above background levels, is “on the order of one in a million.” Being struck by lightning is more likely. Nonetheless, Brenner says, “It makes sense. If you can choose another counter that doesn’t elevate your risk, however slightly, why wouldn’t you?”
Radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer after smoking and is considered especially dangerous to smokers, whose lungs are already compromised. Children and developing fetuses are vulnerable to radiation, which can cause other forms of cancer. Witt says the EPA is not studying health risks associated with granite countertops because of a “lack of resources.”
The Marble Institute of America plans to develop a testing protocol for granite. “We want to reassure the public that their granite countertops are safe,” Jim Hogan, the group’s president, said earlier this month. “We know the vast majority of granites are safe, but there are some new exotic varieties coming in now that we’ve never seen before, and we need to use sound science to evaluate them.”
Research scientists at Rice University in Houston and at the New York state Department of Health are currently conducting studies of granite widely used in kitchen counters. William J. Llope, a professor of physics at Rice, says his preliminary results show that of the 55 samples he has collected from nearby fabricators and wholesalers, all of which emit radiation at higher-than-background levels, a handful have tested at levels 100 times or more above background.
Personal injury lawyers are already advertising on the Web for clients who think they may have been injured by countertops.
As for Sugarman, the contractor of the house she bought in Lake George paid for the removal of her “hot” countertops. She replaced them with another type of granite. “But I had them tested first,” she says.
ARE GRANITES A RADIATION RISK? (by Donald Langmuir, PhD, Professor Emeritus of Geochemistry, Colorado School of Mines)
It is worth noting that the stone industry, whether advertising countertops, building materials or monuments, terms many stones 'granites' that are not true granites to a geologist. A true granite, which is often grey or pink, is chiefly comprised of a potassium aluminum silicate mineral (K-feldspar or potassium feldspar) and quartz (silica or SiO2). Rocks called granites by the industry also include magnesium silicates (e.g. peridotites and serpentines) and a host of other chemically different rock-types, most of which contain much less uranium than does true granite.
As admitted by the author of 'Granite and Radon', there have been no direct measurements of radon release from granite countertops. Model calculations suggested by Dr. Richard Wanty, using a standard, scientifically accepted approach and conservative assumptions, indicate that the radon release from a granite countertop is orders of magnitude below detection by any known analytical method.
EPA standard, which is not to be exceeded in indoor air, is 4 picoCuries per liter of air (4 pCi/L). Eisenbud 1 indicates that the average contributions of radon from various sources to indoor air are 1.5 pCi/L from the soil (under and around the house), 0.01 pCi/L from public water supplies (0.4 pCi/L) from private wells), 0.05 pCi/L from building materials, and 0.2 pCi/L from outdoor air. These values are for the average house which is ventilated such that over one hour the air is changed 0.5 to 1.5 times. The vanishingly small amount of radon in household air that might be released from a granite countertop (0.00000074 pCi/L) as computed below, has been calculated assuming no exchange of indoor and outdoor air, which would further trivialize its significance. Note also that the radon content of outside air is 270,000 times greater than that released by the countertop.
There are certain properties of rocks that can increase their radon emanation efficiency, or in other words increase the release of radon from a given weight of rock. These are rock properties that maximize the exposure of internal or external rock surfaces to water or air, allowing any radon gas to escape. It is argued that such properties, which include rock porosity, fissuring and mylonitization, will increase radon releases. This is probably true, however, a granite with such properties would be too brittle to make into a countertop, and too open to take a polish, and so would not be marketable as a countertop - unless the rock pores were first filled with a chemical sealant. Such sealing would also eliminate any possible radon release problems.
The typical granite countertop in our example will release 7.4 x 10 -7 pCi/L of air. This corresponds to 2.7 x 10 -8 atom decays per second (dps). This represents 0.85 decays per year. In other words, less than one atom of radon is produced by the countertop in one year. This is hardly worth getting excited about.
Sunday, August 3, 2008
Granite slabs and radioactivity
Friday, July 25, 2008
Miyashiro is dead
Akiho Miyashiro, author of "Metamorphism and Metamorphic Belts"dies in an accident
| The body of Akiho Miyashiro was found at bottom of 300-foot cliff at Thacher State Park after 36-hour on July25, 2008
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Akiho Miyashiro may have wandered off a trail near the Glen Doone Overlook before falling to his death. The cliff he fell over is not near any of the park's 12 miles of marked trails. "He may have gotten lost and walked over the edge in the dark while trying to find his way back," Albany County Sheriff's Inspector Mark Defrancesco said. "It's a steep, steep drop with a bunch of rocks and a ravine at the bottom." Miyashiro, retired from University of Albany as geology professor, came to the park Tuesday evening to take pictures with his wife, Fumiko. He went off by himself around 7:30 p.m. and never returned. Authorities from a number of agencies searched for him for 36 hours until the body was discovered 11:30 a.m. Thursday by rescuers who had rappelled the rock cliff. The body could not be brought up the cliff because of hard rain Thursday morning that made rocks slippery. "It was absolutely treacherous and dangerous," Defrancesco said. Instead, a rescue crew hiked more than 300 yards into the woods from the bottom of the cliff and carried the body out. Miyashiro retired from UAlbany's Department of Geological Sciences in 1991 after a 22-year career there that earned him international acclaim. Geology has nothing comparable to a Nobel Prize, but in 1977 Miyashiro won one of the field's most prestigious honors, the Geological Society of America's Arthur L. Day Medal. The Japanese scientist worked at UAlbany when its fertile geology unit was known as one of the best small departments in the country. He arrived via Columbia University in 1969, several years after the theory of plate tectonics hit the stage. The concept holds that the Earth consists of about a dozen major plates that move around, and on their edges occur volcanoes, mountains and earthquakes. It encompasses virtually everything we think about the Earth today. Miyashiro was a plate tectonics pioneer. He studied the behavior of rocks at very high temperatures and pressures. His field is known as metamorphic petrology. He wrote the classic textbook "Metamorphism and Metamorphic Belts." "He made major contributions to our current understanding of how major mountain systems formed," said John Delano, a professor of environmental science at UAlbany and a former colleague of Miyashiro's. He was not a social colleague. People who worked in his department described Miyashiro as a gentleman who maintained high standards. But he was also a private person who economized his words and did not collaborate on research like some of the other professors. Susan Anderson was his student. The Guilderland teaching assistant remembered how Miyashiro would say that one of his former students had named a mineral after him. "He would get this little giggle and say, 'Unfortunately very rare.' " Geologists the world over have expressed their condolences "Jim Eckert" "That indeed is very sad news. He certainly helped greatly to advance the field, and we all owe him a lot. ------------------------------------------------------------ Miyashiro's Geological Petrological Contributions Miyashiro's paper in J Petrology (Miyashiro A. Evolution of metamorphic belts. J. Petrology 2:277-311, 1961) is a citation classic. He authored it while at the Geological Institute, Faculty of Science, University of Tokyo, Japan. The paper has been cited over 300 times ever since. In 1979 he commented on this paper “I began to work on metamorphic rocks of Japan at Tokyo University in 1947 under postwar difficulties. At that time, Alfred Harker’s book, Metamorphism,1 was very influential. It was claimed in this book that the regional metamorphism of the Barrovian sequence in Scotland is standard or ‘normal’ on a worldwide scale, and that minerals characteristic of such ‘normal regional metamorphism’ are stable only in the presence of strong shearing stress. However, such ‘normal regional metamorphism’ did not exist in Japan. Thus, my main problem was to clarify how and why the regional metamorphism of Japan differs from Harker’s ‘normal regional metamorphism.’ I expected that I would be able to show the existence of a number of different types of regional metamorphism. I discussed it, for example, in relation to the compositional variation of metamorphic garnet in 1953.2 Moreover, I doubted Harker’s view emphasizing the necessity of shearing stress in the formation of certain metamorphic minerals. This motivated my proposal in 1949 of a hypothetical phase diagram of the Al2SiO5 minerals to explain their formation in terms of temperature and hydrostatic pressure only.
“In the 1950s, a new improved system of graduate school was begun in Japan. I had many brilliant students (undergraduate and graduate) in metamorphic petrology such as F. Shido and S. Banno at Tokyo University in addition to my friend Dr. Y. Seki who was already a fullfledged metamorphic petrologist. Spontaneously we formed an active cooperative group. Banno and Seki studied few glaucophaneschist terranes, and discovered that glaucophane forms only in a limited range of temperatures in progressive metamorphic sequences. This gave strong support to the existence of the glaucophaneschist facies. “After several years of our cooperative study, I came to feel that we had already understood the main features of the two major types of regional metamorphism existing in Japan, and that these two types, together with one more type corresponding to Harker’s ‘normal regional metamorphism,’ represent the three basic categories of regional metamorphism existing on Earth. I wrote this view in my 1961 paper. At that time, petrology had little connection to tectonics. The concept of paired metamorphic belts, described in this paper, was one of the earliest attempts to connect metamorphic petrology to tectonics. “It is gratifying to know that the paper has been so frequently cited. It is a memorial to our metamorphic petrology group of the 1950s and the early 1960s in Tokyo.” [http://www.garfield.library.upenn.edu/classics1979/A1979HE73300001.pdf]
Facies
Miyashiro (1961) developed the concept of the metamorphic facies series. This is a |
Monday, May 12, 2008
Gold panning in Kerala: alluvial gold in Maruda, Kalakkan puzha
"Two PL applications, Puttumala and Maruda, covering a total area of 90 sq km have been recommended by the DMG to the State Govt. The State Govt. has asked us to reduce the area of the
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Ailing science; ageing scientists: India in the dumps
Research is elitist, exclusive, discriminatory, and at the highest levels of outstanding quality.
Gautam Radhakrishna Desiraju
An incisive analysis of the malaise in Indian science by the veteran scientist Gautam Radhakrishna Desiraju in Nature India May 1, 2008. Read it.
Monday, May 5, 2008
Mis-match in ages from different dating techniques
and Frits Hilgen, Department of Earth Sciences, Utrecht University, Budapestlaan 4, 3584 CD Utrecht, The Netherlands puts the matter in perspective. Here is an extract of that article entitled "Rock clock synchronization". "The need for much improved knowledge of the durations and ages of climatic and geological events, such as the Palaeocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum (~55 million years ago), has become urgent within the Earth science and climate modelling communities. The exact dating and timing of fluxes into and out of the marine carbon reservoir can differentiate between competing hypotheses of climatic change. Highly detailed reconstructions of the Earth’s history allow us to assess whether past climatic change can be used as an analogue for the current and future change of ocean acidification and climate.
The Earthtime project is an international effort with the goal to further this quest for a well-calibrated and stable timescale that will allow more precise dating of rock layers and minerals. Radioisotopic dating methods have small but significant errors that hinder our ability to assess geologically short-lived climate events. For instance, the most widely used method for the Cenozoic era is 40Ar/39Ar, which has an error of up to 2.5% and few tie points of known age. Yet, over the last two decades much progress has been made in exploiting the imprint of the Earth’s orbital variations in palaeoclimatic records. This has dramatically increased the potential age resolution of approaches like cycle-counting and pattern matching, to less than 40,000 years throughout much of Cenozoic time (the past ~66 million years).
Unfortunately, there have been a number of inconsistencies and discrepancies between ages and durations derived from radioisotopic and astronomical dating. What is now needed is a more systematic and coordinated approach to provide a detailed intercalibration of radioisotopic clocks (U–Pb, Ar–Ar methods), the rock standards that are used for these methods, and geological tie-points with astronomical ages. At the same time, Cenozoic palaeoclimatic compilations need to be improved by closing existing gaps, verifying data from single sites and supplementing the database of magneto- and biostratigraphy so we can improve the accuracy of existing age calibrations.
In particular, a major advance towards a fully astronomically calibrated geological timescale needs to be accomplished in the middle Eocene epoch (~40 to 50 million years). Very few suitable sections have been acquired so far for this period, presumably because the calcite compensation depth was very shallow during this time, which would have prevented the preservation of carbonate material in the deep-ocean marine sediments. The Earthtime projects are open community efforts aimed at improving intercalibration between astronomical and radioisotope dating methods by finnding ash layers that can be dated with radioisotopes within astronomically age-calibrated sections. The immediate aim is to arrive at a highly accurate and stable Cenozoic timescale."
This paper in Science also deals with the same issue
Oil and gas in Deccan Traps
ONGC strikes petroleum in Deccan Traps
The Times of India, on 1st May 2008, reported that the ONGC has struck oil and gas in the Deccan Traps. This is sure to be a path-breaking discovery, says the report by Rajeev Jayaswal. This comes in the wake of its discoveries of gas in Kunjaban-3 well in north Agarthala in Tripura, and oil in the Karjan-9 well in the Halisa field of Gujrat. The report goes on to say that India can become the top oil-producing nation, if the Trap oil and gas is successfully exploited. A reserve of about 30 billion tons is estimated in these Cretaceous rock formations.
The Mesozoic sediments below the Deccan Traps are highly prospective, the report cites an expert. Geophysical surveys for the oil below the traps were done by the National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI) Hyderabad and the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons. They found sub-trappean Mesozoic to Gondwana age sediments with a maximum thickness of three kilometers.
Friday, April 18, 2008
Radioactivity in Kerala Coast's: Health Implications
The effect of the natural radioactivity emanating from the radioactive minerals in the beach placers of Kerala have been controversial and the views are divided amongst the scientific community. Even after decades of research the issue remains unresolved. And under a mist of technical jargon and statistical posturing. Very few studies have looked into the issue holistically. Either its just a geological study giving out generalizations on the possibility of radiation risks or it is a medical study which ultimately winds up with a statistical test of significance. Here I have attempted to bring together the references on the subject of "Radioactivity in Kerala Coast's: Health Implications ".
One study reported in PNAS says that "radioactive conditions (in Kerala coasts) accelerate mutations at nucleotide positions that have been evolutionary hot spots for at least 60,000 years".
In a 1999 paper in Radiation Research, doctors at the Regional Cancer Centre, Trivandrum, Kerala, India found that in "in this preliminary analysis, there is no evidence that cancer occurrence is consistently higher because of the levels of external gamma-radiation exposure in the area...". The area was Karunagapally, in the heart of the beach placer deposits of Kerala, and where two placer-deposit-based industries exist, viz., Indian Rare Earths Ltd and the Kerala Minerals and Metals Ltd. They found that "...the environmental radiation emanates largely from the thorium deposited mostly along coastal areas. In certain locations on the coast, it is as high as 70 mGy/year and on average is 7.5 times the level seen in interior areas..."
Bhabha Atomic Research Centre has steadfastly maintained that there is no enhanced hazard either along the Kerala beaches or around the Jadaguda Uranium mines. But the fact remains that the populace especially around the mines and works at Jaduguda have been the victims of the radiative hazard.
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Commercilaization of Research: Plague of Sponsorship
"People, not profits, must be at the centre of patent law for medicines"
This exquisite short article in JAMA (Journal of the American Medical association) reveals the anguish of a non-conformist doctor amongst the sponsored commercial circus of pharmaceutical companies in seminars. Pharmaceutical companies are often the most unscrupulous practitioners of questionable research, and get away with the clout of money power. Plagiarism and unethical publishing are quite commonly resorted to by these corporates as also planted findings, that have no real clinical merit or have never undergone clinical trials. The WTO regime has often been used by these bodies to beat down competition from players in developing countries, who could offer medicines at a fraction of the price quoted by the multinational pharma giants like Novartis of Switzerland and Merck etc.
Rainbow to Dark Clouds
Catherine D. DeAngelis, MD, MPH
JAMA. 2005;294:1107.
This year it was my honor to have been the commencement speaker at 3 medical schools: Drexel University, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and the University of Texas at Houston. On each occasion, I felt the same euphoria that I had at my own graduation and at the other commencements in which I spoke or, as Vice Dean of Academic Affairs and Faculty at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, helped with the proceedings. It is exhilarating to experience, up close and personally, the enthusiasm and excitement of so many new physicians who clearly sense their potential to help those who will seek their care, and who want to fulfill their dreams of doing so.
One of the most touching of all moments in this year’s ceremonies occurred at UCLA. The "benediction" involved 24 graduating physicians joining the chaplain on stage to speak in the native language of their ethnic groups, no matter whether they were 1st- or 10th-generation Americans. The 24 languages spoken ranged from Afrikaans through Gujarati, Hindi, Mandarin Chinese, Tigrinya, and Urdu to Vietnamese. The phrase each graduate spoke was, "May we leave here to cure when possible, and to care always." What could be better wishes for healers to declare publicly? I wept along with most in the audience.
Early the next morning, I flew to San Diego to speak at an international meeting of subspecialists; which subspecialty is unfortunately irrelevant because it could have been almost any one. The geographic distance is 111 miles; the psychological distance was an eternity. As I walked off the plane, I was greeted with several ads prominently placed in the airport inviting physicians to visit one exhibit booth or another. It’s a free country, so why not? It was too early to check into the hotel, so I went to the convention center to register. On the way I passed hundreds of people (many certainly were physicians) walking from the center with identification cards in plastic cases hung around their necks on a ribbon emblazoned with the name of a pharmaceutical company. They were also carrying cloth bags adorned with large logos of several pharmaceutical companies—oh, and also the name of the subspecialty society. I politely declined both when they were offered to me, much to the chagrin of the sweet woman who worked the registration desk.
When I arrived at the room where I was to speak, a giant placard outside listed the names of the speakers and times of presentations—and the announcement by the names of several speakers that their presentations were sponsored by a particular pharmaceutical company. Of course, there were statements all over the podiums and in the rooms stating that all "sponsored" discussions involved funds from "unencumbered educational grants" that had nothing to do with the choice of speakers or topics. The spirit displayed at the conference was in such contrast to that displayed at the previous day’s commencement. What happened to the altruistic, "above all, help the patient" spirit?
After completing my presentation on conflicts of interest (the conference committee apparently had a sense of irony), I returned to the hotel to register. I was handed my room key: a plastic card with the name and logo of a pharmaceutical company on one side and an invitation to "visit us at booth #1501." Once again, I wept—this time, alone.
Merck's unethical publishing activities
Merck has misrepresented research data and manipulated clinical research articles and clinical reviews, says the latest issue of JAMA. Merck & Co Inc manipulated dozens of publications to promote one of its products. Documents that provided evidence necessary to demonstrate the manipulation became public (and publishable) because of litigation involving one of that company's products, rofecoxib (used in the treatment of Alzheimer disease or cognitive impairment .
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Geology departments in JGSI this month
The March 2008 issue of JGSI is out and the following departments find a place in the issue, with contributions by their scientists.
1. IIT Roorkee -- Dept of Earth Sciences
2. AMD -- Nagpur
3. AMD -- Hyderabad
4. WIHG -- NE Unit -- Itanagar
5. WIHG -- Dehradun
6. Anna University -- Dept of Geology
7. MS University -- Baroda
8. GSI -- Palaeontology Divn -- Lucknow
9. GSI -- Landslide Hazards Studies -- Lucknow
"Micro-zonation of landslide hazard in the environs of Baira Dam Project, Chamba Dt, Himachal Pradesh"
What the author says ...
A short profile of the author
10. GSI -- Marine Wing -- Kolkata
11. GSI -- Central Reg -- Pune
12. GSI -- Bhubaneshwar
13. BSIP -- Lucknow
14. NGRI -- Hyderabad
15. IMD -- New Delhi
16. Periyar University, Salem -- Dept of Geology
17. DST -- New Delhi
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
String Theory Image of Universe
String Theory
String theory folds up the universe to make it into a manageable no of dimensions.
The extra dimensions can be folded up in 10 to the power of 500 difefrent ways!!
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Green Water Blue Water
New water terminologies: Green water and blue water
New jargon is replacing old water and groundwater terms, and these new terms are now widely accepted, with all scientific journals accepting and propagating the terminology.
To my understanding the first use of the term "Green water" was in an article by Falkenmark of the Stockholm International Water Institute, Sweden in his 1995 paper at the Conference of SADC Ministers in Pretoria, South Africa (Coping with water scarcity under rapid population growth. Conference of SADC Ministers, Pretoria 23-24 November 1995). He and Rockstrom in their 2006 paper on "The New Blue and Green Water Paradigm: Breaking New Ground for Water Resources Planning and Management" in the Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management, v 132, no. 3, pp. 129-132. May-June 2006. reiterate these ideas of water. A draft of this paper is available at the University of Texas website http://www.ce.utexas.edu/prof/mckinney/ce385d/Papers/Falkenmark.pdf
In that paper the authors argued that "The production of biomass for direct human use-e.g., as food and timber-is by far the largest freshwater-consuming human activity on Earth. However, water policy and development concentrate on a fraction of the water for food challenge, namely, irrigated agriculture, which uses an estimated 25% of the global water used in agriculture, and on the industrial and domestic water supply, which corresponds to less than 10% of direct human water requirements (considering only water for food, domestic use, and industry).
The reason that biomass production so strongly outclasses other water-dependent processes is that water is one key element involved in plant growth. Simultaneous with the photosynthesis process, when stomata in the foliage open to take in carbon dioxide, large amounts of water are being consumed as transpiration flow and released as vapor from the plant canopy. Furthermore, this productive flow of vapor is accompanied by nonproductive evaporative losses of water (from soil, ponded water, and intercepted water from foliage surfaces).
Together, vapor fluxes as evaporation and transpiration, here defined as green-water flow, constitute the total consumptive water use in biomass production. "
The latest Nature editorial also uses this terminology (see Nature 452, 253 (20 March 2008) | doi:10.1038/452253a; Published online 19 March 2008) while talking about "A fresh approach to water".
Excerpts from that editorial ... " blue water in rivers, lakes, reservoirs and underground aquifers. ... blue water accounts for only 40% of the world's freshwater balance, and for much less in dry regions. The key to tackling the crisis in the most food-insecure parts of the world is managing 'green water': the less spectacular, but more abundant moisture that infiltrates the soil from rainfall, and that can be taken up by the roots of plants."
So transpiration losses could be losses of greenwater plus some part of blue water. Blue water is the water that is predominantly being used by all of us as drinking water and water for almost all other purposes, drawing directly from rivers, lakes and other reservoirs like aquifers. When we talk about rain-water harvesting or about check dams, or underground dams we are talking about tapping the green water. Its all just in the terminology, but surely it helps in consolidating concepts. Green water need to be exploited effectively so that blue water resources may be conserved.
The rainbow of water also consists of brown water, yellow water, grey water, black water, and virtual water. See Prof Ottopohl's (of Hamburg University of Technology, Institute of Municipal and Industrial Wastewater Management) presentation to get an idea of these waters http://www.les2004.iwa-conferences.org/uploads/LET%202005%20Sapporo/08_3.pdf
Prof J. Anthony Allan of the SOAS, University of London coined the term virtual water in 1994. See one of his papers on the topic http://www.ciaonet.org/wps/aln02/
See also http://books.google.co.in/books?id=lRec8rs6g_IC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Bekithemba+Gumbo&sig=CvijputWwSOhFlPiApCWbA91-wI
Saturday, March 15, 2008
German Idiosyncrasies
Surely there is not another language that is soslipshod and systemless, and so slippery and elusive to the grasp
This ranges from quirks of language, quirks of behaviour, quirks of culture to extremely absurd rules that could only have been made by a practical joker.
See this new item in the Washington Post for a rollicking case of PhDs!! Doktorands!
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/13/AR2008031304353_pf.html
In a nutshell if you have a PhD from any country other than Germany and you happen to be in Deutschland, beware!! You can't use the title Dr. in your name, its illegal and prosecutable, you are committing a crime by masquerading as a medical practitioner.
Some German gems:
"Let us meet us each other tomorrow"
"My friend is with his mattress"
Friday, March 7, 2008
Plagiarism. III
Sucheta Dalal of Outlook Money lists some of her findings in an internet search for Indian plagiarism (http://www.rediff.com/money/2002/oct/25dalal.htm)
- A professor of the Cardiology Department of Safdarjung Hospital (New Delhi) plagiarised the thesis of his postgraduate student and published it under his name in the Journal of Associated Physicians of India.
- Two professors of Poona University's microbiology and chemistry department were suspended and stripped of their headships for plagiarising a research paper in Analytical Biochemistry. It was published in the Indian Journal of Microbiology. The duo had earlier plagiarised a research paper of two foreign authors.
- A professor of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research lifted a chapter from his student's thesis and published it in his name in Current Science journal.
- The head of Delhi University's geology department lifted material from a thesis sent to him for evaluation, and published it verbatim in the Journal of the Geological Society of India.
- An Indian Institute of Management sacked a professor for plagiarising material from a book titled Quantitative Technique for Managerial Decisions
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Plagiarism: II
For all things related to fraud in Indian science go to the excellent blog by the IISc Professor Prof.Abinandanam.
The infamous VJ Gupta case remains fresh in the minds of scientists in India. The audacity of these frauds makes one think about the plethora of unreported or undetected cases of plagiarism. Many in academics or in the laboratories would have witnessed their colleagues, or their guides, or their students resorting to subtle plagiarism. Its almost sure that if one feeds a sentence from the Introduction of most Indian PhD thesis into Google, it will throw up an already published paper, most often from a foreign source. Its simply a cut-and-paste job from the internet onto the thesis pages. Invariably this happens, cutting across subject areas and geography. PhD theses do not get as rigorous a review as do papers submitted to journals and suprevising teachers rarely bother about such "s u n d r y" matters. This is the first step towards plagiarism.
“Even researchers from some high profile institutes like the IITs are indulging in plagiarism,” says Dr KL Chopra, who is the Ex-Director of IIT, Kharagpur and the president of the New Delhi-based Society for Scientific Values, which is dedicated to detecting scientific fraud and is the only one of its kind in India.
The following cases are being pursued by the society and I post the contents verbatim from the society's website. Its clear that even Indian Institute of Technology or even the moralizing Centre for Science and Environment are free from this malaise. More shockingly, there is hardly any move to punish the offence.
Investigations of Recent cases of Plagiarism by the Society for Scientific Values (SSV)
- Professor V S Rajput, Kumaon Univ:
Prof. Kavita Pandey, Head, Physics Department, Kumaon University brought to the attention of SSV, and a number of prominent particle physicists in India and abroad that Prof Rajput, a former Head of the same department and presently serving as the Vice Chancellor of the University, in co-authorship with his research students have indulged in serious unethical practices of plagiarization of published research papers of others, as also of publishing same/similar papers in more than one journal. The SSV examined the published papers in question, and sought information/ clarification from both Prof. Pandey and Prof. Rajput. Prof. Rajput maintains that his former research student and his co-author has plagiarized the paper and has put his name on the paper without his permission. Merit of this argument apart, as the VC, Prof. Rajput has taken no disciplinary action so far against his former student and presently his faculty member of the University. Having confirmed this serious case of plagiarism and unethical practices, as has also been done by several other prominent Particle Physicists in India and abroad, the SSV has written to the President of India, the Governor of Uttaranchal ( who is the Chancellor of the University), Minister, MHRD, and the Chairman, UGC, urging them to take a strict disciplinary action against Prof. Rajput. After considerable moral pressure by a number of scientists world over, the Chancellor has now set up an enquiry committee under the Chair of a retired Judge. The SSV feels strongly that prominent scientists in the field best judge scientific unethical practices and thus their verdict should be taken seriously for taking an appropriate action. We hope that a decision to refer such a case to a retired Judge does not meet the usual fate of a long enquiry, ultimately resulting in diluting the seriousness of such a case.
- Drs. Rashmi Mishra and Sapna Johnson, Centre for Science & Environment, New Delhi & Padma Vankar, FEAT, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur:
Rashmi Mishra et al have submitted a paper " Analysis of Pesticide Residues in Fruits and Vegetables from different Mandis of Delhi " to J Analytical-Science for publication. This paper has been largely plagiarized from a paper " Monitoring of Pesticide Residues in Summer Fruits and Vegetables from Kanpur" published in Bulletin Environmental Contamination and Toxicology by Dr R Sanghi and Dr V. Tewari of Facility for Ecological and Analytical Testing ( FEAT), IIT, Kanpur. The SSV has examined the two papers and have verified that Rasmi Mishra et al have not only plagiarised the paper extensively but have also made false claims. The SSV has written to Dr Sunita Narayan , Director, Centre for Science & Environment and Prof. S G Dhande, Director , IIT, Kanpur to seek their comments and to urge them to take appropriate disciplinary actions against their respective colleagues, if called for. Dr Narayan has informed that Dr. Vankar did not seek permission of her two colleagues in the Centre to be the co-authors of the paper. Nevertheless , she has taken steps to see that such a thing is not repeated . What these steps are and how Dr. Padma Vankar, who is also a Consultant to the Centre for Science and Environment, is affected, has not been clarified. On the other hand, Prof Dhande has not bothered to respond, despite reminders. We, however, understand that Prof. Dhande set up an Enquiry Committee, the report of which is with him for over two months. The SSV is very concerned that an Institute of national importance is not prepared to face the reality of a scientific fraud committed by a scientist of the institute and to take suitable action as a deterrent for such unethical practices. Having exhausted our moral power of persuasion, this case is being brought to the attention of the Chairman, BOG, IIT Kanpur, Minister, MHRD and is also being put on our Web page (www.scientificvalues.org). We hope the institutions concerned will deem it important to have researchers imbibe ethics and values in the pursuit of science and technology.
Here is a list of online resources on the topic of plagiarism in India:
Physics
http://www.geocities.com/physics_plagiarism/
[pdf and ps versions of Rajput's papers as well as the original ones can be downloaded from the site to decide for oneself about the plagiarism involved]
http://www.iop.org/EJ/abstract/0295-5075/61/3/429/
[Institute of Physics' retraction of Rajput's paper and its apology to Renata Kallosh of Stanford University Physics Dept. It says that "the article Axion-dilation black holes with SL(2,Z) symmetry through APT-FGP model by S. C. Joshi and B. S. Rajput, published in Europhysics Letters, 57 (2002) 639, should be considered withdrawn from publication. This article contains no new results, but instead plagiarizes from the article Superpotential from black holes (Phys. Rev. D, 54 (1996) R4709) by Renata Kallosh. Apart from some well-known introductory review material (ending two sentences below eq. (4)) and the first half of the Discussion, the text of the paper has been copied literally from Professor Kallosh's article. Europhysics Letters apologises to Professor Kallosh and regrets that this has not been noticed during the refereeing process.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_plagiarism_in_India [wiki article]
http://www.stanford.edu/dept/physics/publications/PDFfiles/india.pdf [Nobel laureates' letter to APJ Abdul Kalam, on the BS Rajput case]
http://www.indianexpress.com/india-news/full_story.php?content_id=17786 [news article]
http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/2003/02/07/stories/2003020705470103.htm [news article]
http://www.cpim.org/pd/2002/oct20/10202002_uttaranchal.htm [news article]
http://www.hindu.com/fline/fl1925/stories/20021220008813400.htm [news article]
Electrical Engineering
http://www.geocities.com/electrical_plagiarism/ [NERIST K Kumar case, 2007-08]
Biology
http://www.scientificvalues.org/kundu_case.html
[National Centre for Cell Sciences, Pune, India's very controversial case, in which the NCCS's internal committee indicted the the authors, Gopal Kundu et al, whereas a later external committe, headed by Padmanabhan exonerated Kundu. But the Society for Scientific Values, has said that the case stands]
http://www.ias.ac.in/currsci/jun102007/1471.pdf
[Padmanabhan's letter-to-the-editor on the Kundu case]]
http://www.ias.ac.in/currsci/aug102007/281.pdf
[Rahul Siddharthan's (Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai, India) letter in Current Science]
http://nanopolitan.wordpress.com/about/
[Prof T. A. Abinandanan's IISc, Dept of Materials Engg blog
http://www.ias.ac.in/currsci/mar102008/553.pdf
Prof. S. Mahadevan's (Department of Molecular Reproduction, Development and Genetics,
Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560 012, India) take on plagiarism and his experiements with the citation-matching tool eTBLAST.
Economics
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/399980.cms
[The case of Harshal Pathak, who plagiarised his father, DS Pathak's thesis to secure a Ph.D in Economics]
Hindi
http://www.taralabalu.org/Suta%20Samhita/plagiarism/
[Dr Ramakant Jha of the Mahatma Gandhi Kashi Vidyapeeth University, Banares (Varanasi) is alleged to have copied major portions of Dr Shivamurthy Swamiji's thesis of 1976 for his PhD degree.]
Geology
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg12917551.600-himalayan-scandal-rocks-indian-science-.html
[Infamous VJ Gupta case]
http://www.geocities.com/w_d_west/
[W.D.West is accused of plagiarising Joseph G Medlicott, with a gap of 100 years between the
publications; the Geocities cite remains anonymous]
Plagiarsim in Kerala Science Congress
http://knowventure.blogspot.com/
[GRC Reddy, the current director (March 2008) of NIT Calicut (NITC, formerly REC-Calicut) is accused of plagiarsim in his valedictory address at the 2007 Kerala Science Congress. The anonymous blog lays it thick and fast, and Reddy can't possibly outmanouvre this]
Blogs and articles discussing plagiarism in India
http://mogadalai.wordpress.com/tag/plagiarism/
http://www.famousplagiarists.com/scienceandmedicine.htm
http://www.ias.ac.in/currsci/mar102008/581.pdf
An article in the March 10, 2008 issue of Current Science (India) on plagiarism by one of its long-time editors, K. R. Rao
