Disaster management: Fires!

We were assigned to work on mitigating disasters... The class as a whole.. Our team happened to be assigned to "Fires and related disasters".

The following is the combined text from the group pooled effort to come up with a single text on Disaster Management on fires:

I. INTRODUCTION:

Disasters may be either man-made or natural. Every region is prone to one or the other kind of hazards like cyclone (Air), flood (Water), drought , earthquake (Land), Hail (Sky)etc… Fire hazards is caused by the fifth natural element the Fire. Fire disasters can again be either natural (forest fires) or man-generated ( due to bombing ) . It can occur on all three regions- above land in skyscrapers, aeroplanes; on the ground (forest fires); below the ground in mines.

1.1  TYPES:

Based on the cause for the outbreak of fire, it can be classified into the following two types:

Natural : It may be caused by volcanic eruptions, damage to power lines and natural gas systems during earthquake. However, it is a complex scenario which occurs rarely.

Man -generated : It may be the result of short circuit in buildings, electronic equipments in large companies, kitchen fires, ignition of flammable substances which are accidental. The fire emanating from garbage wastes due to reaction of chemicals and combustible substances, bombing activities also result in fire which is intentional.

II.  FIRE PREVENTION STRATEGIES:

          1. Prevention of fire due to Hazardous chemicals 

Chemicals used and stored in school and college laboratories must adhere to strict Hazards Communication Policies. Safe storage and handling of chemicals is of prior importance to prevent combustible chemicals from producing fire hazards. Thus, these institutions must follow strict guidelines and the staffs handling them should be provided training to handle such chemicals.

          2. Safety at home

! Check if you have turned off the gas before leaving home

! If you detect any leakage of gas or short-circuit, turn off your main, open the kitchen windows, alert everyone in the site to leave to open ground and immediately call to fire brigade service

! At kitchen, ensure that oil is not close to combustible substances as it intensifies the fire

! It is always advisable to wear apron or cotton clothes while working in kitchen as nylon or silk materials stick to one’s skin on burning.

! During festivals like Diwali, take atmost care while bursting crackers. Burst rockets and sky crackers at a high altitude (terrace) or open grounds (most preferable)

           3. Safety at Work place

~ All companies are requested to have fire extinguishers ( minimum of one on each floor) so that incase of outbreak of fire it could be immediately put off

~ Each and every employee must be taught to operate these fire extinguishers

~ For air-conditioned rooms, emergency exits should be created

~ Incase of companies dealing with chemicals and electronic equipments it is solely their responsibility to undertake safety measures enumerated in the manual of those chemicals and electronic items

~ Unused e-items should be disposed off immediately rather than storing them in a repository

        4.  Safety during mass gatherings at an event

! Use decoration items that are non-combustible

! Inspect lighting wires for damaged insulation, bare wires, loose connection

! Ensure that there is no lit candles, the cooking area is away from the gathering

 III. FIRE MITIGATION STRATEGIES

 3.1 What to do before a Fire?

~ Prepare escape routes from the site by analyzing the different ways available with your family. Practice the route if necessary

~ Ensure that each room has a fire safety opening  feature on windows for exit

~ Place fire extinguishers at various places in the building. Test and clean it at regular intervals

~ Have a ladder in a storeroom of the apartment to evacuate people from other floors

~ Don’t smoke indoors particularly near flammable substances

~ Store flammable substances like gasoline, kerosene in approved containers

~ Keep matchsticks and lighters at a high place away from the vicinity of children

3.2 What to do during Fire?

! Call fire brigade alerting  services immediately

! Remember that hot air raises to the top. So, air near floor will be cooler. Try to crawl through any exit

! If you are out of the room that has got fire, keep the door closed and evacuate the room. Do not open it

!  If your clothes catch fire instead of running which will only intensify it, cover yourselves with a blanket or roll on the floor till the fire is extinguished

3.3 What to do after fire?

~ Do not open any closed boxes immediately after entering the room since it would have been heated and opening it would result in bursting of contents

~On entering the house, if you still detect heat leave the room

~ Inform your landlord if it is a rented house

 IV. FOREST FIRES IN INDIA

Forests are most prone to fires compared to any other kind of disasters. It is the result of flames produced from twigs that settle down on the forest cover during summer. Himalayan forests experiences forest fires frequently. Such disaster destroys the flora and fauna in that region thus disturbing the ecosystem. In Himachal Pradesh, the total number of cases registered for forest fires in the year is about 450. Forest fires can in turn be classified into various types namely underground fire, surface fire,ground fire and crown fire.In South India, it is a common practice for many tribes to carry out Slash and Burn Method of farming in which they clear a small portion of forest area and burn the vegetation in it for cultivation. This also serves them as a source of fertilisers in the form of ashes. However, if practiced continuously it may affect the environment adversely. Moreover, Forest fires result in huge amount of noxious gases being released into the atmosphere which causes health hazards like respiratory problems and global warming due to increase in the level of carbon monoxide, methane hydrocarbons. Ultimately it also results in the depletion of ozone layer.

 4.1 Forest fire prevention

There is a separate forest department allocated for each and every state and union territory.  Currently, the Forest Protection Division is implementing a scheme called, Modern Forest Fire Control Methods under which financial assistance is provided for all states in achieving prevention of forest fires. Using this, the state is required to obtain fire fighting equipments, construction of fire watch towers, fire resistant clothes, propagating the safety measures. Forest fires were prevented during the British regime by clearing off the forest litters during summer. This was called Forest Line. This method should now be brought into existence.

V. STEPS TAKEN BY GOVERNMENT IN PREVENTING FIRE

From the beginning, government of India has envisaged many different fire safety acts including that of  Fire force bill, Fire services bill, Fire prevention and safety act for buildings. It had also taken a great step towards incorporating the subject Fire Protection and Control as part of  the 7th schedule of the Constitution. Explosive rules for fire crackers, creating many awareness programs are some of the credible measures taken by the Government. Delhi Prevention act ,1986 was introduced in our capital which checks if all apartments are equipped with fire fighting instruments, providing fire safety guidelines at various Fire prevention wings. National Forest policy was adopted in the year 1988. The main aim of the policy goes like this :

” The incidence of the forest fires in the country is high. Standing trees and fodder are destroyed

on a large scale and natural regeneration annihilated by such fires. Special precautions should

be taken during the fire season. Improved and modern management practices should be

adopted to deal with forest fires.”

VI. CONCLUSION

There are various fire mitigation strategies laid out by the government and it is our duty to follow them inorder to prevent fire disasters from happening in the future.

Reference:

Online: “Fire Disasters” , saarc-sdmc.nic.in/pdf/fire.pdf

Managing E-Waste!

This is a group project assignment. We were supposed to work on a novel idea to handle a general environmental problem. Our team took up handling E-Waste.

The following is the text from the combined documents produced by our team members.

DISPOSAL OF E-WASTES

Motivation :

The term  e-wastes include electronic items like phones, laptops, television, parts of a computer, CD players. The amount of e-wastes is on the rise over the past 5 years especially. The total volume of e-wastes in the entire world per year is estimated to be about 40 million metric tonnes. However, proper disposal of these wastes have not yet been designed. The reasons include Lack of awareness among people about the method of disposal. 

No special steps taken towards it since the waste collected per week from homes is very less compared to the municipal wastes

Existing Methods:

Landfill is the main method for disposing e-wastes in most parts of our country. Recycling and reusing of e-wastes is the second major method which is followed in places where funding is provided. Resource conservation and Recovery Act is the law that is followed by many countries in recycling e-wastes.  Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment and reduction of hazardous substances directives are some of the directives in urging the manufacturers of electronic equipments to provide recycling of those equipments after use. But these laws are carried out in very few countries. Advance Fee Recovery collects extra money from customers who purchase electronic goods for recycling purposes. Trishyiraya  Recycling India recycles e-wastes in India but  it is also done only on a smaller scale.

Proposal :

Control and awareness:

The solutions for proper disposal of e-wastes can be derived from the reasons for its improper disposal. Educating people on the safe method of disposals through advertisements ( may be ask some famous actor or cricketer to take the lead), documentary films, shopkeepers when they buy the product could be one of the solution. ( who knows this step may become a huge hit like the polio campaign advertisement by Amitab sir) The second method is to make the producers itself collect the used ones. Since, there are many electronic companies that are set up at various places, large companies like Nokia, IBM, Samsung should take the initiative of setting up a separate recycling unit one for each type of electronic product and ask the smaller shops to collaborate with them in sending the collected products to these recycling units. This also provides employment opportunities to many. Currently, only very few companies have recycling plants. Also, laws must be strictly enforced for ensuring that people do not throw away the products in the municipal waste or else fine should be levied from them. Exchange of products is an attractive and ongoing solution but not all companies do not recycle them. By the above solution of smaller companies tying up with larger ones these exchanged products could be recycled in an efficient manner.

Collection and Controlled breakdown:

Once the general public has been informed and awareness made common to masses, steps need to be taken to make public means of controlled and systematic dismantling, breakdown and disposal of e waste. A central body can be set up to manage general workings of children institutes where e waste disposal guidelines are made public and its services made freely available. This body must also adhere to stipulated laws that have been passed in regard to the e waste disposal procedures.

Working of this body could significantly improve centralized and controlled handling of e waste. This can have a cumulative positive effect on the environment. Everything from the economic boost received by revenues generated directly and indirectly by safe dismantling, to the safety of health of concerned workers can be integrally safe guarded. Workers would otherwise have to deal with non-standard means of separating out molten chips from silicon beds, the fumes of which are known to have severe and lifelong effects on its frequent inhalers.

It is however noteworthy to highlight that only a wide approach to this kind of disposal would amount to significant measurements of success. Success can be quantized by statistical study of waste silicon related e products ending up in landfills and the amount of revenue generated by its relative processes.

Vandoloor Zoo Visit!

We went on a trip to the zoo (which happens to be my first in around 15 years or so... )... It was really cool to see many animals which one would get to only watch on TV. Ok... I might look like i'm over doing it but I'm being serious by with the fact the it's been a while since I last went to the zoo and ... well.... It was fun!.. A big part of which was being with a few friends special to me. You can see our shot in the last =D... (I'm the one second last from the left btw ;D)...

So I've been interested in photography since around high school. Didn't exactly have a good camera but hey... a cell phone camera would do for decent shots wouldn't it?... ;D

The problem was... i wasn't able to get shots of lots of animals as such... Because of the fact that i couldn't zoom in or get a decent show with a cell phone camera... So i decided to take shots on the general surrounding and other possible subjects.

Two cute kids cycling =D

The White tiger!

The White Tiger!

The most memorable event in the zoo

On a path in the zoo

On the way back to college

My Best Friends =D (I'm the one beside the heavily posing/smiling extreme left btw lulz ;D)

Animal testing

Looks disturbing. ;D

We were asked to have a write up of our thoughts and views in the theme of "Animal Testing". I've personally had prior thoughts to this and guess will have quite somethings to say about this. =D

What It is:

Trying to put a self made definition to something who's title seems to say facts obvious enough... I'll do it anyway. =D... Animal testing is the systematic and regulated use of animals, not limited to mammals or rodents, but covering essentially all kinds of living beings (other than humans of course ;D) to testing of products ranging from simple house hold commodities that we find ourselves exposed to (like perfume) and more directly dealing elements like medicine. 

Regulated testing meaning that they're generally documented. Humane terms of use of animals exist, implying that one cannot simply walk in and scramble about with a living being to see what happens with is. I'm sure these procedures are made public, but the actual testing, results and outcome of testings sessions will obviously be held in secret as they don't seem to pertain to any perticular reason other than feeding the fire of those who're against animal testing.

What I think =)

 

As you may have guessed from the above few lines... I've got nothing against animal testing. Wait, that sounds cruel. But regardless of what people call it, I'm most ok with animal testing. Let me look at the facts here....

--> Humane experimentation

People get this image of animals being strung up on a board with blood thirsty men in coats disfiguring them to see what would come of them. The truth is, the whole thing is (obviously) more (sane) and humane than that. Like i said.... it involves a regulated protocol of testing procedures by which testing takes place. Now these rules obviously differ from one industrial theme to the other. I don't see the medicinal department playing around with the effects of over shampooing on skin. 

The fact is... Not all animal testing even ends up in pain or death. I'm not saying that they would enjoy the "experience" of being put in situations which humans would consider inhumane. But that's the fact, someone has to be tested, can't be humans, has to be an animal which is as close as can comparatively be to humans, and shouldn't be scarce in nature. I'm not sounding Nazi like in anyway... I'm only looking at what's been going on AND what how I'm related to the whole thing.

-->Selective specie testing 

They don't exactly toss in every animal you could find in a zoo. Most of the organisms are small and are specifically relative to the subject at hand. Take for example, genetic testing. I'm pretty sure you'd have assumed the sad looking rat to have being subject to something seriously nasty,... Ok maybe they are... But something as broad as genetic testing, acually find preference with "fuit fly"... I seriously don't find a problem with a bunch of flies dying for our comfortable living. (I'm beginning to get the feeling that i'm beginning to sound more and more insensitive... But let me assure you... I've just taken it more normal than the rest of you... ;D)

Here's a wiki extract of the fruit fly testing:

Studies in the fly D. melanogaster can use an amazing array of genetic tools.^[56] These animals offer great advantages over vertebrates, including their short life cycle and the ease with which large numbers may be studied, with thousands of flies or nematodes fitting into a single room

Other larger species of cats/dogs and non human primates do occur in human testing. In fact, primate testing is the most relevant to human health and medicine. Study of medicine related to AIDS, Cancer and other life consuming diseases, require a sturdy test bed. Humans, are obviously ruled out. Primates are the next closest things, when the outcome is human and most required by 100s of 1000s of people around the world... i think that talking about what's right and wrong in this matter is more of a waste of time.

-->Forgetting something?

I don't know... but some people seem to be forgetting that they're living in a modern world. It's funny to think that they'd actually stand up to talk against animal testing to extents in which they look for a general ban on the same.

Just consider this... Most women's cosmetics undergo animal testing. How many umm.. (how do i say this) women these days avoid cosmetics just because they don't like it?... How many of these people are animal testing opposers? A better question: How many of these activists do you think have avoided modern medicine because they're animal tested?.... none I'm sure!... I think it's more sensible to come up with a solution to the things people don't want... instead of blasting their way through getting something whose outcome is apocalyptic.

As a closing remark... I'd also like to ask how many of them are non vegetarians? ;D ... i mean... not all killing in the industry is exactly humane right... If they have problems with watching animals in pain... I honestly wonder how they feel like putting them in their mouth... ;D

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Discussion on genetically modified Crop

GMO crops

This review is on genetically modified crops, our views, thoughts on its ethics and the effects.

What it is:

As far the basic definition goes, genetically modified crop/food are man made alterations and changes to the genes of a crop. This is to produce desirable characteristics in the crop. This is a highly technologically intensive process and cannot be just "done" by anyone. The problems would be testing and finding out the quality of the resulting modified crop by comparing it against the unmodified version of the crop. 

Apart from subject the modified version of the crop to comparative study, they also try to find out problems which may have arisen because of changes to the genes in the first place. This generally takes years to prove negative and when requires stringent procedures for market validation by the FDA.

A wiki extract of exactly how they alter genes is given below:

Genetic modification involves the insertion or deletion of genes. In the process of cisgenesis, genes are artificially transferred between organisms that could be conventionally bred. In the process of transgenesis, genes from a different species are inserted, which is a form of horizontal gene transfer. In nature this can occur when exogenous DNA penetrates the cell membrane for any reason. To do this artificially may require transferring genes as part of an attenuated virus genome or physically inserting the extra DNA into the nucleus of the intended host using a microsyringe, or as a coating on gold nanoparticles fired from a gene gun. However, other methods exploit natural forms of gene transfer, such as the ability of Agrobacterium to transfer genetic material to plants, and the ability of lentiviruses to transfer genes to animal cells.
The method to introduce new genes into plants requires several important factors such as specific promoter, codon usage of the gene and how to deactivate the gene. The specific promoter must relate to area that we want the gene to express. For instance, if we want the gene to express only in the rice instead of the leaf then we would only use an endosperm specific promoter. The reason is because we only want our transgenic genes to express only in the rice and not the leaves. The codon usage of the gene must also be more optimized for the rice since there are several different codons for each of the 20 amino acid. The transgenic genes should also be able to be denatured by heat in order for human consumption.

What I think =) 

 

If i were given a single word to pronounce judgement on this entire topic and walk away, it would be "NO".

The first problem I've got is the fact that i believe God made all things perfect, nothing ever required alteration. And after 1000s of years, quite suddenly, there's this talk about making nature suit better to your needs?... Isn't the other way round?... Haven't we reached a unsustainable situation where we bring up GMO (genetically modified orgasms) to try and compensate the losses we bought upon ourselves?...

The second thing i have to say... Is "Precision". "Modern technology is very awesome". Yes, taken. But i don't think there'll ever come a point where we make out own form of nature. If we never reach that kind of perfection, i don't see how we now suddenly have this incredible right/capability to alter, nature as perfect as it is, to (better) suit our needs.

Well ofcourse they haven't proved anything yet, But that's the point isn't it?... Things like his generally take years to prove... And that's possible only in its natural form, long term human testing. It sounds weird, but i meant just observing what happens in humans over a long term, in years. A number of drugs, initially deemed alright and FDA approved later turned out to have been the source of added problems to drug takers' health. Vioxx is an example. I recall watching them get sued to pieces on the news as kid in the 4th grade... They were a company which produced drugs for various heart conditions. Over the years, statistics were studied and long long after the drug was approved for public use (note that the approval process itself would have taken a matter of years)... the shocking proof that people were actually dying and suffering from added problems caused by Vioxx, was unignorable.

My point is... The same could be easily applied to GMO. The very first GMO hit the market only in 1996. That isn't even 20 years ago. This is in comarison to Vioxx which had been around for years. Not just present as an optional drug, but a main stream drug which seemed to produce favorable results in many and most patients... ironically, without any side effects.

I've also noticed that only a select few bio technological firms hold dominance in the GMO industry. The fact of them making alliances within themselves is understandable and obviously swift, in order to protect mutual existence and interests. How does this bring out customer variety? How does this put a second organization powerful and interested enough to find faults with market dominating GMO even on the map?... and by what criteria do you put up industry standards for an industry so completely swollen up in market secrets, screts which even if known are technologically superior to imitate?. They're obviously take help from the companies themselves, who, in turn, I'm sure, would be delighted to set standards similar to the ones they're already familiar working with.

My final thoughts on this would be that... This should never happen. Should have never happened. The fact that we never complained for 1000s of years, should ring a bell asking us "What went wrong now?" instead of us asking "What seems to have always been wrong?" 

Industrial Review

Inside the International law office of the Morgan Lewis

This post is about an industrial review of an industry which has taken steps to personally control damage to the environment. Well, not every company actually directly contributes to global pollution and all, but an a general office which features high energy consumption, bulk paper consumption and waste generation and disposal,

What It is:

So... many years ago as a kid.... I saw this documentary about saving energy in bulk amounts by targetting office spaces. The problem being, office buildings have almost no natural way of lighting. The deeper the rooms are, the more impossible it is even to get a window. Since work is generally carried on 24x7, the energy spent in just lighting seems to be biggest single expenditure of the corporation's office space and commodity budget.

They spoke of being able to bring light into the building with these "Light tubes". They're fiber optic cables which carry day light into rooms. They're installed on roof tops, these tubes carry the light downward, into rooms which are meant to be illuminataed by day light. This would probably be a public room or a room which is most certainly going to require lighting throughout the day/night.

What I think =)

The Problem at hand would be the unpredictable whether. The sun could just simply go behind clouds for a few minutes or even hours altogether. And there's the whole of the rainy season for the sun to just vanish for days.

This, was handled by having a dual lighting system. It featured each light tube ending, having a light sensitive florescent light which switched on automatically whenever the day light being brought in fell below a certain bare minimum level. It does seem like a solid idea but... I wonder how they'd make the switching on and off of the artificial light seem normal and not irritating when the lights keep switching.

A company that seemed to have taken to particular interest in cutting down office expenditure on lighting was a company called "Morgan Lewis". They're an international law firm based in Washington, USA.

The company features a light tube in the center of the building, providing light to a good part of the central building. I think this would also have a good mental impact on workers in the building. Imagining having a fairly creative play of sunlight and office A.C. I'd call that pretty much a cool combo.

I'm taking the hard facts from a description mentioned in a site:

The building was heightened by extra two floors to make the distribution of light equal in the 12 storey building. The tube that is installed in the office is created by the lighting designers James Carpenter and Davidson Norris. This tube is almost 36 meters long and it rises above 4.5 above the atrium roof that has the diameter of 175 cm to collect the light above the roof. This pipe contains glass prisms that are held in the steel frames. The outer side of this pipe is made of tensioned synthetic fiber. This pipe is held by radial rods and this pipe can project light in both natural and artificial ways

Summing up... I do believe that this could end of saving a relatively large percent of electricity being spent on lighting in office buildings. I specifically say office buildings because... That probably the only place where lighting in most constantly used in such large amounts.

However... The exact efficiencies wouldn't exactly be world saving unless it is implemented as an office standard. I don't see the point in having a building or two with light pipes just for the show of it.

Advertisement Review

We were told to write a review about an advertisement of our choice. You know... discuss about various elements of the ad and how they they it working. =D

What it is:

The ad starts with a deserted street. The view includes nothing in the street except a vending machine. The camera follows a little boy as he walks down the street until he stops by the vending machine, He takes out a coin and inserts it into the machine. They show the machine accept the money and wait for this choice of drink. It appears that he pauses for a while before choosing the cola cola drink. They show him strain to reach the coca cola button, litterally standing on his toes to push the button.

He gets a coke can, takes a look at it, and carefully places it on the ground. He repeats the whole thing and gets another coke can. placing the second one beside the other first one... he looks at the two cans carefully... places one foot on one of the cans and the other foot on the other one. Now, he reaches for a higher button with the logo pepsi.

He is barely able to press it, but he does. The vending machine produces a Pepsi bottle. The boy takes a the Pepsi bottle and walks away, leaving the coke bottles on the ground behind him. As he does, the Pepsi logo appears on the screen along with the slogan "Anything for more"

 

What I think =)

First of all... i have to say that i choose the ad in partial blind support for the product being discussed here. PEPSI!... It's always been my firm choice of drink over any other carbonated drink for a few years now. And I'm known to be quite "required" of the drink in certain times. ;D... in fact, i claim to be able to find the difference between coke and Pepsi in any kind of test... even a test of smell. =D...

To the ad now... I honestly find this ad to be an amazing and creative one, though inflammatory to its rival, cola cola... The fact that they don't exactly down play coke in any way makes it kind of fair. Notice that fact that they never say that coke is worse then Pepsi. They never put anything into view. They ONLY take up the fact that Pepsi, is something anyone'll do anything for. In this case, take a two cans of another drink just to reach for the Pepsi.

Apart from how awesome i find it (lol)... The ethics behind this... As far as i know doesn't exactly play off to be air legal. It wasn't long before they knocked it off the air and replaced it with a more milder, non comparing ad. That makes my wonder why the TV stations even accepted the video in the first place... They surely must have known that the ad would be knocked off. i guess that's where the money comes in. They obviously would have wanted the extra transit money before the final pay for the final ad came to stay.