Laughter - the medicine for a lean body and good health

In a regional news paper, it is reported that as per scientists, one can have lean body by whole hearted laugh.  Laughing 100 times a day, whole heartedly, is equivalent to cycling for 15 minutes, exercise for 10 minutes on rowing machine, etc. Laughter reduces stress causing hormone activity.
It is also reported that taking bath with cold water too gives same result as shivering with cold water bath is like an exercise burning some calories, increase in blood circulation.

Try the above with caution.

Toilet cleaning with acid - fumes affect students

In an incident reported, fumes from toilet cleaning with acid in a religious place affected students in the adjacent school causing hospitalization. Some students vomited while the teacher became unconscious.

Status on the persons cleaning the toilet is not known. 

It's my personal experience wherein acidic fumes during toilet cleaning cause severe lung congestion, respiratory problems, etc and we stopped using acid and instead we are using toilet cleaners that are mild and also have perfume smell. 

Further, frequent cleaning does not require application of more acid.

http://www.thehindu.com/news/states/andhra-pradesh/six-teachers-33-students-hospitalised-after-inhaling-acid-fumes/article4226807.ece

Internet addiction

Sometimes I feel that I waste lot of time in front of computer in searching for information which is not required immediately or any time. Like an aimless wanderer on the road, I keep surfing from one page to another page by using the links available and realize later that I spent more than one hour without gaining any thing.
There are people who keep on checking mails, posts, tweets, etc frequently and some persons even have provision for alerts though it may not be so urgent to read whatever is posted. This leads to stress affecting the health. It should not lead to compulsory obsessive disorder as we had life when all these were not available and heavens will not fall if we do not check the information so frequently. One should allot only limited time say half-an-hour or so per day to check these things and proceed with other issues to have peaceful life.
Once, we went on holiday tour to a place by going through a river for two hours and stayed in bamboo huts overnight, roamed around the area in day time and returned back. For more than 24 hours we were without any connectivity with outside world and it is an experience. The tour guide alone carried a satellite phone.

How can we reduce unsafe acts on the roads and avoid accidents?

It is common to see various unsafe acts by vehicle drivers on the roads, like, talking on mobile while driving, driving in the wrong direction, parking the vehicles on the roads at unauthorized places, overloading, jumping the signals, etc.  A large number of vehicles are parked on the roads, causing congestion. Taxis, etc are parked near bus stops to pickup prospective customers, leading to reduced road width for other commuters. This is because no proper space is left during construction of houses, shopping malls, theaters, etc to maximize returns for them while not bothering about safety for public on the roads.
These acts endanger the vehicle drivers as well as other vehicle drivers and pedestrians. And it is not possible for the traffic police to catch all of them at all times.
Common public should be encouraged to take photographs of such unsafe acts along with readable vehicle numbers and local government should create a website for uploading of such photos by public and ensure some responsible authority in the control room to verify, prepare and issue penalty notices.   Surely, local authorities can make a killing by collecting parking fee on the roads instead of their own buildings because of parking everywhere on the roads. Non-payment should result in attaching the vehicle and/or property of the offenders.
Only when such public participation is ensured, road safety for all can be a reality. Else, it will be difficult for anybody to control and avoid accidents on the road.

28 years after Bhopal accident - lessons not learnt by others

It is 28 years now after the occurrence of Bhopal accident on 2/3 Dec 1984. As is widely reported, it happened because of,

1. engaging no so well versed technicians at the time of the incident
2. no proper training to employees, local government agencies including health department, nearby residents
3. storage of excessive quantities of MIC
4. non-availability / switching off of safety systems, like, refrigeration to maintain at 2 deg C temperature, maintenance taken up for scrubber and flare systems
5. starting of cleaning of lines also during the non-availability of emergency systems
6. any safety permit was taken for cleaning of lines (is not known)

Murphy's law was proved in this accident. None of us learnt the lessons from this accident. Though, there was initial euphoria, it did not last long. Though the scale of the accidents is not like Bhopal accident, we read / learnt about occurrence of so many accidents.

We continue to engage cheap labour, without providing them any training. Most of the labour are daily workers. A person coming today may not be coming tomorrow or next week. The safety systems provided are not tested, or, they are only show pieces for regulatory agencies. The large number of accidents that appear in media is a proof of this as in many of the organizations in which accidents occur engage short term workers. The reasons for many of these accidents are also simple and are avoidable. It is not that some complex and unknown thing happened leading to such accidents.

We also continue to discharge effluents / offgases / solid wastes into environment. Large quantities of dangerous materials are transported through public domain, probably, without the knowledge of local government agencies. All these can affect the health of the people if not immediately, but over a long period of time.

The most common finding of CSB during their investigations is lack of training. Training and retraining programmes should be established and examinations should be conducted for the employees to put them in to service. It is not sufficient to cut the incentive which is paid for acquiring and renewing operators' licence after passing out the examinations. Such failed employees should not be engaged for plant operations till they pass out. And while evaluating the performance, it should be ensured that they answer all questions and not that because they answered 50% or so, they can be passed. Because, any mistake can lead to accidents greatly affecting the people and environment.

Plants should have policy of not operating the plant in case of failure of any of the safety systems. And ensure monitoring of the plant even when it is under shutdown.

Plants should realise that safety department alone can't guaranty safety as they are not operating the plant and they do not have the knowledge as good as actual plant operators. Further, how many organisations give serious thought to the advice of safety department. Many times, they are projected as hindrance for production and any production loss is attributed to as obstacles from safety department.

Government and regulators should make start a website with different categories and or key words for publishing all accidents, investigation reports from both the concerned company as well as regulators/government agencies. Governments should encourage all companies to upload about accidents and incidents in government website as per the category and should assure that those who reveal accidents immediately after occurrence in the website and also upload investigation reports say within 3-6 months will not be prosecuted for criminal proceedings. But penalties and compensation as applicable have to be borne by the company.
We can't expect organisations to run for charity, but they should ensure safety of their employees, public and environment and in this process they should not bypass safety procedures. 

Five die in an apartment complex fire

A film shooting set erected adjacent to an apartment complex caught fire yesterday at about 2045 hr and spread to the apartment. Five persons from the apartment complex died mainly due to suffocation and few others received burn injuries. The combustible material of the film set could have caught fire due to short circuit (most suspected reason for most of the fire incidents). It is not clear what type of electrical fittings and how safely the electrical wiring and connections were made. Fire fighters could not rescue initially due to thick smoke.
http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/five-persons-perish-in-blaze-at-manikonda/article4134053.ece

It is also reported that the security guard who helped more than 10 residents to escape by alerting died in the lift due to asphyxia. When a house lady told him that she did not shut off gas line, he went to her flat, and while coming back in the lift, somebody switched off the power supply to lift fearing the worst and not knowing about the security guard in the lift.

Hit by beam, person driving on the road dies

In an incident, an engineer driving a bike along Rapid Metro corridor under construction, was hit by an iron beam of 19 ft length, fell down and died of injuries before taken to hospital. It is stated that he hit a labourer carrying the beam and fell down. But, as per eye witnesses, beam fell from top and initial forensic reports based on helmet damage state that the person was hit by an object from height.
It is unknown as how a labourer can carry a 19 ft long iron pipe, where he was walking with the pipe (as it is stated that bike rider hit him) and whether the work area is marked or barricaded, or, not. Though, people can claim no negligence, then how the incident happened is to be investigated.


http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/gurgaon/Engineer-21-killed-in-freak-Metro-accident/articleshow/17354580.cms?