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Zearalenone is a fungal toxin infesting cereals such as wheat, maize and barley.
It attacks crops while they are growing, but can also develop when cereals are stored without being dried fully.
While numerous studies document this toxin in cereals across the world, no data existed for India until now.
This month, a Journal of Food Science study detected zearalenone in wheat, rice, corn and oats from markets in Uttar Pradesh.
The study, by researchers from Lucknow’s Indian Institute of Toxicology Research (IITR), found the substance in 70 of the 117 samples tested.
The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India(FSSAI) does not impose maximum limits for zearalenone, though the European Union (EU) does.
Twenty-four of the U.P. samples exceeded the EU regulatory limits of 100-200 mcg/kg of cereals. Based on this, the authors say India should set limits on zearalenone in cereals. “It is definitely a worry,” Mukul Das, a food toxicologist at the IITR and an author of the study, told The Hindu.
Fungal toxins are commonly found in food, and can be a public health concern, says Vasanthi Siriguri, a researcher at Hyderabad’s National Institute of Nutrition, who was not involved in the study. India regulates the levels of some of these, including aflatoxin, deoxynivalenol, ergot and patulin.
The first three infest cereals, while patulin is found in apples. Each of these toxins has been associated with disease outbreaks.
For example, in 1974, a hepatitis outbreak in Rajasthan and Gujarat, which made 398 people sick and killed 106, was linked to aflatoxin in wheat. Meanwhile, chronic aflatoxin consumption has been shown to cause liver cancer.
Given this, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) classifies aflatoxin as a Group 1 carcinogen, meaning there is enough evidence for its carcinogenicity.
In zearalenone’s case, there is no strong evidence of toxicity in humans so far, though several research groups are investigating, says Dr. Siriguri.
As a result, the IARC classifies it as a Group 3 carcinogen, which means evidence is not sufficient for an evaluation yet.
Zearalenone behaves like oestrogen, the female sex hormone, and could cause endocrine disturbances in humans. Its nasty effects in animals, such as pigs, are documented. When fed with mouldy corn, pigs develop inflamed vaginas, infertility and other symptoms. This is why countries like Brazil regulate zearalenone levels in animal feed.
In humans, the data are fuzzier. It is probably dangerous to humans too, but to be certain, we need to know how much humans consume, how it is metabolised, and how exposure is correlated with disease.
Some experiments suggest its ill-effects: in one, when oestrogen-sensitive breast cancer cells were exposed to the chemical in a lab, they proliferated.
In 2014, a Tunisian case-control study found a correlation between a zearalenone metabolite in urine and breast-cancer risk in women. But other studies did not find similar links.
In the Journal of Food Science study, Dr. Das and colleagues also looked at National Sample Survey Office data on Indian diets to calculate how much zearalenone people could be consuming. They found that average daily consumption through wheat and rice was 0.27 and 0.3 mcg/kg of body weight — higher than the EU limit of 0.25 mcg/kg. In highly contaminated samples, exposure could be as high as 16.9 times the EU limit.
Since zearalenone favours cool climates, such contamination could be limited to a few States. Also, strong epidemiological data linking human zearalenone levels with diseases such as breast cancer are important. The paper is an excellent starting point, since nothing was known about the chemical in India so far. It is time to build upon it.

The municipal model is broken

We need to urgently rethink the way our cities are run

Exploding Megacities

Delhi’slargest landfill, currently occupying 29 acres. The rubbish mountain is just eight metres shorter than another famous Delhi attraction, the Qutub Minar. It was declared “oversaturated” in 2002 but 17 years later, 2,500 tonnes of solid waste continue to be dumped there every day.
Cut to Chennai, the city ,According to Metrowater officials, the four lakes that supply water to the city have a storage level that is just 10% of their capacity.
The water will run out in a month, according to a report in this paper. With nearly 10 long, hot months to go before the next rainy season,
Chennai is set to handily beat its 2017 record, when it suffered its worst drought in 140 years.
Cut to Bengaluru, India’s IT capital. Almost two years ago, the city woke up to news that Bellandur lake, the largest in the city, was in flames yet again, its potent mix of domestic and industrial waste fuelling the fire.
In 2015, the lake had frothed up in white foam, a few days before catching fire. The foam was photographed as it spilled onto the streets.
It was reportedly so corrosive that it cracked windshields. That’s not all.
According to a study by urbanemissions.info and researchers from the Centre for Study of Science, Technology and Policy, air pollution in the city is set to go up by 74% by 2030, led primarily by vehicle exhaust, construction and road dust.

A state of crisis

Officially, about a third of India’s population is urban but most contemporary estimates put the figure at closer to half.
But the combined expenditure of all urban local bodies in India, according to NITI Aayog, is just 1% of the GDP.
Worse, these city administrations generate only 44% of their finances from their own revenue sources like property taxes and user charges. The bulk of municipal expenditure (over 60%) goes towards paying wages and salaries.
Lord Ripon first specified the roles, responsibilities, and financial powers of local bodies in 1882, but it was the 74th Constitution Amendment of 1992 that specifically created a three-tier system of self-government in India, assigning 18 critical functions, including health care and education, to civic bodies.
All of them have failed to deliver.
A crippling shortage of money is only part of the reason. Even where money is available, they have been unable to absorb it and execute plans.
For instance, the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) funds infrastructure projects, but with one year left for the programme to meet its target,
It has completed just 20% of the projects utilising only 3% of the allocated funds.
Since AMRUT was launched in 2015, Bihar and Assam have not managed to finish even a single project!

A wretched experience

India’s system of civic administration, with a permanent bureaucracy and a changing set of political representatives, is broken.
Politically, civic representation is merely seen as a stepping stone to the real stuff.
And the municipal administration is subordinate to the State and Central public services.
The system is riddled with corruption, the functioning is opaque, and there is virtually no public scrutiny or accountability.
For the urban poor, who depend most on civic services, the experience is wretched.
Municipal schools produce functional illiterates
the health services barely function, and
Planned Development” is hostage to the real estate lobby.
As for quality of life, all you need to do is to take a deep breath in any of the cities to find out how poor it is.
After all, India holds the world record for housing the maximum number of the most polluted cities in the world!
The municipal model is broken.
India needs to radically rethink the model if its cities are not to become dystopian wastelands.
Maybe doing away with guaranteed employment in municipal service, and having various civic service chiefs run directly for office, as is the case in the U.S., might be a start.
It also needs to figure out a sustainable financial model for city governments — levying market-related charges for things like water, road usage and parking is a start. Above all, it needs a more aware citizenry, with a greater say in deciding how exactly its tax monies should be spent.

An all-woman contingent of the Assam Rifles made its debut.
So did the Army’s newly inducted K-9 Vajra and M777 howitzers in the military display. An Indian Air Force An-32 aircraft powered by biodiesel flew in the flypast.
The K-9 Vajra tracked self-propelled artillery gun from South Korea and the M777 ultra-light howitzer from the U.S. are the Army’s new artillery inductions after three decades.
The parade also featured the T-90 Bhishma main battle tank, infantry combat vehicle BMP-II, surface mine clearing system, transportable satellite terminal and Akash surface-to-air missile (SAM) system.
The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) displayed the medium-range SAM and an Arjun armoured recovery and repair vehicle.

CMB-Bharat is a proposal for comprehensive next generation Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) mission in international collaboration with major Indian contribution.
There are no active proposals for a comprehensive next generation CMB space mission at this time.
CMB-Bharat mission presents an unique opportunity for India to take the lead on prized quests in fundamental science in a field that has proved to be a spectacular success, while simultaneously gaining valuable expertise in cutting-edge technology for space capability through global cooperation