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Canadian camera crew captures hospital health hazard evidence
A hidden camera has helped CBC News investigators show the world just why the health of many Canadians deteriorates while they are in hospital.
According to Dr. Dick Zoutman of Kingston General Hospital, reports CBC, some 250,000 Canadians pick up a hospital acquired infection each year and about 8,000 die as a result.
CBC took a hidden camera into two hospitals, (chosen at random) to find out what they are doing to reduce the risk.
The camera apparently showed doctors visiting a patient who was suffering from pneumonia and MRSA. Despite a warning on the door, the doctors touched the patient's table and left without washing their hands.
The doctors then went to the room of another highly contagious patient. Again, they did not wash their hands although hand gel sanitisers were readily available and washbasins installed.
World's third largest glacier gets a clean up
Siachen - the third highest and the largest glacier in the world has become the dirtiest because of the continuing presence of the Indian and Pakistani armies since 1984. Now the Indian army have launched a campaign to clean up the glacier. Its 'Clean Siachen, Green Siachen' campaign found immediate support from the Indian Air Force, and the Indian Mountaineering Foundation has now added its weight to the project. The IMF is well experienced in cleaning such landscapes. Its teams have previously cleaned the Sangotri glacier and the Nun Kun and Stok Kangri mountaineering expedition routes, which had been left in a mess by other climbers.
"Our men are trained in cleaning the glaciers, and we also have funds to spend on such initiatives," said a spokesman. "The environment fee we charge mountaineering expeditions, is spent on cleaning the glaciers and mountains".
An IMF spokesman said that a clean Siachen glacier would be a great asset to a world currently troubled by global warming.
"For us, Siachen glacier is our heritage, we want to preserve it," he said, recalling that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has already declared that it should be converted into a mountain of peace. "Peace and pollution do not go together."
UK Councils chew over gum tax plan
Proposals for a tax on chewing gum are expected to be called for to help UK Local Authorities meet the estimated £150m annual cost of cleaning it up off the streets.
The first national gum summit in London is to call for a penny-a-packet tax on gum and will also discuss fears that proposed changes to litter laws could lead to the reclassification of gum as litter and increase the burden on councils to deal with it.
Raindrops are cleaning up the streets
Edinburgh's streets are to be cleaned with rainwater collected at the council's multi-million pound new headquarters. An 11,000-litre tank has been installed to collect rainwater and pump it to a nearby loading bay. From there the council's own street-cleaning vehicles will be able to collect the water they need to wash the city's roads.
Street cleaning is rubbish in deprived neighbourhoods
Deprived neighbourhoods receive lower standards of street cleaning and refuse collection services than residents in better off areas, according to researchers in Scotland.
The study found that environmental services staff working in deprived neighbourhoods were overwhelmed by persistently high levels of rubbish and litter which undermined the quality of their work. By contrast in neighbourhoods with fewer problems staff were better able to work effectively and knew that shoddy work was likely to be reported.
Fine time looms for lazy littter louts
A recent survey shows that ignorant smokers, lazy fast food junkies and drunken youths are spoiling attempts to make England a clean country - because they will not stop dumping their litter.
Of the 12,000 sites surveyed for the fourth Local Environment Quality Survey of England (LEQSE), over three quarters were strewn with cigarette butts, while drinks litter had risen by 65% and fast food rubbish by 450% since 2001.
Lazy litterbugs who drop their rubbish anywhere and everywhere can now expect fines of at least £50 - and that now includes chewing gum and cigarette butts too. This year's survey shows that we are bringing issues like dog fouling and graffiti under control.
The Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act has been warmly received by many councils, some of whom have promised to name and shame offenders in a bid to clear up litter once and for all.
Malta teaches youngsters to recycle waste
As part of Malta's Clean Up The World activities, a week-long initiative in which local councils, voluntary organisations and schools joined forces to clean different locations around the island, Government Ministers visited schools and talked to the children about the harm caused by dumping waste illegally in valleys, public places and streets.
Minister Ninu Zammit said that more than 32,000 tonnes of illegally dumped waste have been collected since last year at an expense of around Lm1 million. He said that it is everyone's responsibility to become aware of the importance of waste separation and to find out more about bring-in-sites as well as the bulky refuse service.
Seaside pride successfully salvaged
The UK seaside has cleaned up its act and now 120 beaches in England and Wales have been awarded Blue Flags.
Operating across Europe, the Caribbean, South Africa and some parts of the USA, the Blue Flag is only awarded to resorts that have good access, top-notch facilities, litter-free sand and clean seawater. This last factor has traditionally been the main stumbling block for British beaches.
US Study Links Health to Improved Day-Care Center Cleaning
Children are less likely to get sick and need antibiotics in day care centers that are more thoroughly disinfected, according to a new study recently released by the Childrenís Welfare League in the USA. The study monitored the health of more than 1,000 children in day care centers for 10 weeks. Half of the centers in the study were cleaned and disinfected using more precise cleaning tools and guidelines while the others were cleaned as normal.
The study showed a 37 percent decrease in gastrointestinal illness in locations cleaned more thoroughly, 36 percent fewer prescriptions for antibiotics were prescribed, 17 percent fewer reported earaches, and 10 percent came down with fewer upper respiratory illnesses, such as cold or flu.
BANGKOK, THAILAND
For most Bangkok residents the Loy Krathong festival, during which the waterways are lit up by over a million floating krathong, (little baskets) is a magical sight, but it also requires the year's biggest cleaning job.
It takes the cleaners 11 hours with at least 50 boats to clear over 1.4 million krathong from the capital's waterways.
Illegal tanker cleaning operations are costing lives
The Department of the Environment has warned those involved in the illegal cleaning of tankers off the coast of Johor Bararu, on the southern tip of Malaysia, that they are putting their lives at risk.
This type of work can be dangerous for anyone who has not been fully trained, yet it appears that the workers have not received any training at all.
Furthermore, basic safety rules are not being observed - for example cleaners are allowed to smoke while working, and on one occasion recently this caused a fire in which three of the workers died.
The environment is also suffering; sludge from the tankers is bagged up and thrown into the sea and hundreds of these bags are being washed up on the shore.
We understand that the men are attracted to the work by the high pay. Officials have asked the cleaners to come forward with information about their employers in an attempt to halt the illegal operations.