Noise Can Also make you ill

When thinking of the prevention of environmentally caused diseases many people think about car exhaust pollution or polluted water. But something you can't even touch can also make people ill, noise.

Road traffic noise, according to the World Health Organisation, is a major cause for stress related sickness, from sleep disturbance to high blood pressure, depression, angina and many psychosomatic illnesses.

Urban dwellers in China are particularly exposed to an increased level of noise pollution. According to statistics of the Ministry of Health, almost half of the 322 biggest cities in China exceeded the prescribed level of noise generated by traffic. In almost 20 cities the level of noise pollution is labelled as "serious". In 2004 the State Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) again stated that "noise pollution remained one of the environmental problems strongly felt by urban residents".

What can be done to prevent noise-related illnesses? Since 1997 the law "On Prevention and Control of Pollution from Environmental Noise" regulates this issue in China. Since July 2003 noise is included in the regulations of the SEPA about waste charges, so environmental noise is seen as a waste just as other, touchable, pollutants. In Beijing special measures are being introduced in anticipation of the Olympic Games in 2008: Speed limits for trucks and agricultural vehicles driving at night, soundproof windows for people living close to noisy streets etc.

Modern sustainable technologies can help to make engines less noisy, road surfaces smoother and soundproof window-glass more efficient. Nevertheless the avoidance of unnecessary noise is also a simple way by which each urban citizen can help to prevent annoyance, stress and illness for all members of the public.

The race between Bacteria and Scientists

Description: Bacteria are everywhere: on our skin, in our throats, and the surface of our intestines. We play host to anywhere from 10,000 to 100,000 billion bacteria belonging to more than 400 different species.

Fortunately, most of these bacteria do not cause infection (nonpathogenic), but some of them do (pathogenic). The discovery of antibiotics to combat pathogenic bacteria marked a revolution in the 20th century. Unfortunately, because of the inappropriate use of antibiotics in human and veterinary medicine, certain strains of bacteria developed the ability to produce substances which block the action of antibiotics, or change their target or ability to penetrate cells. Bacteria develop this ability during spontaneous mutations or exchanges of genetic material. Their pathogenicity depends largely on their ability to adapt and multiply. They divide in the space of a few minutes, and each division provides a new opportunity for mutations, certain of which endow the bacteria with the ability to resist antibiotics. Resistance thus acquired is unlike bacteria's natural resistance, which is used as the basis for determining the spectrum of an antibiotic.
In 2004, China issued its first national guideline on the clinical use of antibacterial medicines. The guideline sets up principles for the application of antibacterial drugs in disease treatment and prevention as well as the use of antibiotics under special pathologic and physical conditions. According to the Chinese Health Ministry, 43 percent of death cases caused by inappropriate use of medicines were related to antibacterial drugs.
Impact on public health: Following a period of time when people erroneously believed that infectious diseases had been brought to a halt thanks to antibiotics, bacteria and scientists have been in a race to outdo one another.
Resistance often concerns nosocomial infections (with the development of so-called "multi-resistant" bacteria, which are resistant to many different antibiotics and represent a difficult therapeutic challenge) but frequently it is not limited to hospital settings. Today resistance is also observed on a day-to-day basis (for example, pneumococci, which cause lung infections and otitis).
The development of such resistance also has an economic impact. For example, the drugs that are necessary to treat multi-resistant tuberculosis are almost one hundred times more expensive than the treatment used when tuberculosis responds to traditional antibiotics.
The rise in resistance may be slowed by prevention strategies based on a more careful use of antibiotics and hygiene measures taken at the individual and community level. Various initiatives have been introduced, such as the one organized by the World Health Organization, launched in 2001 to limit bacterial resistance to antibiotics and ensure surveillance.