Ajmila Islam
Research Assistant
University of Minnesota

Probiotics- Using bacteria for improving health

More or less people are familiar with the term “Bacteria”, which is responsible for different diseases of human. However, these bacteria could bring a health promoting benefit of human is not yet known to the people. There is currently growing interest in certain bacterial strains that have been suggested or shown to provide specific health benefit when consumed as food supplements or as food components. The concept of ingesting bacteria for the purpose of improving one’s intestinal health and general well being can be traced back in the beginning of the 20th century. This practice is now referred to as “Probiotics” and is the subject of intense scientific research directed toward obtaining effective probiotic bacteria and establishing their health benefits.

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Mohammad Sorowar Hossain,
National University of Singapore

Flu Outbreak -An Approaching Nightmare

Mohammad Sorowar Hossain,
National University of Singapore

Whenever SARS first surfaced, health experts were fearfully watching whether another wave of flu nightmare was going to happen, which is due over long time. Scientists finally found another deadly virus, which visited more than 20 countries within few months, infected over 8000 people and finally ended with more than 800 lives.

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Ban on Children's Mobile Phone use - Right away
Dr.Rubaiul Murshed
Australian National University

Use of mobile phones by children has increased sharply in the last few years. Although evidence that radiation poses a health risk is inconclusive, researchers have raised concerns about the possibility of a link with headaches, memory loss, irregular brain activity and brain cancer. As well as scientists could not dismiss possible links with ailments such as eye cancer and leukemia. It has become a old news that a 34-year-old US brain tumour victim issued a writ for £600m damages. For the first time a British company, Vodafone, was named.

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Md. Jashim Uddin
University of Manitoba at Winnipeg,
CANADA

Arsenic: A Vista of the Deadly Devil in the Nation’s Thirst

It was 4 o’clock of a bright sunny autumn. Running into the house, Bashir Khan, a 24-year old farmer who has been plowing since morning a small piece of land to prepare for seeding his livelihood, asked his wife for a bowl of drinking water. The water sequenced the torment of his throat-cracking thirst, as it was apprehensive in his extinguished but appeased appearance. He smiled at his wife and happily went for a bathe. This Bashir Khan, one of the many unfortunates in Bangladesh, did not know what noxious devil he did take with the water. He did not know that he had taken an infinitesimal dose of a slow but poisonous mighty monster: the arsenic. He did not even think of the fact that the water he used to drink for life had, in fact, been steering him steadily toward the death. It is not only Bashir Khan but also at least a half of the population of our nation is unfortunately intaking regular doses of the cursely monger arsenic through every sip of water, or any other drink that is made from water.

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C. Sadaruddin Darwin,
Australia

Food Chain

During lunchtime most of the people from different offices of our office block gather in a common lunchroom for lunch. I do like that one-hour lunch break specially the conversation with people from different backgrounds professionally, culturally and religiously. It was another one of those days and I was talking to a Betty Singaporean Chinese now Australian and an organic food activist of Darwin. I was fascinated by the amount of information she was providing on good side of organic food and bad side of other categories of food. I inquired a bit about the definition of organic food. And I was surprised to know that they do not use any fertilizer that is not coming from organic source and a certification body do check these before certifying the food as organic. She gave me a bit of certified organic Carrot and some salad item to test. To me, the test appears to be same but Betty was trying hard to make me understand the better test of the product. Just to keep the conversation going I asked her, if you use Urea as fertilizer do you certify the product as organic. She replied certainly not. I asked, but Urea is a natural product and produced from Natural Gas. But she says, as it is processed by means of artificial technology it is not an organic product. I asked, what about compose. She said, yes compose is the only organic fertilizer allowed to use for organic food. I asked, but if the trees and leaves used for that compose are not produced organically? How far you will break it up? She could not reply.

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Md. Jashim Uddin
University of Manitoba at Winnipeg,
CANADA

The golden age of insecticides: how safe our food is

Respiration Veni, vidi, vici- I came, I saw and I conquered was the immediate and inordinate self-esteem of the synthetic insecticide discovery. Alas! Pests (insects) are still around to snatch their tolls even in higher magnitude, and we are seemingly in a never-ending battle to pester them. Even though the history of agriculture goes far back in the hierarchy of human civilization, our battle against insect pests is a relatively recent phenomenon. The present illustration will address delicate aspects associated with the golden age of insecticides and its bleak-consequences.

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