Toxic air pollution in the Indian capital of Delhi has given some 2.2 million children irreversible lung damage, according to a 2010 study from the Kolkata-based Chittaranjan National Cancer Institute that surfaced this month. The report has raised fresh concerns in a country where carbon emissions are forecast to increase for decades.
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Delhi’s air now contains twice as much toxic matter as that of notoriously smoggy Beijing. The health impact has been disastrous, with children in Delhi now three times as likely as others in India to develop severe lung disorders.
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52: Number of unprovoked shark attacks in the U.S. last year (compared with 20 elsewhere in the world). None were fatal. 28: Number of attacks in Florida, the most of any state. Runners-up were Hawaii (seven), South Carolina (five), California (four) and North Carolina (four). 65%: Percentage of attacks involving surfers (or people doing other board sports); 32% involved swimmers. The rest involved […]
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. . . painless budget cuts, after 14-year-old Suvir Mirchandani of Pittsburgh calculated that government agencies could save $370 million a year in ink and paper costs by printing all documents in the thinner Garamond typeface instead of Times New Roman.
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Nearly 50% of American adults now use some form of alternative medicine, spending an estimated $27 billion a year on herbal and other supplements and on such treatments as acupuncture, chiropractic, and energy healing.
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Homicide is the leading cause of on-the-job death among women. And taxi drivers are the people most likely to be murdered while working.
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THE PROBLEM Flight delays, a large share of which are caused by weather, cost the U.S. economy $31 billion annually. Regulators have been slow to approve technology that could provide pilots access to weather data. THE INNOVATION Mobile technology can keep pilots abreast of the latest weather information and plan ways to avoid bad weather in advance, even if they’re […]
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The two deadliest drugs in America are both legal. Tobacco kills more than 500,000 Americans a year. Alcohol is linked to 88,000 deaths a year (including those caused by drunk driving and violent behavior) and more than 4.6 million emergency room visits.
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Percent increase in armed robberies at pharmacies since 2006: 81
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There were 2.5 million emergency-room visits related to drug use in 2011—half for illegal drugs and half for misused medication. A third of patients had taken two or more substances: multiple drugs or drugs and alcohol.
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