Tropical Cyclone Mahasen fully dissipated after weakening into tropical storm on May 16, 2013. Luckily, its impact was far less damaging than initially expected. Mahasen veered west of its predicted path after dumping heavy rains over bay of Bengal coastal areas.
Mahasen hit land with maximum wind speeds of about 100 km/h (62 mph) and quickly weakened. There was no major tidal surge due the low tide in time of Mahasen’s landfall. However, many low-lying areas and islands were inundated by a surge during the storm. More than 49,000 thatched houses were destroyed.
The cyclone spared major populated areas in Bangladesh, including Chittagong and the seaside resort of Cox’s Bazar. By the time Mahasen hit Chittagong and Cox’s Bazar, wind speeds had plunged to 25 km/h (16 mph).
The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this natural-color image the day that Mahasen came ashore. Clouds stretched across Bangladesh, northeastern India, and northwestern Burma.
The TRMM satellite had two very informative views as deadly tropical Cyclone Mahasen was moving toward and then over Bangladesh. TRMM passed above Mahasen on May 15, 2013 at 2133 UTC and saw Mahasen again on May 16, 2013 at 0406 UTC after the tropical cyclone’s center passed over Bengladesh’s Ganges Delta.
A cyclone caused by a tropical depression in the Bay of Bengal killed at least seven people in Sri Lanka, government officials said on Tuesday. Cyclone Mahasen, which brought heavy rains and landslides to Sri Lanka, was expected to hit Bangladesh and Burma later this week. “Seven people have died and 10 people have got injured. There are 7,399 people from 1,947 families affected,” Lal Sarath Kumara, the spokesman at Sri Lanka’s Disaster Management Center said. The Center said 3,881 people had been displaced due to the cyclone. Three people were missing due to heavy rains and landslides. Officials at Sri Lanka’s Department of Meteorology have said the center of Cyclone Mahasen is located 900 km off the island nation’s eastern coastal town of Pottuvil.
….
….
Cyclone Mahasen buffets Bangladesh coast, six dead
CHITTAGONG, Bangladesh | Thu May 16, 2013 7:48am EDT
(Reuters) – Cyclone Mahasen buffeted Bangladesh’s low-lying coast on Thursday, killing six people after forcing many thousands into emergency shelters, but authorities downgraded warnings later in the day as the storm lost strength.
A storm surge did cause some flooding along the coast at high tide and thousands of rickety huts were destroyed by torrential rain and wind, but the devastation was not as bad as had been feared.
Neighboring Myanmar, where there were fears for the safety of many thousands of internally displaced people living in camps, also appeared to have been largely spared.
The storm was moving northeast, into northeastern India, as it lost strength, meteorological officials said.
“It has now crossed over coastal areas and is a land depression over Bangladesh and adjoining areas of India and will gradually weaken further,” Mohammad Shah Alam, the director of the Bangladesh Meteorological Department, told Reuters.
Earlier, winds of up to 100 kph (60 mph) lashed the coast, whipping up big waves as the United Nations warned that 4.1 million people could be threatened.
A Bangladeshi army official at an control center set up to help with relief work said six people had been killed.
Some media said the death toll was nine, with some of them killed by falling trees.
About 50 people were injured, according to media reports.
Bangladesh, where storms have in the past killed many thousands of people, has more than 1,400 cyclone-proof buildings and many people moved into them as Mahasen approached.
Tropical Cyclone Mahasen (01B) is now centered several hundred miles south of Kolkata, India, and will impact areas from northeastern India to Bangladesh and Myanmar over the next few days. The system is about to enter into an area of warm sea surface temperatures and lower wind shear which will intensified the cyclone and give it opportunity to become even better organized. Landfall is expected to occur on May 16, 2013 with most forecast models putting the path between Chittagong (Bangladesh) and Maungdaw (Myanmar).
On May 13, 2013 the Suomi NPP satellite caught an interesting glimpse of the storm as it moved off the eastern coast of India. The VIIRS Day-Night Band was able to resolve lightning flashes towards the center of the storm, along with mesopheric gravity waves emanating outwards like ripples in a pond. These gravity waves are of particular interest to air traffic controllers so assist in identifying areas of turbulence. (Credit: NOAA/NASA/VIIRS)
TC Mahasen will bring life-threatening conditions to millions of people from northeastern India and into Bangladesh and Myanmar. Due the low elevations of this region (mostly shallower than 200 meters), flooding, mudslides and storm surge present the greatest threats. These areas have been hit by some of the deadliest cyclones across the globe.
According to GDACS, up to 22.3 million people people can be affected by wind speeds of tropical storm strength or above. In addition, 4.1 million people people are living in coastal areas below 5m and can therefore be affected by storm surge.
The highest impact, surge and rainfall predictions are for the Chittagong and Cox’s Bazaar areas of Bangladesh but there are serious concerns for Rakhine State where there are more than 140,000 IDPs. (Credit: OCHA/ReliefWeb)
Torrential rains caused floods and landslides across Sri Lanka, which are responsible for seven reported deaths. Several overcrowded boats carrying hundreds of evacuees capsized off the coast of western Myanmar after the lead boat crashed into rocks and more than 50 people are feared dead. Myanmar state television reported Monday that 5,158 people were relocated from low-lying camps in Rakhine state to safer shelters. But far more people are considered vulnerable.
Bathymetry of the Bay of Bengal (Credit: Geomap/MGDS)
Storm surge prediction model (Credit: IMD)
According to latest report by Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC), TC Mahasen is located approximately 246 nm southward of Calcutta, India. The system is moving north-northeastward at speed of 12 knots. Upper level analysis indicates an anticyclone to the east of the system continues to move into better vertical alignment with the low level circulation center, leading to a decrease in vertical wind shear to low levels (10 knots).
Rohingya women reinforce their tents at the Ohnedaw Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camp on the outskirts of Sittwe on May 15, 2013, as Cyclone Mahasen heads towards landfall. Hundreds of thousands of people in Bangladesh and Myanmar were ordered to evacuate Wednesday as a cyclone bore down on coastal areas home to flood-prone refugee camps for victims of sectarian unrest. Soe Than WIN/AFP/Getty Images
Bangladeshi marine sailors stand on the banks of the Bay of Bengal sea, as they prepare for the coming of tropical cyclone Mahasen, in Chittagong, Bangladesh, Wednesday, May 15, 2013. People living in coastal areas in Bangladesh and Myanmar are being evacuated as cyclone Mahasen appears to make landfall late Thursday or early Friday, according to news reports. (AP Photo/A.M. Ahad)
Cyclone Mahasen has struck the southern coast of Bangladesh, lashing remote fishing villages with heavy rain and fierce winds that flattened mud and straw huts and forced the evacuation of more than 1 million people. The main section of the storm reached land on Thursday and immediately began weakening, according to Mohammad Shah Alam, director of the Bangladesh meteorological department. However, its forward movement was also slowing, meaning that towns in its path would have to weather the storm for longer, he said. Even before the brunt of the storm hit, at least 18 deaths related to Mahasen were reported in Bangladesh, Burma and Sri Lanka. The storm could bring life-threatening conditions to about 8.2 million people in Bangladesh, Burma and north-east India, according to the UN’s Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Danger was particularly high for tens of thousands of displaced Rohingya people living in plastic-roofed tents and huts made of reeds in dozens of refugee camps along Burma’s western coast.
Driven from their homes by violence, members of the Muslim minority group refused to follow evacuation orders. Many distrust officials in the majority-Buddhist country, where Rohingya have faced decades of discrimination. UN officials, hoping they would inspire greater trust, fanned out across the area to encourage people to leave. Early on Thursday, the cyclone battered the southern Bangladesh fishing village of Khepurpara along the Bay of Bengal with 62mph (100km/h) winds and was heading east toward the city of Chittagong and the seafront resort town of Cox’s Bazar. River ferries and boat services were suspended, and scores of factories near the Bay of Bengal were closed. The military said it was keeping 22 navy ships and 19 air force helicopters on alert. Tens of thousands of people fled their shanty homes along the coast and packed into cyclone shelters, schools, government office buildings and some of the 300 hotels in Cox’s Bazar to wait out the storm. Some brought their livestock, which took shelter outside.
Tropical Cyclone Mahasen (TC 01B) is getting better organized. Winds are predicted to increase to hurricane force as the system moves further northward into the Bay of Bengal. TC Mahasen is now located east-northeast of Sri Lanka and is expected to impact areas from northeast India to Bangladesh and Myanmar.
According to latest report by Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC), TC Mahasen is located approximately 721 nm southward of Calcutta, India. The system is moving north-northwestward at speed of 6 knots. Maximum sustainable winds are 55 knots with gusts up to 70 knots.
Indian Ocean IR satellite image of the system on May 12, 2013 (Credit: METEOSAT-7/CIMSS)
The cyclone is beginning to round the western edge of the subtropical ridge to the east. It is expected to slow down over the next 24 hours as it makes the turn before recurving northeastward on the poleward side of the ridge axis. TC Mahasen will gradually intensify as the vertical wind shear relaxes along the ridge axis. Additionally, the poleward outflow is expected to open up as the system becomes exposed to the prevailing westerlies.
Animated infrared satellite imagery shows the system has regained a central dense overcast feature that has, once again, obscured the low level circulation center. Upper level analysis indicates the system is 7 degrees south of the ridge axis in an area of moderate (20 knot) easterly vertical wind shear. However, the vertical wind shear is offset by robust westward outflow.
After the next 72 hours, TC Mahasen will gradually weaken as vertical wind shear increases before making landfall near Chittagong, Bangladesh. Land interaction will rapidly erode and dissipate the system.
TC Mahasen forecast track (Source: JTWC)
According to Indian Meteorological Department (IMD), under the influence of this system, rainfall at many places with isolated heavy rainfall would occur over Andaman and Nicobar Islands during next 48 hours. Squally winds speed reaching 40-45 km/h gusting to 60 km/h would prevail along Andaman and Nicobar Islands during next 48 hours. Sea condition will be rough to very rough along and off Andaman and Nicobar Islands during this period.
Pope Francis looks on after his weekly general audience in St Peter’s Square at the Vatican on May 1, 2013. Pope Francis urged political leaders to make every effort to create jobs and said unemployment was caused by economic thinking “outside the bounds of social justice.”.
By Philip Pullella, Reuters
VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis on Wednesday condemned the conditions of workers who died in the Bangladesh factory collapse as “slave labor,” saying unjust salaries and the unbridled quest for profits were “against God.”
His words were his toughest yet on workers’ rights since his election on March 13, and another indication that the former archbishop of Buenos Aires was intent on making social justice a major plank of his pontificate.
“Living on 38 euros ($50) a month – that was the pay of these people who died. That is called slave labor,” Francis said in a private impromptu sermon at his personal morning Mass in his residence, Vatican Radio reported.
The death toll from the collapse last week of the illegally built Rana Plaza in Dhaka’s commercial suburb of Savar rose to 411 on Wednesday and about 40 unidentified victims were buried.
The pope, speaking on May Day, the international labor day, said: “Not paying a just wage, not giving work, only because one is looking at the bottom line, at the budget of the company, seeking only profit – that is against God”.
Francis, the former Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio of Argentina, said there were many people in the world living in conditions of slave labor.
“Today in the world there is this slavery that is perpetrated with the most beautiful thing that God has given man: the capacity to create, to work, to make his own dignity,” he said.
“How many brothers and sisters in the world are in this situation because of these economic, social and political policies?”
Khurshed Rinku / Khurshed Rinku / Reuters
A view of rescue workers attempting to find survivors from the rubble of the collapsed Rana Plaza building in Savar, around 19 miles outside Dhaka April 30.
In his native Argentina, Francis was often on the side of the poor, the downtrodden and the unemployed, clashing with the government on economic policy and defending the dignity of the weakest members of society.
A tornado ripped through 20 villages in eastern Bangladesh on Friday, killing 10 people and injuring about 500 others, a report said. The Prothom Alo newspaper said the 15-minute storm destroyed many homes and shops and uprooted large numbers of trees in Brahmanbaria district. It quoted officials as saying one child was among the dead. The storm cut train service in the area, it said. Villagers and emergency personnel took many of the injured to hospitals, news reports said. Officials could not be reached immediately for comment.
EcoHealth Alliance, a nonprofit organization that focuses on local conservation and global health issues, released new research on Ebola virus in fruit bats in the peer reviewed journal, Emerging Infectious Diseases, a monthly publication by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The study found Ebola virus antibodies circulating in ~4% of the 276 bats scientists screened in Bangladesh. These results suggest that Rousettus fruit bats are a reservoir for Ebola, or a new Ebola-like virus in South Asia. The study extends the range of this lethal disease further than previously suspected to now include mainland Asia. “Research on Filoviruses in Asia is a new frontier of critical importance to human health, and this study has been vital to better understand the wildlife reservoirs and potential transmission routes for Ebola virus in Bangladesh and the region,” said Dr. Kevin Olival, lead author and Senior Research Scientist at EcoHealth Alliance.
People try to put out a fire at Sir Denim Limited garment factory in Mollartek, Dokkinkhan, outside Dhaka, Bangladesh, on Nov. 26, 2012.
At a meeting convened in 2011 to boost safety at Bangladesh garment factories, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) made a call: paying suppliers more to help them upgrade their manufacturing facilities was too costly.
Low cost jeans are displayed at a discount clothing store in New York City. Photographer: Spencer Platt/Getty Images
The comments from a Wal-Mart sourcing director appear in minutes of the meeting, which was attended by more than a dozen retailers including Gap Inc. (GPS), Target Corp. and JC Penney Co.
Details of the meeting have emerged after a fire at a Bangladesh factory that made clothes for Wal-Mart and Sears Holdings Corp. killed more than 100 people last month. The blaze has renewed pressure on companies to improve working conditions in Bangladesh, where more than 700 garment workers have died since 2005, according to the International Labor Rights Forum, a Washington-based advocacy group.
At the April 2011 meeting in Dhaka, the Bangladesh capital, retailers discussed a contractually enforceable memorandum that would require them to pay Bangladesh factories prices high enough to cover costs of safety improvements. Sridevi Kalavakolanu, a Wal-Mart director of ethical sourcing, told attendees the company wouldn’t share the cost, according to Ineke Zeldenrust, international coordinator for the Clean Clothes Campaign, who attended the gathering. Kalavakolanu and her counterpart at Gap reiterated their position in a report folded into the meeting minutes, obtained by Bloomberg News.
“Specifically to the issue of any corrections on electrical and fire safety, we are talking about 4,500 factories, and in most cases very extensive and costly modifications would need to be undertaken to some factories,” they said in the document. “It is not financially feasible for the brands to make such investments.”
PVH Signature
PVH Corp. (PVH), which owns the Tommy Hilfiger brand, and German retailer Tchibo signed the memorandum earlier this year. Gap had been in negotiations to sign the agreement.
The retailer eventually declined, objecting to higher prices, publicly disclosing Bangladesh factories and to making the memorandum contractually enforceable, said Scott Nova, executive director of the Washington-based Worker Rights Consortium, who attended the meeting.
Gap decided against signing the document in October, Bill Chandler, a spokesman, said in a telephone interview. He declined to discuss the negotiations.
“We made a good-faith effort to participate, and for any agreement to be successful, it has to be acceptable to many parties,” Chandler said. “Our investment of time shows how committed we are.”
An earthquake measuring 6.9 on the Richter scale has struck off eastern Indonesia near the Aru islands, but there were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.
According to the US Geological Survey (USGS), the quake struck at 9:31 am local time (0131 GMT) on Friday and was centered 247 kilometers southwest of the city of Nabire in the eastern province of West Paupa and 108 kilometers north of Dobo in the Aru Islands.
Indonesia is vulnerable to earthquakes being located on the Pacific Ring of Fire, a region known for its seismic and volcanic activity caused by friction between shifting tectonic plates.
Last month, a 6.4-magnitude quake rocked the west coast of Sumatra Island, killing at least one person.
MAM/HN
6.7 Mwp – NEAR S COAST OF PAPUA, INDONESIA
Preliminary Earthquake Report
Magnitude
6.7 Mwp
Date-Time
12 Oct 2012 00:31:30 UTC
12 Oct 2012 09:31:30 near epicenter
11 Oct 2012 18:31:30 standard time in your timezone
Location
4.842S 134.085E
Depth
24 km
Distances
108 km (67 miles) N (352 degrees) of Dobo, Aru Islands, Indonesia
273 km (170 miles) WSW (245 degrees) of Enarotali, Irian Jaya, Indonesia
440 km (274 miles) S (180 degrees) of Manokwari, Irian Jaya, Indonesia
669 km (416 miles) E (101 degrees) of Ambon, Moluccas, Indonesia
1027 km (638 miles) ENE (67 degrees) of DILI, East Timor
Location Uncertainty
Horizontal: 12.8 km; Vertical 7.3 km
Parameters
Nph = 145; Dmin = 295.0 km; Rmss = 1.08 seconds; Gp = 28°
M-type = Mwp; Version = 7
At least 14 people were killed and an estimated 1500 fishermen are missing after tropical storms smashed into Bangladesh’s southern coastal islands and districts early Thursday, police said. Police said at least 1500 mud, tin and straw-built houses were also levelled in the storms that swept Bhola, Hatiya and Sandwip Islands and half a dozen coastal districts after midnight local time. At the worst-hit island of Hatiya, at least five people were killed after they were buried under their houses or hit by fallen trees, said local police chief Moktar Hossain. More than 1000 houses were flattened. “More than 100 fishing trawlers, each carrying at least 10 fishermen, have been missing since the storm,” he told said, calling it one of the most powerful in decades. Many fishermen are expected to have taken shelter in other remote islands in the Bay of Bengal or in the neighbouring Sundarbans, the world’s largest mangrove forest. In the past, many fishermen thought to be missing from storms returned home to coastal villages a week or two later. Four people were killed in Bhola, three in Sandwip and two at Char Jabbar, police said. The police chief of Bhola district Bashir Ahmed said more than 500 fishermen were missing from the country’s largest island and at least 500 mud and straw-built houses were levelled by the sudden storm. Bangladesh’s weather office forecast heavy rain in the coastal region and advised fishermen to approach the shore and take care. But there was no major storm warning. “We only got the warning signal number three. But the storm was so powerful, the weather office should have hoisted the signal number seven or eight,” said Mr Ahmed, referring to the intensity of the storm in a scale of ten. “It caught the fishermen and coastal people by surprise. Till now we haven’t had any reports from the missing fishermen,” he said.
Tsunami Information Bulletin in Aru Islands Region Indonesia, Indian Ocean
000
WEIO23 PHEB 120037
TIBIOX
TSUNAMI BULLETIN NUMBER 001
PACIFIC TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER/NOAA/NWS
ISSUED AT 0037Z 12 OCT 2012
THIS BULLETIN IS FOR ALL AREAS OF THE INDIAN OCEAN.
... TSUNAMI INFORMATION BULLETIN ...
THIS MESSAGE IS FOR INFORMATION ONLY.
THIS BULLETIN IS ISSUED AS ADVICE TO GOVERNMENT AGENCIES. ONLY
NATIONAL AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT AGENCIES HAVE THE AUTHORITY TO MAKE
DECISIONS REGARDING THE OFFICIAL STATE OF ALERT IN THEIR AREA AND
ANY ACTIONS TO BE TAKEN IN RESPONSE.
AN EARTHQUAKE HAS OCCURRED WITH THESE PRELIMINARY PARAMETERS
ORIGIN TIME - 0032Z 12 OCT 2012
COORDINATES - 5.1 SOUTH 134.1 EAST
LOCATION - ARU ISLANDS REGION INDONESIA
MAGNITUDE - 6.7
EVALUATION
A DESTRUCTIVE WIDESPREAD TSUNAMI THREAT DOES NOT EXIST BASED ON
HISTORICAL EARTHQUAKE AND TSUNAMI DATA.
HOWEVER - THERE IS A VERY SMALL POSSIBILITY OF A LOCAL TSUNAMI
THAT COULD AFFECT COASTS LOCATED USUALLY NO MORE THAN A HUNDRED
KILOMETERS FROM THE EARTHQUAKE EPICENTER. AUTHORITIES IN THE
REGION NEAR THE EPICENTER SHOULD BE MADE AWARE OF THIS
POSSIBILITY.
THIS WILL BE THE ONLY BULLETIN ISSUED BY THE PACIFIC TSUNAMI
WARNING CENTER FOR THIS EVENT UNLESS ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
BECOMES AVAILABLE.THE JAPAN METEOROLOGICAL AGENCY MAY ISSUE ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
FOR THIS EVENT. IN THE CASE OF CONFLICTING INFORMATION...THE
MORE CONSERVATIVE INFORMATION SHOULD BE USED FOR SAFETY.
…………………………..
11.10.2012
Forest / Wild Fire
USA
State of Michigan, [Heisterman Island, Saginaw Bay]
A wildfire has burned roughly one-third of an uninhabited island in Saginaw Bay. The Huron Daily Tribune of Bad Axe reports the fire burned Tuesday and Wednesday at Heisterman Island, located a few miles off Huron County’s Fairhaven Township. Members of the Fairhaven Township Fire Department couldn’t get to the scene, so they monitored the blaze from shore and kept in touch with the state Department of Natural Resources. Rain mostly put out the fire, and the DNR estimates that about 130 acres of the 400-acre island burned. The cause of the blaze wasn’t known. The island located about 100 miles north of Detroit is used by hunters, anglers and campers.
A Bangladeshi man walks over the destroyed roof of a building in Bhola Island after a deadly tropical storm killed at least 20 and left 1500 fishermen missing.
At least 20 people have lost their lives and some 1,500 fishermen gone missing as a result of tropical storms in Bangladesh’s southern coastal islands and districts.
Thousands of houses were also destroyed in the storms that started hitting Bhola, Hatiya, and Sandwip Islands and several coastal districts on Wednesday midnight for some hours.
Sixteen people died in Noakhali district, said Sirajul Islam, the district’s administration chief.
Four bodies were also found while over 500 fishermen remained missing in Bhola, the country’s largest island, according to Bashir Ahmed, the island’s police chief.
“More than 100 fishing trawlers, each carrying at least 10 fishermen, have been missing” in the worst-hit island of Hatiya, local police chief Moktar Hossain said.
Bangladesh’s weather forecast office had not issued a major storm warning although it had advised fishermen of heavy rain in the region.
“We only got the warning signal number three. But the storm was so powerful, the weather office should have hoisted the signal number seven or eight…It caught the fishermen and coastal people by surprise. Till now we haven’t had any reports from the missing fishermen,” Ahmed noted.
Authorities have issued evacuation orders in disaster-prone areas.
Torrential storms and landslides are common in Bangladesh. In June 2007, at least 130 people were killed in landslides in Chittagong, a port city in the southeast of the country.
Seven people were killed when overnight torrential rain unleashed heavy flooding in Russia’s North Caucasus region of Dagestan, officials said Wednesday.
The flooding in the ancient Caspian Sea city of Derbent affected hundreds of homes with 1,120 people in the affected area, the regional branch of the Emergencies Ministry said in a statement.
“Seven people have been killed,” it said.
Devastating floods in July in the town of Krymsk at the other end of the Caucasus mountains to the west killed 172 people and raised questions about the authorities’ handling of disasters.
Last winter, scientists at the University of Wisconsin and Erasmus University (Netherlands) shocked the world by announcing they had developed strains of H5N1 influenza that could easily pass between mammals (ferrets). In nature, H5N1 is extremely lethal (kills nearly 60% of its human cases), but it does not easily spread from person-to-person. Thus, biosafety concerns were raised over the possible release, accidental or intentional, of these new viruses.
In January 2012, an international panel of 39 influenza researchers agreed on a 6-month moratorium on all gain-of-function H5N1 research-classified as “dual-use research of concern” or DURC. This was followed over the summer by an indefinite continuation of the ban by the U.S. government until consensus emerges on how to proceed.
To advance this discussion, the American Society of Microbiology (ASM) journal mBio will publish a special issue of commentaries on the pros and cons of DURC from global experts in virology and public health (full list below).
Here is a brief summary. ASM officials Arturo Casadevall and Thomas Shenk set the stage by discussing the major events that led to the moratorium.
Anthony Fauci, head of NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, reviews how the U.S. government plans to proceed.
Concerns over laboratory biocontainment are addressed by Professor W. Ian Lipkin, director of the Center for Infection and Immunity at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health.
The authors of the controversial research, Ron A. M. Fouchier and Yoshihiro Kawaoka, along with Adolfo Garcia-Sastre, highlight the importance of DURC and why the moratorium should be lifted.
Public health experts Marc Lipsitch and Barry Bloom assess the probability of an accidental release from laboratories with advanced security.
Finally, Stanley Falkow, who attended the infamous 1975 Asilomar conference, provides historical context by comparing the current H5N1 moratorium to lessons learned from the moratorium on recombinant DNA technology.
Ten people died of a measles outbreak from 17 September to the present date, in Menongue City, capital of the south-eastern Kuando Kubango Province, a fact that is worrying the local health authorities. ANGOP has learnt that most of the deceased are children below the age of two, but there is also the record of a 35-year old adult. According to the head of the Menongue Municipality health department, Carlos Jonas, who gave this information to ANGOP on Thursday, in view of this worrying reality, which includes the fact that this disease is highly contagious, the authorities have reinforced routine vaccination acts. From 17 September up to the present date the authorities recorded 320 cases of measles were recorded in Menongue City, a number that is considered very high considering the period of the outbreak. According to official sources ten people are currently in-patients in the central hospital for medical assistance, while others are getting ambulatory treatment.
Biohazard name:
Measles
Biohazard level:
2/4 Medium
Biohazard desc.:
Bacteria and viruses that cause only mild disease to humans, or are difficult to contract via aerosol in a lab setting, such as hepatitis A, B, and C, influenza A, Lyme disease, salmonella, mumps, measles, scrapie, dengue fever, and HIV. “Routine diagnostic work with clinical specimens can be done safely at Biosafety Level 2, using Biosafety Level 2 practices and procedures. Research work (including co-cultivation, virus replication studies, or manipulations involving concentrated virus) can be done in a BSL-2 (P2) facility, using BSL-3 practices and procedures. Virus production activities, including virus concentrations, require a BSL-3 (P3) facility and use of BSL-3 practices and procedures”, see Recommended Biosafety Levels for Infectious Agents.
A 38-year-old woman, identified as Mrs. Torugbene-Ere Aboh, escaped death by the whiskers, following a violent attack on her by a shark at Forcados River in Oboro Community, Burutu Local Government Area of Delta State. Vanguard gathered that the woman, a mother of five, who was taking her bath in the overflowing river, had gone for a three-day fasting programme in a church in the community, when she was attacked by the shark in the river. Narrating her ordeal, Mrs Aboh, said: “Shortly after I started bathing, I felt a sharp cut on my right leg and I screamed for help. The screaming drew the attention of my brethren who were also in the river and they came to my rescue. “I was immediately taken to a nearby patent medicine shop, where I was given 12 stitches before I was later taken by my husband, to a private clinic at Bomadi, for proper medical treatment.”
Biohazard name:
Shark attack (fatal)
Biohazard level:
0/4 —
Biohazard desc.:
This does not included biological hazard category.
NASA/THEMIS Illustration showing magnetic reconnection in the magnetotail triggering the onset of substorms. Substorms are the sudden violent eruptions of space weather that release solar energy trapped in the Earth’s magnetic field. The reconnections trigger dynamic changes in the auroral displays seen near Earth’s northern and southern magnetic poles, causing a burst of light and movement in the Northern and Southern Lights.
LONDON — The discovery by NASA rover Curiosity of evidence that water once flowed on Mars – the most Earth-like planet in the solar system – should intensify interest in what the future could hold for mankind.
The only thing stopping Earth having a lifeless environment like Mars is the magnetic field that shields us from deadly solar radiation and helps some animals migrate, and it may be a lot more fragile and febrile than one might think.
Scientists say earth’s magnetic field is weakening and could all but disappear in as little as 500 years as a precursor to flipping upside down.
It has happened before – the geological record suggests the magnetic field has reversed every 250,000 years, meaning that, with the last event 800,000 years ago, another would seem to be overdue.
“Magnetic north has migrated more than 1,500 kilometres over the past century,” said Conall Mac Niocaill, an earth scientist at Oxford University. “In the past 150 years, the strength of the magnetic field has lessened by 10 percent, which could indicate a reversal is on the cards.”
While the effects are hard to predict, the consequences may be enormous. The loss of the magnetic field on Mars billions of years ago put paid to life on the planet if there ever was any, scientists say.
Mac Niocaill said Mars probably lost its magnetic field 3.5-4.0 billion years ago, based on observations that rocks in the planet’s southern hemisphere have magnetisation.
The northern half of Mars looks younger because it has fewer impact craters, and has no magnetic structure to speak of, so the field must have shut down before the rocks there were formed, which would have been about 3.8 billion years ago.
“With the field dying away, the solar wind was then able to strip the atmosphere away, and you would also have an increase in the cosmic radiation making it to the surface,” he said.
“Both of these things would be bad news for any life that might have formed on the surface – either wiping it out, or forcing it to migrate into the interior of the planet.”
RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW
Earth’s magnetic field has always restored itself but, as it continues to shift and weaken, it will present challenges – satellites could be more exposed to solar wind and the oil industry uses readings from the field to guide drills.
In nature, animals which use the field could be mightily confused – birds, bees, and some fish all use the field for navigation. So do sea turtles whose long lives, which can easily exceed a hundred years, means a single generation could feel the effects.
Birds may be able to cope because studies have shown they have back-up systems that rely on stars and landmarks, including roads and power lines, to find their way around.
The European Space Agency is taking the issue seriously. In November, it plans to launch three satellites to improve our fairly blurry understanding of the magnetosphere.
The project – Swarm – will send two satellites into a 450 kilometre high polar orbit to measure changes in the magnetic field, while a third satellite 530 kilometres high will look at the influence of the sun.
DESCENT INTO CHAOS
Scientists, who have known for some time the magnetic field has a tendency to flip, have made advances in recent years in understanding why and how it happens.
The field is generated by convection currents that churn in the molten iron of the planet’s outer core. Other factors, such as ocean currents and magnetic rocks in the earth’s crust also contribute.
The Swarm mission will pull all these elements together to improve computer models used to predict how the magnetic field will move and how fast it could weaken.
Ciaran Beggan, a geomagnetic specialist at the British Geological Survey in Edinburgh, said studies have also refined our understanding of how the field reverses.
They have focused on lava flows. When these cool and form crystals the atoms in iron-rich molten rock align under the influence of the magnetic field, providing a geological memory of the earth’s field.
But that memory looks different in various locations around the world, suggesting the reversal could be a chaotic and fairly random process.
“Rather than having strong north and south poles, you get lots of poles around the planet. So, a compass would not do you much good,” said Beggan.
While the whole process takes 3,000-5,000 years, latest research suggests the descent into a chaotic state could take as little as 500 years, although there are significant holes in scientific understanding.
“Although electricity grids and GPS systems would be more vulnerable, we are not really sure how all the complex things that are linked together would react,” Beggan said.
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