National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control

• But a research collaborative, of which I’m a member, has found that schools might not be ready to protect students from environmental contaminants.
• Environmental health standards can help a school community ensure each potential hazard is accounted for.

Air, water and food quality

• Understanding and controlling common pollutants indoors can improve the indoor air quality and reduce the risk of health concerns.
• It may seem like maintaining proper food safety and drinking-water quality would be common practices.
• But many schools do have some level of lead contamination in their food and water.
• To combat contamination and ensure safe food and water, the Food and Drug Administration overhauled the Food Safety Modernization Act in 2016.

Integrated pest management

• Many schools have insect infestations, and many combat these pest problems with harsh chemicals when there’s a simpler solution.
• Integrated pest management is an environmentally sensitive approach to pest management.
• IPM programs consider the pests’ life cycles and their larger environment, as well as all the available pest control methods, to manage pest infestations economically and scientifically.

Green cleaning

• School administrators also determine what products to use for pest control and cleaning.
• Green cleaning uses safer – or less harsh – chemical and pesticide products, since studies have found that the repeated use of harsh chemicals indoors can lead to chronic health effects later in life for anyone directly exposed.
• Schools need a plan to manage their pollutants long term – these pollutants might be cleaning chemicals and pesticides or chemicals used in science classes.
• When the school building is safe, students and educators are more able to get down to the business of learning, undistracted.

• Setmelanotide has been available through a similar program for patients in France with Bardet-Biedl syndrome (BBS) since July 2022.
• Rhythm estimates there are approximately 500-2,000 patients living with hypothalamic obesity in France, with approximately 50 to 200 new cases each year.
• In the United States, the Company estimates the prevalence in hypothalamic obesity to be approximately 5,000-10,000 patients with an annual incidence of approximately 500 new patients.
• “This AP1 addresses a significant unmet need for patients with severe obesity and hyperphagia, two hallmark symptoms of hypothalamic obesity, for the first time.”

• This is because of their potential health effects or environmental contamination, or because there’s not enough data to be sure that they aren’t harmful.
• Nigeria’s use of such pesticides is the reason some markets, including the EU and the US, reject the country’s agricultural products.
• Yet some countries with strict regulations at home still export the banned pesticides to countries like Nigeria.

Limiting factors

• There are no provisions to hold manufacturers accountable for the negative impact of hazardous pesticides.
• No law requires people to use personal protective equipment when applying pesticides.
• For instance, the proposed bill to establish a pesticides council reserves two seats for an internationally affiliated association, CropLife Nigeria.
• Instead, the council should consist of neutral and independent organisations from the scientific and academic communities.

Why effective regulation matters

• Seventy-five percent of the women farmers in the survey reported symptoms from using pesticides.
• Without strict regulation and enforcement, farmers might misuse or overuse pesticides in farms and storerooms.
• Weak regulations also make Nigeria vulnerable to becoming a dumping ground for internationally banned and counterfeit pesticides.

What needs to be done

• They have passed laws that prohibit pesticides that are banned in the countries that make or export them.
• The legal community should engage in public interest litigation to hold manufacturing companies accountable for harm caused by pesticides.
• Ofoegbu Donald Ikenna, senior programme manager, Sustainable Nigeria programme, Heinrich Boell Stiftung (hbs) Nigeria office, contributed to this article.

• Most experts predict that quantum computers with the maturity to break existing cryptographic techniques will be available in less than a decade.
• To address this rapidly escalating quantum threat, the Kudelski Group, along with its partners, is providing clients with a suite of services and products designed to streamline and expedite this shift to quantum-resistant technologies.
• This comprehensive strategy incorporates a thorough quantum threat evaluation, a detailed cryptographic discovery and inventory process, and a review of the client's existing security architecture.
• Kudelski is leading the market in the quantum transition, leveraging proven expertise and experience in quantum security and cryptograhy to help strengthen controls and harden devices, systems and data against the advanced attacks of the future.