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WOMAN OF THE WEEK

Environment, her concern

Involve students to save the environment, says lecturer Nausheen Dawood

Nausheen

Every time Nausheen Dawood asks a question, you feel like a student ill-prepared for the lesson. Do you know who a neuro-toxicologist is? No. One who studies the effect of pesticides on the central nervous system. Do you know what organo-chlorines (OCs) are? No. They're toxic substances that do not degrade but accumulate in the eco-system.

In the 1950s and the 1960s, OCs like DDT were banned in the West. How come we still manufacture them? Her research in neuro-toxicology has left her deeply concerned about the environment. "I was always curious about the effect of OCs on the environment and eventually on us," said the Reader and Lecturer at the Department of Zoology, JBAS College for Women. "I began to gather info for my PhD." In the following decade, she gathered a PDF from the University of Madras, the Young Scientist Award (first woman to get it) and CSIR pool officer status. She shifted to the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board as a research scientist. "I took a good look at the way we allow OCs to poison and maim us. Do you know how we do this?" Dr. Dawood is clinical about it, but what she discovered is quite scary. A collaborative project with the vet college involved analysing milk and milk products. "OC pesticides are present in milk, milk products and even mothers' milk, sometimes at more than the permissible level," she said. Another project dealt with effluents. Samples came from tanneries, distilleries, petro-chemicals, all the known offenders. "We found heavy metals and other highly toxic substances in them. You know the ground water in Arcot District is poisoned. Only treated effluent can be let into the ground. It is difficult to treat ground water."

"The dairy industry also pollutes with the oil and fat washed into the ground," she said. But these are surely not toxic. "May be. But the effluence should be organically biodegraded on the same day. Or it tends to accumulate and begins the pollution process." It is probably with a sense of relief that Dr. Dawood switched over to JBAS in 1996. "I wanted to research and teach. I felt that every individual must be made aware of environmental degradation." Being a lecturer cannot be just teaching and research. There is administrative work too. So what happened to the research work? "The best route to spread the message about neuro-toxic substances is through the students," she said. "At the basic level, students talk about source segregation of garbage to their relatives and neighbours."

The pure research is done by her PhD students. Women are the best to propagate the dangers and the remedial measures, she feels. The Enviro Club and the vermi-composting she's started in her college must turn opinion at ground level. In an international seminar she organised recently, she got her students to discuss their research work with scientists in relevant fields. She is keen the students should proceed with post-doctoral research. "The work has to continue," she said.

GEETA PADMANABHAN

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