HYDERABAD

THE HINDU

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2010

OP-ED

11

Japans plan to drill for frozen methane

It bids to improve energy security with offshore drilling but environmentalists fear a leak of methane, a greenhouse gas with 21 times the potency of carbon dioxide.
Michael Fitzpatrick n a bid to shore up its precarious energy security Japan is to start commercial test drilling for controversial frozen methane gas along its coast next year. The gas is methane hydrate, a sherbet-like substance consisting of methane trapped in water ice sometimes called re ice or MH that is locked deep underwater or under permafrost by the cold and under pressure 23 times that of normal atmosphere. A consortium led by the Japanese government and the Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation (Jogmec) will be sinking several wells off the south-eastern coast of Japan to assess the commercial viability of extracting gas from frozen methane deep beneath local waters. Surveys suggest Japan has enough methane hydrate for 100 years at the current rate of usage. Lying hundreds of metres below the sea and deeper still below sediments, re ice is exceedingly difcult to mine. Japan is claiming successful tests using a method that gently depressurises the frozen gas. Tokyo plans to start commercial output of methane hydrates by 2018. At present Japan imports nearly all its gas and is heavily dependent on oil imports. In a desperate attempt to secure more oil, for example, Japan recently did a deal with the United Arab Emirates. In exchange for using Japan as a base for Asian oil trading Japan now has priority to purchase rights to up to four million barrels of immediately accessible crude.

Dementia: a looming threat

With the exponential increase in the population of the elderly in India, the disorder poses a challenge to public health systems.
Dr. Ennapadam S. Krishnamoorthy

Will have a huge impact

Methane hydrates could make Japan energy independent. Japan put a lot of research and development into this project because of course the less energy it imports the better. Whether they can commercialise methane hydrates remains to be seen, said Lucia van Geuns, an energy analyst at the international energy programme of the Clingendael Institute. If it does succeed, and thats very much a long shot, it will have a huge impact equivalent to the use of gas shales in the U.S. Japans ministry of

trade, which is behind the scheme, has requested a budget of 8.9bn (667m) for the drilling to start next spring. The huge budget reects the difculties of drilling deep offshore. In Japan, hydrates in the Sea of Kumano are found about 30km offshore in about 100 metres of water and at a depth below the seabed of 200 metres, making it difcult to mine the unstable hydrates. Concerns had been raised that digging for frozen methane would destabilise the methane beds which contain enough gas worldwide to snuff out most complex life on earth. Methane itself is a greenhouse gas with 21 times the potency of carbon dioxide and any leakage from wells could be an environmental problem. Professor Gerald Dickens, of Rice University in Texas, thinks accidental releases can be avoided. The only potential issue in regards to drilling would be if there is greatly over-pressured gas immediately beneath the gas hydrate. However, there is growing belief and rationale to suggest that this cannot occur in nature. So, as far as drilling there should be no issue. Environmentalists, however, are concerned about the burning of more earth-locked hydrocarbons. Methane may be a cleaner-burning fossil fuel than coal or oil but will still release many tons of CO2. Jogmec acknowledges the problems, admitting mining of methane ice could lead to landslides and the devastation of marine life in the mining areas. There are many other technological problems to overcome, says the Jogmec website. Not least that when you drill you create heat which turns the frozen methane into gas, which could then leak uncontrollably through the sea to our atmosphere. The U.S., China, Canada and South Korea are among other countries seeking to develop commercially viable extraction technology and each is now exploring the mining of methane hydrates from their own sea beds. Some commercial production of methane from methane hydrate could be achieved in the United States before 2025, says a U.S. government report on the subject. Guardian Newspapers Limited, 2010

orld Alzheimers Day (September 21) was marked this year, in India, by the release of a comprehensive Dementia India Report. Prepared by national experts, converging under the Alzheimers and Related Disorders Society of India (ARDSI) umbrella, it estimates that there are 3.7 million elderly currently living with dementia in India, each spending Rs. 43,000 per annum on medical care. Dementia mainly affects older people, although about two per cent of cases start before the age of 65 years. After this, the prevalence doubles every ve years with over a third of all people aged 90+ years being affected. With the exponential increase in the population of the elderly (60+ years) in India, an estimated 100 million today, expected to rise 198 million in 2030 and 326 million in 2050, dementia poses a looming public health challenge, the enormity of which cannot be underscored. The report thus addresses a felt need among professionals, policy makers, dementia sufferers and their families.

There are 3.7 million elderly currently living with dementia in India, each spending Rs. 43,000 per annum on medical care A twofold increase in dementia prevalence to 7.6 million by 2030 and a threefold increase to over 14 million by 2050 are thus estimated Many new treatments in advanced stages of research hold promise for persons with dementia and their families
signicant disability that dementia confers on the affected person, estimated as being greater than any other health condition except severe developmental disability, the impact of this exponential rise in prevalence, even put mildly, is staggering. The report addresses the need for services to be developed: memory clinics, day care, residential care, support groups and helplines, pointing out the paucity that currently exists. Also highlighted is the severe paucity of human resources for dementia care. A number of short-term and long-term focus goals, to improve resources; as well as scope, scale and quality of care are proposed. The report concludes with several key recommendations. The most important of these are: Make dementia a national priority Increase funding for dementia research Increase awareness about dementia Improve dementia identication and care skills Develop community support mechanisms Guarantee caregiver support packages Develop comprehensive dementia care models Develop new national policies and legislation for people with dementia While these recommendations do address the need for dementia to be integrated into the National Policy for Older Persons (NPOP), they predominantly highlight the specic needs of dementia as a disabling and common condition among the elderly; one that can and will challenge Indian public health systems. However, the report acknowledges that dementia must be viewed in the context of other elder health problems, and within the framework of the NPOP.

What it is
Dementia is a neuropsychiatric disorder in which memory and other cognitive functions like thought, comprehension, language, arithmetic, judgment and insight deteriorate progressively. While it increases in prevalence with advancing age, it is not a normal feature of ageing, a common misconception. Further, dementia is a clinical syndrome, one with many underlying causes, some potentially treatable. Of the many conditions that cause dementia, Alzheimers disease A FACTOR: A low level of awareness about dementia is most often why (AD) associated with neuro-chemical diagnosis is delayed and public health consciousness remains poor. decline and waste product accumulation PHOTO: N. SRIDHARAN in the brain; vascular dementia (VaD) associated with strokes; dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB), a condition associated with Parkinsons disease; and frontotemporal dementia (FTD), are most common. The treatable conditions that cause dementia include infections such as syphilis, HIV and tuberculosis; hypothyroidism and other endocrinal problems; vitamin B12 and folic acid deciency; toxic conditions of various kinds and so on. As they are potentially reversible they need to be addressed swiftly.

What the report highlights

The report highlights two areas of great import for dementia sufferers and their families: activities of daily living (ADL) an important measure of the human condition, and behavioural and psychological symptoms associated with dementia (BPSD), an important predictor of health related quality of life (HRQoL). Problem behaviours in dementia include agitation, aggression, calling out repeatedly, sleep disturbance, wandering and apathy. Common psychological symptoms include anxiety, depression, delusions and hallucinations. BPSD occur most commonly in the middle stage of dementia and are an important cause of caregiver strain. They appear to be just as common in low and middle income countries as in developed ones. The report outlines the current evidence based pharmacological treatments for dementia, especially AD and VaD: cholinesterase inhibitors (donepezil, rivastigmine, galantamine); NMDA agonists (memantine); drugs for BPSD (SSRIs for depression and anxiety; new antipsychotics for psychotic symptoms like agitation, aggression, hallucinations; antiepileptic drugs that serve as mood stabilising agents); addressing also their cost-benet in low-middle income countries. It also lays stress on the importance of structured caregiver interventions as part of standard treatment including psycho-educational interventions for dementia; psychological ther-

New broad-acting u vaccine needed, says immunologist

Sets a gold-standard
apies such as cognitive behaviour therapy, cognitive retraining and family and caregiver counselling; as also caregiver support and respite care. Highlighting that caregiver interventions have been conclusively shown to delay institutionalisation of the person with dementia in the developed world; it observes that many new treatments in advanced stages of research hold promise for persons with dementia and their families. The report differentiates risk factors into those that are non-modiable (genetic factors for example) and those that are potentially modiable. It highlights the extensive and evolving medical literature on the role of lifestyle diseases: diabetes and insulin resistance; high cholesterol levels; high blood pressure; increased fat intake and obesity; together the so-called metabolic syndrome as a modiable risk factor for dementia. It is important that policy makers recognise these factors as targets for both primary (early) and secondary (after the onset) risk factor prevention. It points to the low level of awareness about dementia as an important reason why diagnosis is delayed and public health consciousness remains poor. Worryingly, it observes that the lack of awareness extends to health professionals, formal training in dementia diagnosis and care not being a part of most medical, nursing and paramedical curricula; a matter of great concern needing immediate remediation. That stigmatisation of persons with dementia is rampant and that there is a need for raising awareness about the condition across segments of society is explicitly stated. Perhaps the greatest contribution of this Dementia India Report is in its setting a gold-standard for other disorders of ageing: quantifying the prevalence and burden of the condition; its impact on the sufferer, caregiver and society as a whole; the framework of services required in order to give succour and solace to sufferers and their families; the causes, risk factors, treatments and management models; and the State-wise national impact. One fervently hopes that it will facilitate a powerful and futuristic policy response from the powers that be. In a country where the average age of the parliamentarian clearly falls in the elder category, one can only hope that it will be welcomed and adopted with the enthusiasm it richly deserves. Acknowledgements: Dr. K Jacob Roy, National Chairman of Alzheimers and Related Disorders Society of India (ARDSI) for permission to present this summary of the report and the use of gures.

he global swine u epidemic has shown how the world needs a new broad-acting vaccine with a cross-reactive antibody response that tackles viruses, an Australian immunologist has said on September 28. Nobel Laureate Professor Peter C. Doherty, from the University of Melbourne, said the H1N1 virus showed how a newly emerged u variant could now spread person-to-person globally, aided by international travel, in just months. Prof. Doherty (who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for 1996 along with Rolf M. Zinkernagel for their discoveries concerning the specicity of the cell mediated immune defence) said, It takes at least six months to get a new vaccine out there, so unless its something that is already in the pipeline you may not have vaccine ready ... in fact you almost certainly wont. If we could design something that was cross-reactive we could stockpile it, the trouble is you cannot predict what u will do. The key to creating a stockpile-able vaccine that would be effective against all versions of the u, he said, was to nd elements of the virus make-up that were shared by all variants. Doherty said several potential targets had been identied, although

In India
Assuming incremental life expectancy and a stable incidence of dementia, the report attempts to estimate the future burden of dementia both nationally and State-wise. A twofold increase in dementia prevalence to 7.6 million by 2030 and a threefold increase to over 14 million by 2050 are thus estimated. Interestingly in the State-wise estimation, Delhi, Bihar and Jharkhand are all estimated to witness a 200 per cent or greater increment in dementia cases. These gures have of course been calculated based on certain assumptions. When one factors in the

OPINION: We need to make a cross-reactive antibody response, says Prof. Doherty seen in this 2007 le picture at the Third Burnet lecture in Hyderabad.
PHOTO: G. KRISHNASWAMY

whether a broad-acting vaccine was a technical possibility would not be known for at least a decade. The only way were ever going to knock that is if we can make a crossreactive antibody response, because the thing is just so variable, he said. Xinhua

(Dr. Ennapadam S. Krishnamoorthy is Honorary Secretary, the Voluntary Health Services and Senior Consultant in Clinical Neurology and Neuropsychiatry based in Chennai.)

Trapped Chilean miners begin training for escape

A capsule is being readied, but last resort is ladder-climb.
Jonathan Franklin fter nearly two months trapped inside a collapsed copper mine, 33 Chilean miners are now beginning a training regime for the nal chapter of their underground odyssey: escape. As three simultaneous rescue operations slowly drill through 688m (2,257ft) of solid rock at the San Jose mine, the men are receiving detailed instructions on the latest plans to haul them out one by one inside a torpedoshaped rescue capsule, which has been called the Phoenix.

CORRECTIONS AND CLARIFICATIONS

>>In the editorial, Niger neglected by the world (September 25, 2010), there was a reference to Jean Ziegler, former U.N. Special Rapporteur on Food. It should be former U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food. >>In the news report, Games: Prince Charles, Pratibha will have a prominent role (September 28, 2010), a reader pointed out this incorrect usage of phrase in the sentence: the Indian government and the Princes ofce appeared to be loggerheads on the issue It should have been appeared to be at loggerheads. >>In the rst paragraph of the Online Off Line Column (September 27, 2010) there was a reference to the possible impact of the Allahabad High Court judgment in the Ayodhya title case (scheduled for September 23). It should have been 24. It is the policy of The Hindu to correct signicant errors as soon as possible. Please specify the edition (place of publication), date and page. The Readers Editors ofce can be contacted by Telephone: +91-44-28418297/28576300 (11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday to Friday); Fax: +91-44-28552963; E-mail: readerseditor@thehindu.co.in Mail: Readers Editor, The Hindu, Kasturi Buildings, 859 & 860 Anna Salai, Chennai 600 002, India. All communication must carry the full postal address and telephone number. No personal visits. The Terms of Reference for the Readers Editor are on www.thehindu.com

Planned for next month

The men are expected to be rescued next month. If the current three rescue operations fail, a fallback plan calls for the men to climb up ladders for hundreds of feet unaided, a physical feat so daunting that a personal trainer has been hired for the men. Jean Christophe Romagnoli, an adviser to the Chilean armed forces and professional athletes, has spent the past two week training the men in preparation for more strenuous gym classes. They have a two kilometre stretch of tunnels. The men are walking the tunnels and some

are jogging. We are using U.S. army tness training, so the men sing while they jog. Romagnoli said the singing was a safety precaution to make sure the men kept their heartbeat between 120 and 140 beats per minute. We know that if their heart rate goes above 140 they cant sing and jog at the same time. Despite numerous challenges to training the men via a video link from above, Romagnoli said the men were enthusiastic about the new routines. One of the advantages we have is these guys are strong, they are accustomed to working their arms and upper body. This is not a sedentary population we are dealing with, they will respond quickly. While rescue procedures call for the men to spend just 20 minutes inside the rescue cage, Romagnoli is preparing the men to stand immobile for up to an hour. Over the weekend, Chilean navy engineers delivered the rst of three rescue capsules to the mine to start testing the custombuilt cages. Painted with the colours of the Chilean ag, the Phoenix weighs just under 500kg and is equipped with communication links and three tanks of oxygen that allow the men to breathe for up to 90 minutes.

The capsule also has two emergency exits for use if the tube becomes wedged in the rescue shaft. In a worst case scenario, the miner will be able to open the oor of the capsule and lower himself back into the depths of the mine.

Details
Once the rescue tunnel is complete, two people will rst be lowered into the hole. A miner and a paramedic with rescue training, said Dr. Jaime Manalich, the Chilean health minister, as he outlined the schedule of what he described as a 500person rescue operation. Once lowered into the hole, the paramedic will administer medications and intravenous hydration to the men. Sedatives will be used if necessary to calm the men before the dramatic ride to the surface. Rescue co-ordinators are classifying the miners into three groups: the able, the weak and the strong. The miners will be evacuated in that order, allowing the rst group to serve as a test case for the second group. The ttest men will be taken at the end of an operation which is expected to take nearly two days. Guardian Newspapers Limited, 2010

RESCUE MISSION: The capsule that will be used to rescue the trapped miners. PHOTO: AP
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