BARE FACTS: Branded beauty products can be harmful

Women who are big on beauty products are in for a shock. A recent study released by two US-based organisations-the Environmental Working Group Coming Clean and Health Care Without Harm-says many beauty products can cause birth defects by damaging the human reproductive system.

Seventy-two per cent of the top 72 cosmetics studied were found to contain phthalates, a harmful industrial chemical. In the line of fire are some brands high on Indian popularity charts. These include Christian Dior's perfume Poison, Aqua Net Hair Spray, Maybelline Super Shine Nail Gloss and products from Revlon and Calvin Klein. The study says perfumes are the prime culprits. Elizabeth Arden's Red Door, a favourite with women, contains as high as 28,000 phthalates per million parts.

"Cosmetic allergies range from contact allergies, to respiratory ones due to perfume inhalation or sun allergies due to photosensitive chemicals," says dermatologist Dr Shruti Tandon, adding that even herbal products contain harmful chemicals. She warns that sticker bindis can cause white patches on the forehead, nail polish can result in yellow discoloration of nails, hair gels and sprays can cause split ends and excessive use of creams and oils can cause pimples and pigmentation. The beauty business does have some ugly truths.

-Shefalee Vasudev

RURAL SANITATION
Less Loos, More

There's a lot of nature in the countryside but very little by way of answering nature's call. Only 18 per cent of the rural population has indoor toilets. That makes India's rural sanitation worse off than Bangladesh with 44 per cent, while Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Uganda and Indonesia have loos for 51 per cent to 75 per cent of their population.

Surprisingly, in Andhra Pradesh, where Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu talks about providing Internet connectivity to all villages, the incidence is a miserable 12 per cent. The lack of sanitation is not only disgraceful, it's dangerous. Nearly seven lakh children die annually due to diarrhoea in the country; about three crore rural people suffer from sanitation-related diseases; the country loses 18 crore mandays per year due to sickness caused by sanitation-related diseases and the economic loss is estimated at Rs 1,200 crore a year. Despite subsidies and grants for rural sanitation, the money is clearly going down the toilet drain.

-Amarnath K. Menon

All For a Car

BENDER OF RULES: Patnaik

Skeletons are tumbling out of the cupboard in Orissa. Old records in possession of India Today shows that in the early 1990s, when he held the same portfolio as finance minister that he holds today, Ramkrishna Patnaik improperly secured a loan from the Orissa State Financial Corporation (OSFC) to buy a taxi, pretending to be a cab driver. He pressured the OSFC to lower the margin money to be deposited by him for purchasing a taxi from 25 per cent to 10 per cent. He also avoided higher sales tax in Orissa by buying the car in Kolkata to save Rs 6,000. Small gain perhaps, but a big loss of reputation.

-Ruben Banerjee

FUNNY BONE
Beverage Berserk

You know you are addicted to coffee if...
* You sleep with your eyes open.
* You have to watch videos in fast-forward.
* The only time you are standing still is during an earthquake.
* Your eyes stay open when you sneeze.
* You chew on other people's fingernails.
* You don't sweat, you percolate.
* You channel surf faster without a remote.
* You can outlast the Energizer bunny.
* Your nervous twitch registers on the Richter scale.
* Your first-aid kit contains two pints of coffee with an iv hook-up.
* You ski uphill.
* You get a speeding ticket even when you are parked.
* You haven't blinked since the last lunar eclipse.