The sexy actress and her mother

The sexy actress and her mother have been supporting NGOs in suburban Mumbai that take in beggar children, give them shelter and try to put them up in schools. Last year, a girl child got molested in one such shelter, and when Sameera’s mother got the police involved... the landlady of the shelter was pressurised by the molester to evict all the children and shut down the home. “It happened on Independence Day,” revealed Sameera, “and that’s when I decided to do something for these children. One year later, on this August 15, the actress will throw open the doors of a 1,200 sq ft shelter in Goregaon East that she has managed to raise from scratch for these same street kids. “I appealed to everyone to chip in and within a week, managed to raise Rs 25 lakh,” she said. “I was overwhelmed. Even my liftman offered to help.” She’s had further luck since then. Another well-wisher has donated a place in Mulund for the same cause. “We can now house the girls and boys separately,” said Sameera, thoroughly enthused by the spirit of Mumbai.

Cancer and incense

Burning incense may create a sweet scent, but regularly inhaling the smoke could put people at risk of cancers of the respiratory tract, researchers reported. In a study of more than 61,000 ethnic Chinese living in Singapore who were followed for up to 12 years, the investigators found a link between heavy incense use and various respiratory cancers. The findings are published in the medical journal Cancer on Monday. Incense has been used for millennia in many cultures' religious and spiritual ceremonies. In Asia, people commonly burn incense in their homes - a practice that is becoming more popular in western countries as well. Incense is usually derived from fragrant plant materials, like tree bark, resins, roots, flowers and essential oils. Past research has found that burning these materials can produce potentially cancer-causing substances, including benzene and polyaromatic hydrocarbons. However, no studies until now had linked the practice of burning incense to an increased cancer risk over time, according to the researchers, led by Jeppe Friborg of the Statens Serum Institute in Copenhagen. For their study, the researchers followed 61,320 Singapore Chinese men and women between the ages of 45 and 74 from the Hokkien or Cantonese dialect group. All of the subjects were cancer-free at the outset. Participants reported on their typical incense use, including how often they burned it in their homes and for how long - only at night, for instance, or all day and night. Over the next 12 years, 325 men and women developed cancer of the upper respiratory tract, such as nasal, oral or throat cancer. Another 821 developed lung cancer. The researchers found that incense use was associated with a statistically significant higher risk of cancers of the upper respiratory tract, with the exception of nasopharyngeal cancer. However, they observed no overall effect on lung cancer risk. Those who used incense heavily also had higher rates of a type of cancer called squamous cell carcinoma, which refers to tumors that arise in the cells lining the internal and external surfaces of the body. The risk was seen in smokers and nonsmokers. Study participants who used incense in their homes all day or throughout the day and night were 80% more likely than non-users to develop squamous cell carcinoma of the entire respiratory tract.

Safe Sex Ringtone!

A cell phone ring tone that sings ‘Condom, condom!’ has been launched to promote safe sex in India, where condoms carry a strong social stigma even though HIV and AIDS are growing problems, health experts said. The cappella ring tone features a professional singer chanting the word condom more than 50 times, a playful approach that public health activists hope will spark discussion and make condoms more socially acceptable. "We've made a conscious effort to move the concept of the condom away from negative association, like HIV and sex work," said Yvonne MacPherson, country director of BBC World Service Trust India. "Condoms are actually health products and if you have a condom and you use it, you are seen to be smart and responsible." Nearly 2.5 million people in India are infected with HIV and the disease is still largely taboo. The BBC group, which is funded by The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, hopes the condom ring tone can make people in India more comfortable with safe sex issues. More than 270 million people use mobile phones in India and ring tones, especially those featuring hit Bollywood songs, are extremely popular. "A ring tone is a very public thing," she said. "It's a way to show you are a condom user and you don't have any issues with it." The ring tone was launched August 8 and has been downloaded 60,000 times, MacPherson said.