Drug residues seeping into drinking water could cause health problems. Image by Shutterstock.com Israeli-Arab Study looks to get drugs out of water.
Researchers from the Technion and Al Quds University will cooperate to find ways of ridding wastewater of pharmaceutical residues.
By Karin Kloosterman Israel21c
Why should a Palestinian man care if an Israeli woman is taking birth control pills? A new Israeli peace project focusing on shared water resources answers this question. Israel is a world leader in wastewater reuse for agriculture, and in developing water- and energy-saving technologies locally and abroad. But Israel has new challenges to confront: a growing build-up of pharmaceuticals in its waterways, plus poorly processed wastewater from the Palestinian Authority-administered territories mixed into its water table.
hese issues are being addressed in a new cooperative project between Israeli and Palestinian researchers. The French drug company Sanofi is sponsoring the research and will supply the source material, while the Peres Center for Peace will manage the logistics.
Scientists and graduate students from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology are being matched with peers at Al Quds University in East Jerusalem to study the effect of pharmaceutical residues in water and how compounds from Sanofi might help. Their insights could be applied to local and global water problems.
The heart of the problem is that all the drugs we take end up down the toilet some way or another. And residues from birth control pills, estrogen and water pills, anti-depression medications, even ibuprofen, can remain after the water is treated. When all that water goes back to the farmland to grow tomatoes, or seeps into the water table, it can compound and concentrate — causing considerable biological damage to humans and ecosystems.
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Dr. Haim Cohen, left, and Dr. Yariv Kanfi in their Bar-Ilan University lab with the famous long-lived mice. Photo by Yoni Reif
The field of biogerontology began in Israel, and recently world experts gathered here to compare their latest exciting findings.
What genes hold the key to longevity? Why does long life run in certain families? Could age-related diseases be conquered by slowing the aging process? Why do people lose muscle mass as they age, and why do smokers lose it faster?
These are some of the questions Israeli biogerontologists are answering for a world where the average age is on the rise and the number of people 65 and older is expected to double by 2040.
A hot topic across the globe, the biology of aging was pioneered in Israel some 40 years ago by Amiela Globerson and David Danon of the Weizmann Institute of Science along with Dr. David Gershon from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology.
Recently, prominent Israelis in this field at home and abroad gathered with international counterparts at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) for the eighth European Congress of Biogerontology — the first time this event was held in Israel.
“The role of Israeli scientists in this conference is large, and their breakthroughs from the past couple of years are significant,” says Ilia Stambler, a BGU-based expert in the history of life-extension research. “Hosting a conference at this level shows a lot of confidence in Israeli science in this area.”
‘Longevity genes’ and happiness
Two of the foremost researchers in longevity are Israeli endocrinology specialists Dr. Nir Barzilai and Gil Atzmon of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York.
Their groundbreaking 10-year Longevity Genes Project at Einstein studied 540 healthy Ashkenazi Jews between the ages of 95 and 112 and their children. The study attempted to understand the biology of why humans don’t all age at the same rate, and why only one in 10,000 individuals lives to 100.
The centenarians were found to have genetic protective factors (“longevity genes”) that help them beat the odds – no matter their lifestyle.
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The Adama Dance Art Healing Center in Mitzpeh Ramon offers classes and workshops, accommodations, studios and a performance venue.
Mitzpeh Ramon is known for its enormous erosion crater, desert scenery and quiet. Although 190 kilometers (118 miles) south of Tel Aviv – Israel’s culture capital – the Negev town is also gaining attention for its artistic productivity.
Israeli choreographers Liat Dror and Nir Ben Gal helped put the slow-paced community on the culture map 13 years ago when they set up the Adama Dance Art Healing Center. Located in the town’s Spice Route Quarter, Adama is a multifaceted complex that offers classes and workshops, accommodations, studios and a performance venue.
Of course, it also offers an inimitable vibe. The vastness and stillness of the surrounding landscape energize Dror and Ben Gal’s creativity.
“It’s a very unique place. The geography, the place itself, it’s very beautiful,” Dror tells ISRAEL21c. “It’s very important for us to connect the geography with the community. The atmosphere here is one of togetherness and at the same time each person can find his own way and own things to do.”
Two-room apartment
In their role as choreographers, Dror and Ben Gal have many achievements under their belt. In 1987, their work “Two Room Apartment” won Israel’s prestigious Shades of Dance competition and set them on the path to domestic and international recognition.
- True to its name, Adama features mud B&B huts. Photo by Tzachor Livneh
Today, that work is still hailed as a milestone of the contemporary Israeli dance scene for its poignant look at the friction and intimacy of a couple’s relationship.
Their next works also received broad interest — “Inta Omri” (a dance based on the music of Egyptian superstar Umm Kulthum) and “Dance of Nothing” (a balance of artistic expression with healing, attentiveness, and understanding) – and the husband-and-wife team quickly found themselves on the global touring circuit.
Then, at the height of their fame, they decided to leave Tel Aviv and move to Mitzpeh Ramon to find a way of originating, practicing and performing dance that was more in tune with their views on life and healing.
They turned a deserted industrial hangar into a bastion of dance, movement and harmony. And they called it Adama, which means “earth” or “land” in Hebrew.
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