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IITR committed to finding remedy for microplastics, says DG CSIR in Lucknow
N Kalaiselvi inaugurated new facilities at CSIR-IITR, including a guest house and imaging lab, and discussed plans for tackling plastic pollution and microplastics.
A number of facilities were inaugurated at the Council of Science and Technology - Indian Institute of Toxicology Research (CSIR-IITR) by N Kalaiselvi, director-general, CSIR, on Saturday.
She inaugurated a guest house, an imaging laboratory DRISHTI, POP-Guard, e-param Version 3; new technology on CRM for Castor Oil and Metals, unveiling of ISO 17034 certificate, and launch of industry-driven translational research projects.
In an exclusive conversation with Hindustan Times, Kalaiselvi also shared plans for the four CSIR laboratories based in the city - Central Drug Research Institute (CDRI), Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (CIMAP), National Botanical Research Institute (NBRI) and IITR.
She said that mission projects are started by CSIR every year to address the problems prevailing in society.
“We have been finding problems related to plastic pollution. Certain medical reports show that plastics today can also be traced in the human body. Therefore, it is the need of the hour to work upon finding a remedy for plastics and microplastics.
“CSIR-IITR will be made a nodal laboratory when Mission Microplastic is launched, likely in 2027. Until then, throughout this year it will continue to work upon background research, stakeholder meetings and detailed project reports on remedies of micro-plastics,” said Kalaiselvi.
She also said that IITR will parallelly work upon an updated version of ATMOS - working for atmospheric air purification, commercialisation of PoP-Fas Guard to tackle water purity. While CDRI is working on phytopharma for non-alcohol fatty liver disease and number of success stories for anti-microbial resistance. Besides, CIMAP and NBRI are working on AROMA missions and various technologies.
“The laboratories are even working on Certified Reference Materials (CRMs) for several plants and other products. CRMs are being imported from across the globe for which the government has to pay a hefty amount of money every year. The making of CRMs will ease the financial load and which will be added as Bhartiya Nirdeshak Dravya in NPL repository,” said Kalaiselvi.
She also inaugurated CRMs for eight heavy metals found in water and pharmaceutical grade castor oil.
