Editorial 1 : On fire safety regulations in India
Context
A deadly fire at a gaming centre in Rajkot, Gujarat on May 25 killed at least 32 people, bringing focus back on the safety of public buildings and venues.
What fire regulations govern safety?
- The Union of India’s position on fire safety is that the Model Building Bye-Laws, 2016 and its component Chapter 11 on “Fire Protection and Fire Safety Requirements” provides the necessary framework for State governments, which bear responsibility for fire safety under law.
- Ensuring adherence to fire safety norms and standards laid down in Part 4 of the National Building Code (NBC) and incorporating mandatory provisions in the process is left to the States.
- The definition of assembly buildings is broad under the regulations. They include any building or part of a building where “not less than 50 gather for amusement, recreation, social, religious, patriotic, civil, travel and similar purposes, for example, theatres, motion picture houses, assembly halls, museums, skating, rinks, gymnasiums, restaurants, places of worship, dance halls, club rooms, passenger stations and terminals of air, surface and marine public transportation services, recreation piers and stadia.”
- Hospitals, custodial and penal or mental health institutions are institutional buildings, while educational, business, industry and specialised uses are covered separately.
- The same regulations stipulate that all structures for whatever use must meet fire prevention and safety provisions specified by the Fire Authority, in terms of the Fire Prevention and Life Safety Measures Act, 2013.
- In the case of the Rajkot game zone, it was built apparently as a non-standard structure to evade regulatory requirements, and the inquiry would reveal whether it was qualified to be used as an assembly building offering leisure and entertainment services.
What can be done to get the law enforced?
- The suo motu notice issued by the Gujarat High Court extends its directions on fire safety and calls for a government report on action to comply with the Comprehensive Development Control Regulations, fire NOCs, periodic checks under the Fire Safety Act and issue of licences under various Acts.
- Earlier, the State government had informed the court that 163 hospitals and 348 schools in municipality jurisdictions did not have a valid fire NOC. It cited practical difficulties and lack of trained manpower and infrastructure to achieve full compliance.
Way forward
- Given that there were 241 fires in commercial buildings and 42 in government buildings in 2022, killing a total of 257 people (NCRB data), tightening the implementation of the provisions of the building code and the Model Building Bye-Laws is imperative.
- Full accountability by the State and enforcement agencies is vital. Temporary and ramshackle structures allowed to come up in urban and rural areas, attracting unwary leisure seekers, run the risk of setting off deadly fires. They need to be tightly regulated for safety.
Editorial 2 : An altered protein and fussy neurons conspire to cause microcephaly
Context
The SASS6 gene and its variants have been implicated in a developmental process that leads to microcephaly.
Microcephaly
- Microcephaly isa condition in which a baby’s head is much smaller than normal.
- Most children with microcephaly also have a small brain, poor motor function, poor speech, and abnormal facial features, and are intellectually disabled.
- Researchers believe the roots of the condition lie in the peak phase of brain development in the embryo — when the cells that eventually become neurons fail to divide normally.
- Clinicians can diagnose microcephaly before the baby is born using foetal ultrasound and magnetic resonance imaging.
The SASS6 gene
- In particular, since 2014, a gene called SASS6 and its variants have been implicated in this developmental process.
- On March, researchers findings reinforced the SASS6 gene’s role in causing microcephaly.
- But more importantly, the team also found that if one copy of the SASS6 gene was non-functional, the other retained at least some function. The implication was that if both copies are non-functional, the human embryo dies before it becomes a foetus.
- Similarly, in a February 2024 study, researchers reported that they modified mouse embryo-derived cells to remove all functional SASS6 genes.
- These genes contain instructions for cells to make structures called centrioles. But even after the genes were removed, the cells were able to make passable, if also abnormal, centrioles.
- The problem arose when the cells were nudged to develop into neurons: at this point, all the centrioles made without using the gene’s recipe disappeared, and the cells couldn’t differentiate into neurons.
Consanguinity and genetic risk
- According to geneticists, 70% or more of cases of congenital microcephaly seen in the clinic come from consanguineous marriages. These are marriages between closely related individuals, such as between uncle and niece or between first cousins.
- Consanguinity increases the risk of an individual inheriting a mutated copy of a gene from both parents. The risk is greater if the mutated gene is rarer in the general population.
- Microcephaly is caused by mutations in 30 genes. Cells use 10 of these genes to encode proteins that are required to assemble the centrioles and for their subsequent function. When a cell divides, its centrioles help form another structure called the spindle.
- During cell division, the old and new cells need to take a series of careful steps. The spindle is like the handrail along this staircase, helping the cells form and maintain their structure.
The Ile62Thr mutation
- In 2004, researchers discovered the SASS6 gene in the roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans. They also found that the protein that cells made using this gene was conserved across animals, meaning natural selection allowed this protein to exist in all members of the animal kingdom.
- When the researchers suppressed the SASS6 gene in C. elegans embryos, they found that the cells failed to assemble new centrioles, resulting in arrested development.
- The SASS6 gene encodes a protein that has 657 amino acids. The researchers were able to describe the mutation correlated with microcephaly: the amino acid isoleucine at position 62 had been replaced by threonine. Thus its name: Ile62Thr.
- Evidently, a protein made using a SASS6 gene with the Ile62Thr mutation is functional enough to allow individuals with other unaffected organs to be born and grow into adulthood. In C. elegans, it becomes deadlier when the second mutation is also present.
Conclusion
- As the February 2024 paper indicated, different cell types have different tolerances to a range of deficits in centriole composition and function.
- In particular, the cells fated to become neurons are finicky and have the least tolerance for imperfect centrioles.
- This is why, while an individual with a slightly defective SASS6 gene can survive to birth and adulthood, he/she also suffers serious brain and head deficits and intellectual disability.