Section-A: Reading Q 1. Read the following passage carefully: In a hot country like ours, there is always a danger that most vaccines may lose their effectiveness due to exposure to high temperature either during transit or due to poor storage facilities. It is not possible for a common man or even a doctor to know whether a vaccine or medicine has lost its effect due to exposure to high temperature. Some researchers have also started questioning whether the much-publicized polio vaccine is really effective in rural areas because it may not be stored or transported at the desired low temperature.
2. The scientists at the Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT) in Hyderabad have developednew type of temperature sensitive warning labels for vaccine vials. These labels change their colour if the vaccine or medicine contained in the vial is exposed to temperature higher than the prescribed one. According to K V Raghavan, Director of IICT, the institute is ready to transfer the technology and is looking for industrialists to take up commercialization. Such labels are compulsory in developed countries.
3. One of the simplest and certainly most colourful of the procedures to indicate the temperature of surfaces is based on colour changes that certain materials undergo when they are heated. Coatings of these substances which can be applied to metal, glass, ceramic bricks or practically any other surface, change their shade completely at specific temperatures. The resulting hue in most cases does not change when the material cools, but remains as a permanent visual record.
4. Temperature indicating paints known as thermo-colours were developed before World War-II by German chemists in connection with its fuel research and aircraft engine efficiency studies. Mixtures of indicators may be used for colour changes at more than one temperature. The thermal indicators are easy to use. The ability of thermo-colours to indicate thermal conditions of entire surface – not merely a few isolated points – and the value of enduring record suggests industrial potential.
6. Their uses include supervising the heat of reactors, studying heat distribution and heat transfer in processing equipment, pointing, insulation failures or flaws in castings, and signalling thermal strains and overheating. The colour change is also influenced by the length of time the paint is exposed to high temperature.
7. Someday not too far away, it may be possible to have colour changing labels so sensitive as to indicate body temperature from 36 to 42 degrees Celsius when applied to the forehead of any patient to indicate whether he has fever or not. For children, they will be a boon because the danger of swallowing mercury by the accidental breaking of a thermometer under the tongue will be a thing of the past.
On the basis of your reading of the passage, answer the following questions :(1X10=10) (a) Some people doubt the effectiveness of the polio vaccine because they think: (i) It has failed to check polio in some people (ii) It cannot be established whether it is effective or not (iii) It is not in any probability stored in an ideal temperature (iv) It is not available in all parts of the country
(b) The changed colour of the label on a vial would mean: (i) The outside temperature is unbearable (ii) The medicine is much too heat sensitive (iii) The temperature is just ideal for safe storage of medicine (iv) The medicine has been stored in an unsuitable environment
(c) The surface temperature can be studied from: (i) Specific temperatures found on different surfaces (ii) Change in the shade of surface layer of paints (iii) Change in the colour of the surface after cooling (iv) Heating the surfaces at unusually high temperatures
(d) Which of the following is true in context of the passage? (i) Colour changes may be faster or slower depending on the length and degree of exposure (ii) The longer a paint is exposed to heat, the better the quality of paint is (iii) A chart determines what colour should be used for different kinds of temperatures (iv) All colour changes are influenced by the length of time the paint is exposed to high temperatures
e) What doubt has been raised about the pulse polio programme in the rural areas? f) How can the temperature sensitive labels be useful for vaccine vials? g) Who developed thermo-colours and how? h) What makes thermo-colours especially useful for industry? i) How can a thermo-colours clinical thermometer be a boon for children?
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