March 20, 2003	Thursday	Muharram 16, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, March 19: Health Minister Mohammad Nasir Khan on Wednesday directed the authorities concerned to take preventive measures before pollination starts in the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad.

During a meeting, he deplored that no attention was paid to minimize the pollen load before the start of spring season.

The minister said there were large areas covered with millions of wild growing dandelion flowers but no effort seemed to be done to remove these either by manual plucking or through lawn mowing. “This certainly increased the pollen load on the twin cities.”

He directed the National Institute of Health to undertake the selective trimming of the paper mulberry so that the pollen load could be reduced.

Meanwhile, the executive director of NIH, Dr Athar Dil, informed the minister that measures had already been recommended to all the departments concerned, including the Capital Development Authority (CDA).

In a recent meeting, the NIH had finalized a pre-epidemic strategy under which the CDA had been entrusted with the task to trim the branches of male paper mulberry tree. This tree sheds millions of “catkin pollen” in the air, causing allergy to the residents.

It was decided that the trimming would be undertaken before the trees started generating allergens. However, the CDA has not yet started the exercize due to which patients having allergy problem were facing difficulties.

It had also been decided to launch a campaign to inform the people to grow pollen-less flowers like rose and other green plants and avoid growing Dandelion —- a flower which produces allergens. However, no such campaign was launched.

The NIH had earlier conducted a study on “prevalence of pollen allergies in Islamabad,” in which it had identified 75 species out of 300 flowering plants in Islamabad as the main cause of allergy. Out of 75, only 25 species caused severe allergic diseases. The study had also suggested that paper mulberry tree was one of the fastest growing plants. The tree is used for the production of different grades of paper flower, umbrellas, paper fans, lanterns, lamps, dolls, toys and clothes.