In the pursuit of economic success, we ignore our environmental priorities
CENTURIES of industrialization and unrestricted use of chemicals have devastated the Earth’s environment and proved to be a real health hazard for all living things. And though serious efforts are being made to solve this issue, there’s much more that needs to be done.
The first step should be awareness. Millions around the world are unfortunately, still in a state of ignorance. People don’t know the hazards of the things that they are using in their daily life. But the sad part is that a majority of them are happy in living with the mantra, ignorance is bliss.
Industrialization is the backbone of any country’s economy. But in far too many places, it has come at the expense of health and life. There are standards of protocol (SOP) for manufacturing, transport and use of every chemicals that should be strictly followed in every industry and also at the user end. However, Pakistan is one of those many countries where such measures aren’t followed.
A year back, a series of workshops were held by the National Poison Control Centre, Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, Karachi. The workshops were held with the help of WHO’s Centre on the Chemical Safety. The workshops were represented by almost every walk of life; doctors, paramedics, engineers, industrialist, managers, policemen, ambulance service providers and the media. The outcome of every workshop was forwarded to the concerned ministry with the hope that the recommendation of these workshops will be considered seriously and put forward for legislation with implementation.
Scientifically, if you increase the duration of exposure, even the minimum concentration of the chemical cause maximum hazard. The concentration is directly proportional to the exposure and so the risk. There are thousands and thousands of chemicals in use throughout the country. Among them, the most hazardous are the chemicals used in agricultural, petroleum, cement and the leather tanning industries. Being an agrarian economy, the vast majority of our people come across pesticides. No doubt that the pesticide companies are being safety conscience and giving information regarding the safe use and handling of the chemicals. But is that enough? Do people know how to protect themselves? Though a government department is suppose to work towards this end, this problem needs to be solved by all. Surprisingly we don’t even have a department or crises management team in our country, as was displayed during the Tasman Spirit disaster. Another incident was the one that happened with the Edhi Foundation rescue party at Gadani. One of their young team members lost his life while trying to take out a dead body of the ship crew from an empty oil tank of a ship. The young man had amazingly jumped into the oil tank without any precautionary measures, like a gas mask or rope with a pulley etc. He simply tied the rope around his waist that was gripped by a man with his bare hands standing on the deck. In the process he twice fell onto the surface of the tank and subsequently died on his way to the hospital. Shall we call this incident as unawareness, ignorance or carelessness and shall we justify any of these?
The other three members of the rescue team were taken to a hospital where they were given first aid treatment and were discharged. On the second day they developed the symptoms of nausea, headache, vertigo and difficulty in respiration. Finally they were reported to JPMC and admitted in NPCC where I was their doctor.
During physical examination, I noticed that their soles were black in colour. I asked about it and come to know that as all of them wear chappal (flip-flops) the crude oil always stuck to their soles. This became the source of continuous exposure through skin that leads to relapse of symptoms. After simple scrubbing their feet with soap and water, they became all right. This is an example of unawareness that leads to death.
Unfortunately, there isn’t even a poison control centre, other than the one at JPMC. The need is to develop the poison control centers throughout the country that are equipped with proper instrumentation, lab and with clinical toxicologist.
In the pursuit of economic success, we ignore our environmental priorities
