KARACHI, Dec 13: Domestic environment with low quality of houses, poor hygienic conditions, cooking system used in rural areas, inadequate garbage disposal, heavy indoor pollution and lack of drainage cause 30 per cent of the total burden of diseases in the developing counties.

This was observed at inaugural session of 4th Annual Hamdard Symposium on Environment and Health Hazards, organized by Hamdard College of Medicines and Dentistry, on Saturday at a local hotel.

It was also noted that water pollution resulted in well-known and widely prevalent diseases, such as diarrhoea, trachoma, hepatitis and other tropical diseases.

It was observed that Article 9 of the Constitution provided that no person should be deprived of life or liberty save in accordance with law. Word “life” means that a person is entitled to protection of law from being exposed to hazards of electromagnetic fields or any other such hazards which may be due to installation and construction of any grid station, any factory, power station and such installations.

“Principal cause of environmental pollution is industrialization and indiscriminate application of science and technology to economic development,” it was maintained.

Justice Ajmal Mian said environmental conditions have direct linkage with the health hazards and added that Pakistan, which is a developing country also, encountered serious environmental problems, including health hazards.

“Nuclear power plants produce radioactive pollution and involve danger to human life, he said, adding hydroelectric power requires dam that cover up land, spoil wild rivers, increase water loss by evaporation and produce valley full of silt.

PMDC President Dr. M. Hayat Zafar highlighting different aspects of PMDC said that council had maintained very strict criteria for medical colleges to ensure high quality medical education to compete with the international standards.

He appreciated the achievements of Hamdard University in the field of education and paid tributes to late Hakim Saeed, founder of Hamdard Foundation, for rendering services in promotion of educational activities across the country.

Justice (Retd) Nasir Aslam Zahid attributed delay in deciding the cases pending in courts to lack of commitment and priority on part of the government.

President of the Hamdard Foundation Saadia Rashid, welcoming the participants, said that these kinds of events would create an awareness among the masses about the environment.

Later shields were distributed among the participants of the symposium.—PPI