LAHORE, Sept 17: The Lahore High Court (LHC) has banned the use of polythene bags in Punjab.

Justice Syed Shabbar Raza Rizvi handed down this verdict here on Wednesday on a petition by lawyer Khurram Khan, who underlined the hazards posed by such bags.

He said people were using polythene bags without knowing that these were a serious threat to their health. He said polythene bags clogged the drainage system, spread diseases, made the soil infertile and destroyed marine life. “The use of black polythene bags can cause cancer,” he said.

Khan said these bags were the biggest hurdle to the drainage of water in monsoon, making provincial and city governments helpless. He said dumping and burning of polythene bags was unsafe because these were not degradable. Their recycling was costly and therefore impossible due to limited resources available with the government. Citing researchers, the petitioner said it took thousands of years to decompose polythene material. Similarly, burning polythene bags released toxic gases that caused ill effects on human health, especially respiratory system.

The petitioner pointed out that certain groups having vested interests were deliberately making society dependent on polythene bags because they were making huge money from this business. He said the government was not taking steps to educate people about the effects of polythene bags and encourage them to use alternatives.

He said in Bangladesh and Bombay polythene bags were banned after they choked the drainage system during flooding. He said the government was not taking any steps to curb the use of polythene bags at household, commercial and industrial level.