We were waiting for some respite from
the heat and all set to welcome the winters but got blindsided by smog. The
question is, did we really get blindsided by it or are we paying the price of
ignoring the warning signs?
Human-made smog is a combined result of coal
emissions, vehicular emissions, industrial emissions, forest and agricultural
fires and photochemical reactions of these emissions. Punjab is witnessing
the havoc that smog is capable of creating since late October. Yesterday I read
in The News that, Dr Pervaiz Amir, an eminent environmentalist speaking at an
event in Karachi said; “In the
days to come, Karachi may face extreme dust storms, devastating cyclones and
hurricanes in the Arabian Sea as well as smog.”
This should be a wakeup call for anyone who
thinks that this is an isolated provincial or regional issue that they can
conveniently ignore. Environmental issues have a snowball impact, if not
catered to in time.
If the smog situation worsens, the consequences will grow
in their intensity as well, from mild eye and throat irritation, minor pains to
severe pulmonary diseases and potential cancer risks. The highly affected
people include old people, kids and those with cardiac and respiratory complications
as they have easy tendency to be at disadvantage of asthma.
In 2015 only, almost 60,000
Pakistanis died from the high level of fine particulate matter in the
air, among the highest death tolls in the world from air pollution, according
to the World Health Organization (WHO). As South Asia’s most urbanized country, Pakistan contends with
increasing challenges from the increase in motor vehicles in cities. In the
last decade, more than 11m cars appeared on the roads in Pakistan’s most
populous province, representing a growth of almost 30%, according to a report
from the Punjab environmental protection department (EPD). The polluting
practice on agricultural land is common in Pakistan’s Punjab, resulting in
plumes of toxic smoke carrying over to the neighbourhoods of Lahore.
The WHO sets a standard safe PM 2.5
level (air pollutant) in a 24 hours period at 25 µg/m3, while the latest
readings for Lahore are fluctuating between PM 450 and 500!