EPD warns toxic smoke-emitting units, seals 131

The Punjab Environment Protection Department (EPD) has formed various teams to check whether the industries have taken necessary steps to control water and air pollution by installing emission control systems, and to make survey reports on them. EPD Director Naseem-ur-Rehman Shah told APP that the department has sealed 131 industrial units and imposed fine worth millions besides registering FIRs [first information report] over pollution during the ongoing pre-smog arrangements’ drive. To control smog and air pollution, the EPD launched strict action and announced imposing fines over violation of the industrial and traffic rules. The EPD teams are raiding factories, industrial units in nook and cranny of Lahore, engaged in burning expired batteries in industrial units and surrounding areas, he added. Naseem-ur-Reman told APP that ahead of the winter season, heavy smog and air pollution might create an alarming situation in Punjab and especially in Lahore. Therefore, keeping in view the situation, the EPD was making round-the-clock efforts, he added. He said that teams were working under the supervision of secretary environment and they would consist of field officers, with the director general (DG) Labs, attached to them. Deputy Director Environment Misbah-ul-Haq Khan Lodhi told APP that inspection of the industrial units, smoke-emitting vehicles and brick-kilns was being ensured on daily basis by the departmental teams as preventive measures to avert smog. He said that this year, prior to smog season, strict measures were being taken as smog last year, had been declared as calamity in terms of Punjab National Calamities (Prevention & Relief) Act 1958. Likewise, brick-kilns not following SOPs [standard operating procedures] were also being sealed over violation of smoke emissions and not adopting zig-zag technology. The EPD deputy director further informed that smoke-emitting vehicles were also being challaned, adding that the smog situation was under control across the district due to adoption of timely measures and hoped that it would remain normal. Lodhi said that FIRs were also being registered against violators. The Agriculture Department and the district administration was taking action against stubble burning in the district as rice harvesting season had almost started, he added. Noted environmentalist Mahmood Khalid Qamar said that climate change is the single biggest health threat, which the humanity is facing, adding health professionals worldwide are already responding to the health hazards, caused by the unfolding crisis. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has concluded that to avert catastrophic health impacts and prevent millions of climate change-related deaths, the world must limit temperature rise to 1.5°C. The past emissions have already made a certain level of global temperature rise and other changes to the climate-inevitable, he added. Qamar said that even global heating of 1.5°C is not considered safe; however, every additional tenth of a degree of warming is likely to take a serious toll on people’s lives and health. Dr. Iftikhar, former Medical Superintendent Mayo Hospital, said that no one is safe from environmental risks, the people whose health is being harmed first and worst by the climate crisis are the people who contribute least to its causes, and who are least able to protect themselves and their families against it, he added saying people in low-income and disadvantaged countries and communities are a best example. To a query Dr Iftikhar said that environmental pollution was already impacting health in a myriad of ways, including by leading to death and illness from increasingly frequent extreme weather events, such as floods, heatwaves, storms, disruption of food systems, increases in zoonoses and food, water and vector-borne diseases, and mental health issues. Furthermore, pollution is undermining many of the social determinants for good health, such as livelihoods, equality and access to health care and social support structures, he added. These climate-sensitive health risks are disproportionately felt by the most vulnerable and disadvantaged, including poor communities, ethnic minorities, women, children, migrants or displaced persons, old populations, and those with underlying health conditions due to bad air health, Iftikhar concluded.