The port authorities have suspended lifting soybean cargo from a ship anchored at Karachi Port after complaints of breathing problems in residents of the area, port and shipping sources said on Saturday. A ship, Mega Benefit, carrying 67,000 metric tonnes of soybean cargo from Egypt had anchored on Thursday at Karachi Port. Over complaints of smoke spreading in the area, Chairman of Karachi Port Trust inspected the port area. Local MNA Abdul Qadir Patel had in a social media statement said that eight people were admitted at a hospital due to breathing problems. In January this year 14 people from different parts of the port area had reportedly died and over 400 taken to hospitals for treatment after allegedly inhaling toxic gas. Dr Iqbal Chaudhry, the Director of International Center for Chemical and Biological Sciences (ICCBS), University of Karachi had advised the government to consider “exposure to soybean dust (aeroallergens)” as a cause of breathing difficulties being faced by residents of Karachi’s Keamari area.Residents complained of symptoms of breathing difficulties, burning sensation in the nose, watery eyes and itching in throat. Dr Choudhary said that the findings so far suggested that the symptoms being experienced by the area residents as a result of “overexposure to soybean dust”. “While we are working on this complex bioanalytical problem, we think this may be due to overexposure to soybean dust,” Pakistan’s International Center for Chemical and Biological Sciences told authorities in a letter. The agency urged extreme care during the unloading of soybean containers at the port, adding that exposure to soybean dust had been known to cause breathing ailments and deaths. The Karachi Commissioner then viewed that a ship offloading a shipment of soybean had been removed from the port terminal. Many schools in the area were closed for almost a week as the authorities investigated the issue.
