Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) expressed its concern over the death of 18 innocent citizens in Keamari Town after inhaling toxic gas emitted from some factories functioning in the residential neighbourhoods.
The toxic gases in the area caused interstitial lung disease that damaged their lungs and eventually, they lost the ability to breathe, which resulted in their death.
The PMA official said, “We are scared that the death toll could increase as many people in the area are having symptoms of the disease like fever, sore throat and shortness of breath”.
The deaths due to the emission of noxious gases by illegal factories operating in the residential areas put a big question mark on the poor performance of our departments which are responsible to keep a check on the establishment of such illegal factoriesto the criminal negligence of our authorities, the poor citizens are suffering from interstitial lung disease which is very fatal and causes irreversible lung fibrosis,” the official said. Unfortunately, Pakistan is already suffering a lot from environmental issues.
The country is among the most polluted countries in terms of air pollution and water contamination.
According to rankings compiled by Air Quality Index (AQI), Pakistan was ranked as the world’s second most polluted country in the world in 2018 and 2019.
