[Pakistan]Court moved against emission from crushing factories

Court moved against emission from crushing factories

 

 

LAHORE

 

A writ petition has been moved in the Lahore High Court against emission of fatal silica powder by stone crushing factories in Punjab, resulting in the death of labourers and causing mortal diseases like lung cancer.

 

The Public Lawyers Front (PLF) filed the petition through advocate Raheel Kamran Sheikh, saying that Tahir and Qaiser had contracted silicosis during the course of their work at a stone crushing factory owned and operated by Ashraf Ansari, located at Gujranwala. They eventually died of this occupational disease while other workers were seriously ill.

 

The petitioner said that, due to the absence of a dust control mechanism, a dust cloud would be raised in the premises of the factory. Labourers would mix the powdered stone with boric acid. The shoveling of powdered silica with boric acid again raised a massive dust storm causing the victims to further inhale the silica powder.

 

After a year of continuous inhalation of the silica powder, some of the victims frequently started suffering from high fever accompanied by acute cough. In most cases, even qualified doctors were unable to correctly diagnose the lung diseases, especially silicosis, because symptoms of silicosis are very similar to tuberculosis, the petitioner adds.

 

He said that death due to silicosis and similar occupational lung diseases was a common tragedy experienced by stone-crushing factory workers and their families not only in Gujranwala but all over Punjab, including cities like Lahore, Rawalpindi, and D.G. Khan, with many of the lives lost belonging to the same family or village.

 

The presence of factory workers was necessary during the manufacturing process of stone-crushing, a process which led to the airborne emission of silica dust/ crystalline silica, exposure to which was certain to cause incurable lung diseases, including silicosis, silico-tuberculosis and lung cancer.

 

That the contraction of occupational diseases, especially silicosis, at stone-crushing factories is directly attributable to the gross negligence on the part of factory owners, the state agencies are responsible for the implementation of labour welfare and environment laws in Pakistan. Despite the fact that inhalation of silica dust is fatal, the inevitability of which is commonly known to factory administrators, they continue to condone the hazard by failing to take even very basic preventative action, such as providing effective masks and watering down the dust particles.

 

He said emissions at stone-crushing factories of silica dust, which is a pollutant and hazardous substance within the meaning of clause (xvii) of Section 2 of the Punjab Environment Protection Act, 1997. He said that, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), occupational exposure to respirable crystalline silica was not only associated with silicosis but with other fatal diseases including lung cancer, pulmonary tuberculosis, and airways disease. In addition, it may be related to development of autoimmune disorders, chronic renal disease and other adverse health effects. Similarly, the U.S. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) conducted a review of the large body of international health-related silica literature and published the results in 2002.

 

NIOSH found that occupational exposure to respirable crystalline silica was associated with the development of several diseases including silicosis, and may be related to the development of others. The results of the NIOSH review were incorporated into the WHO Concise International Chemical Assessment Document (CICAD) on quartz.

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