People being exposed to health hazards

As the city areas remain covered by a thick layer of smog, even the “environmental emergency” imposed on Lahore could not do much good for the residents as almost all areas of the city remained under smog cover most of the time.

Throughout the week, the provincial metropolis witnessed thick clouds of smog covering heritage monuments, tall buildings and residential areas with the sun appearing just for a couple of hours.

With over a hundred thousand people dying every year due to air pollution in the country, the recent phase of smog was exposing more and more people to health hazards by inhaling Co, Co2, sulphur and ammonia gases emitted by vehicles and industrial units.

The city's air index was badly affected over time due to massive tree cutting and elimination of green areas for constructing housing societies and industrial units. Although the provincial government has imposed an “environmental emergency” in the city by banning crops residue burning, shifting brick kilns to zigzag technology, raising antismog squad to check vehicular and industrial emissions and closing schools three days a week, yet desired results are still awaited.

"Globally ambient air quality standards for sulphur dioxides, nitrogens and carbon emissions have been produced for protection against air pollution," remarked an environmental expert, Professor Dr. Ijaz Bhatti.