{"id":32740,"date":"2023-12-07T23:50:05","date_gmt":"2023-12-07T23:50:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/soaring-pollution-in-lahore-fills-wards-with-sick-children\/"},"modified":"2023-12-07T23:50:05","modified_gmt":"2023-12-07T23:50:05","slug":"soaring-pollution-in-lahore-fills-wards-with-sick-children","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/soaring-pollution-in-lahore-fills-wards-with-sick-children\/","title":{"rendered":"Soaring pollution in Lahore fills wards with sick children"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Lahore was named as one of the the world’s worst cities for air quality last year because of its increasingly toxic smog.<\/p>\n
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In the packed paediatric emergency room of a Lahore public hospital, parents holding sick children lined up for treatment this week, part of a surge of young patients caused by the air pollution crisis in Pakistan\u2019s second most populous city.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are disturbed and tense,\u201d said Mohamad Qadeer, holding a nebulising device to his three-year-old daughter Rameen\u2019s nose, engulfing her face in a billow of steam delivering medication to ease her congested airways.<\/p>\n
She and her one-year-old sister Inaaya are among thousands of children suffering from pollution-related health problems. Health officials estimated there has been at least a 50 per cent rise in paediatric patients due to respiratory issues exacerbated by poor air quality in the last month.<\/p>\n
Shazma Qadeer holds a breathing mask for her one-year-old daughter Inaaya, who is suffering from a respiratory illness amidst soaring air pollution at Sir Ganga Ram hospital in Lahore on December 4, 2023.\u2014 Reuters\/Charlotte Greenfield<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n
Lahore, known historically as a city of gardens, is now choking with toxic smog that placed it as the world\u2019s worst for air quality last year.<\/p>\n
As cooler temperatures took hold in November, air quality levels spiralled.<\/p>\n
Twenty-four of the last 30 days had \u2018hazardous\u2019 or \u2018very unhealthy\u2019 air quality, according to Swiss group IQAir.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has gotten a lot worse than the previous years and it is affecting the health of the children,\u201d said Dr Maria Iftikhar, senior registrar at Sir Ganga Ram hospital\u2019s paediatric department.<\/p>\n
The city of 11 million has been blanketed in thick haze that partially blocks the sun and shrouds streets with fog at night. The problem becomes more severe in cooler months, as temperature inversion prevents a layer of warm air from rising and traps pollutants closer to the ground.<\/p>\n
A woman with a child enters the mother and child unit of a teaching hospital, which is experiencing an influx of patients suffering from respiratory illness due to rising air pollution in Lahore on December 4, 2023.\u2014Reuters\/Charlotte Greenfield<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n
Mohamad and his wife, Shazma, had tried to keep Rameen and Inaaya safe with masks and limiting time outdoors but after days of coughing and fever, the children stopped eating.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have been sleepless for three nights,\u201d said Shazma, bouncing Inaaya on her knee as she held up the nebuliser to her face. More mothers and children waited nearby for their turn and a doctor rushed through the crowds with an infant in her arms, trailing a porter wheeling an oxygen canister pumping air to the baby.<\/p>\n
\u201cGod willing, they will be better soon \u2026,\u201d Shazma said.<\/p>\n