Black cloud threatens Egyptians' health
Oct 25 11:49
AM US/Eastern
For the
seventh year running, a mysterious (Because they can not in scientific terms explain the cloud
or its resting place.) black cloud has appeared over Cairo, triggering serious health concerns for the
polluted city's 16 million residents.
Emissions
of nitrogen dioxide, which cause serious health risks above certain levels,
have reached record heights in the city, from the banks of the Nile, past the
industrial suburbs of the delta and even in the desert areas.
The World
Health Organisation (WHO) has warned that presence of more than 200 mg of
nitrogen dioxide in the air is a great health risk.
But in Egypt, the levels have reached as high as 305 mg in the Cairo
district of Qolali and 482 mg in Giza.
Worse
still, the levels of the potentially toxic gas have soared to a staggering 700
mg in the northern city of Qaha, in the industrial zone of Qaliubiyah.
Cairo
has one of the highest rates of pollution, ten times higher than global
indicators defined by the WHO in October, making it one of the most polluted
cities in the world together with Karachi, New Delhi, Beijing, Kathmandu and
Lima.
As in previous years, the authorities have admitted not knowing the
exact causes of the black cloud, and have
offered a variety of possible causes including the city's unbridled traffic,
the burning of rubbish or of rice hay in the rural areas of the Nile
Delta.
Environment
minister Maged George has accused the local councils of failing to prevent
their farmers from burning the hay, the customary method of clearing the way
for new crops, as recycling or simply moving the stuff is too expensive.
Together
with environment minister Amin Abaza, George ordered the collection of 125,000
tonnes of hay to be compacted, an order which has been plainly ignored.
Exhaust
fumes from 1.6 million cars, which include some 80,000 beat-up taxis, are also
to blame, particularly this year when the black
cloud coincided (Appeared when Ramadan began) with the month of Ramadan, notorious for its traffic jams,
authorities said.
And
the high concentration of factories, like the cement factories of Helwan and
Tebbin in southern Cairo, are also responsible for the surging pollution which
kills 5,000 annually in the capital, according to hospital sources.
"Calculating
the risks allows us to conclude that 500,000 Cairenes will develop serious
respiratory problems and fatal cancers, in a period of five to 25 years,"
says Salah Hassanein, an environment professor at Cairo
University.
The
air is also contaminated by the burning of some 12,000 tonnes of domestic
waste, as well as of the mountains of litter dumped in open fields in the
suburbs.
Experts
agree that in addition to an explosive urban population, Cairo suffers from an
unfavourable natural environment which reinforces the harm caused by the
polluting factors.
Very
high temperatures, no rain, little wind and sand blowing in from the desert all
contribute to turning the overcrowded megalopolis into an urban inferno,
something the authorities are increasingly desperate to fight.
A
series of environmental laws were enacted more than 10 years ago, which include
the control of vehicles and industries and fines for those who violate.
"But
there is a difference between writing a law and applying it," says Essam
al-Hinnawy, director of the International
Centre for Environment and Development.
"The situation is getting worse," he says. (As
the power of Islam grows overthrowing nation after nation.)
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