Toxic gas spread: Ali Zaidi rejects report indicated overexposure to soybean dust

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Maritime Affairs, Ali Zaidi, has categorically rejected the report pointed to “overexposure” to “soybean dust” as the probable cause of deaths of over a dozen people in Karachi’s port areas, ARY News reported on Tuesday.

While talking exclusively to ARY News programme ’11th Hour’, Ali Zaidi said he will not accept the report which indicated the overspread to soybean from a cargo ship. He detailed that it is the fourteenth ship which carried soybean to Karachi port while the off-loading process had not been initiated when the first person affected by the mysterious gas spread was taken to the hospital.

“We are trying to resolve this mystery since morning and I’ve also presided over a session today which was attended by concerned officials, members of KPT [Karachi Port Trust] administration and scientists. In the session, we have decided to remove the cargo ship from the berth.”

“The final report will decide on the genre of gas and particles which affected the people. A fact-finding committee headed by Commissioner Karachi has been constituted to investigate the incident.

Read: Investigators find clue of toxic gas spreading in port areas of Karachi

“13 ships had docked in KPT earlier and it was the fourteenth ship, whereas, not a single person from 30-member crew of the ship and 400 persons who took part in the off-loading process have been affected. There is a distance of at least one kilometre between the cargo ship and the affected areas.”

He further said that the off-loading process from the said cargo ship was halted since yesterday’s night but people are still being taken to the hospitals. The minister once again said that the incident has no connection with KPT and he will not accept the report.

The mystery surrounding the deaths of over a dozen people due to what has been dubbed the leakage of toxic gas in Karachi’s Keamari area seems to be unravelling as the University of Karachi’s International Center for Chemical and Biological Sciences (ICCBS) in a report has pointed to “overexposure” to “soybean dust” as the probable cause of the incident.

Read: Soybean dust from cargo handling a likely cause of ‘Karachi gas deaths’

The suspected gas leakage has thus far killed at least 14 people, according to a Sindh health department spokesperson. He said more than 300 people, including women and children, have also been affected by a high level of toxicity in the air.

Moreover, the Global Environmental Labs (GEL) in its initial report claims that the air in the port area of Kemari has registered an extraordinary increase in the amount of sulfur dioxide presence.

Sulfur dioxide (SO2) is a pungent corrosive gas that arises predominantly from the burning of coal or crude oil in power plants and from factories that produce chemicals, paper, or fuel.

The lab revealed that the normal ranges of the chemical present in the air are around 120 per cent which had been bumped up to a whopping 1420 per cent since the incident was first reported.