Soybean dust from cargo handling a likely cause of 'Karachi gas deaths'!!!

KARACHI: A report published in Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health could likely relate with recent deaths and breathing problem cases in Karachi, ARY News reported on Tuesday.

Death toll in Karachi’s mysterious gas leakage surged to seven as at least 220 people thus far struck by the gas and hospitalized since Sunday.

It was earlier pointed that a ship carrying soybean unloaded its cargo at Karachi Port, while the medical condition in which patients were facing breathing problems was reported in the area adjacent to the port.

The government agencies after holding inspection of the affected areas, found clues of the ‘toxic gas’ spreading from a cargo ship docked at Karachi port.

A report published in Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health pointed out repeated outbreaks of asthma in the city of Barcelona in Spain in 1987 and the experts identified soybean dust generated during the unloading of ships in the port as major cause of the outbreak.

The experts urged thorough safety measures for unloading soybean cargo from ships to avoid asthma and other breathing issues.

The outbreak of asthma resurfaced in Barcelona in Year 1996 despite safety measures taken for unloading soybean cargo from ships at the port, the report said. This time those people mostly suffered from the health condition, which were affected in the first episode of the outbreak, the journal said.

The journal pointed out in the report that unloading of soybean cargo from ships without proper safety measures is hazardous to health.