Islamabad: A National Institute of Health Islamabad (NIH) study makes stunning disclosure, saying recycled kraft paper use for food items is causing serious diseases like restrictive lung diseases and cancer in Pakistan, besides polluting the country environment more than anything else. The study also high lights the financial loss which recycled kraft cement paper use for food items is causing to the country. The kraft paper is used by the cement industry for packing of cement and after using the cement for construction these used kraft bags, which do contain considerable quantity of cement, are sold to the bag-makers for recycling and supply to the market for packing of food items. This dirty practice is going on unabated for decades in Pakistan. The NIH study highlights many alarming risks that recycled kraft cement bag use is posing to human lives. Over the years, the government departments, in Particular, Pakistan Standard Quality Control Authority (PSQCA) has shown criminal negligence by not taking measures to stop this practice. The PSQCA officials instead taking human life risking issue seriously and take practical steps to implement its own SRO in this regards are preferring to stay indifferent for reasons better known to its authorities.
Pakistan is the only country in the world where cement industry is still using kraft paper for cement packing. Its height of irresponsible attitude on the part of cement industry . The issue being directly related to health of the public is continuously appearing in the media, but these calls seem insufficient to make the concerned departments active in this regard.
An official document available with NEWSMAN shows the gazette of Pakistan, dated September 9, 2016, notified ban of kraft paper use for cement packing and it recommended polypropylene woven laminated hermetically sealed block sacks as an alternate, but even after lapse of four years this SRO is yet to be implemented. The use of locally made polypropylene woven bag for cement packing will not only save foreign exchange of $ 42 million per annum, but also minimize health risk to human lives besides improving Pakistan’s environment considerably, study concludes.