KARACHI: Two factories were sealed in Pakistan’s commercial capital of Karachi on Friday, a senior government officer said, after at least eighteen people died in little over two weeks from, according to health officials, inhaling toxic chemicals omitted by the industrial units.
A Sindh health department handout said the deaths had occurred between January 11 and January 25, 2023. The eighteen dead had developed initial symptoms of fever, sore throat, and shortness of breath before they passed away.
Incidents of gas leakages and fires are common in Karachi, where many factories operate illegally and without proper safety measures. Many are located inside or near residential areas without following security protocols.
In February 2020, at least fourteen people died in a toxic gas leak in the city’s Keemari portside district of Karachi. In December, four more people died of a mysterious gas in the same locality. In 2013, a fire inside a garment factory in Karachi killed 258 people.
“Two factories that caused the deaths have been sealed,” Qasim Soomro, Parliamentary Secretary Sindh told Arab News, saying the factories were illegally operating in a residential area.
“According to initial investigation, the factories had burnt something that created fume. A forensic examination will determine the name and nature of the substance,” he added.
Senior Sindh health official Dr. Abdul Hameed Jumani said laboratory tests and X-rays showed that the deaths had occurred due to chemicals discharged by two factories in the Ali Muhammad Goth village.
“People who died had no prior history of the disease and they are from different age groups,” he said.
He said no one had died after the factories were closed.
“Some members of the team of doctors which visited the neighborhood on Thursday vomited when they returned from the field. But when we visited the neighborhood today [Friday], the situation had improved,” Jumani said, adding that the number of patients had also dropped to 26 on Friday from 50 on Thursday.
Local elders also said they believed the deaths were caused by leakages from nearby factories.
“There was a certain smell, and it was something discharged by the factory which caused the deaths,” Abdul Hafeez told Arab News, adding that the people of the area regularly felt suffocated.
Dr. Rana Jawad Asghar, who specializes in infectious diseases, however said Sindh health officials needed to conduct an epidemiological test before reaching a conclusion.
“The Sindh health department has experts who may conduct a proper epidemiological examination for reaching the true causes,” Asghar said.
