Pakistan faces $4.3 billion of environmental loss annually

Dawn (Pakistan): The annual cost of environmental degradation in Pakistan is about $4.3 billion which is 4.3 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). This was disclosed in a report of Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology of the University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences (UVAS) regarding the hazards of environmental pollution.

Specific examples in this regard are air, land and water degradation, drought and desertification, water logging, forest depletion, loss of biodiversity, vehicular and industrial pollution and climate change, the report added.

Major air pollutants in industrialized countries include carbon monoxide (50 per cent of the total air pollutants), sulphur dioxide (18 per cent), Hydrocarbon (12 per cent), particular matter (Smoke, pesticide, 10 per cent) and nitrogen (6 per cent). Air pollution appears to be a contributing factor in bronchitis, obstruvtice pulmonary disease and lung cancer.

Chemical compounds that contribute to environmental pollutants include the polychlorinated biphenyl, dioxins, asbestos and heavy metals....

A night view of Islamabad by Yasir Hussain, Wikimedia Commons via Flickr, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license