Coal Dust Is Causing Health Concerns For Children In Pakistan

1-08-2022

Kirsten O’Connell

Pakistan & Human Rights Researcher

Global Human Rights Defence

There are families from as far away as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and neighbouring Afghanistan who call coalfields home, despite the serious health threat posed by dust emissions from coal mining. Atta Muhammad is one of hundreds of coal miners who live on the outskirts of Duki with his family. He is a father of seven, and four of his children are suffering from chest infections and he frequently visits the local hospital to get them treated. He says “[m]y family is breathing in coal dust and black smoke, but I have no other option except to live in the coal field.” The coal from Duki is used in factories, brick kilns and the energy sectors in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (Mandokhail, 2022). 

The collateral damage of this way of earning money is that the children of these coal miners are miserable, and the air they breathe is toxic. The prevalence of asthma and other respiratory symptoms in children living near the opencast coal mining sites is high. According to local health practitioners, children are suffering from breathing problems and chest infections due to inhaled coal dust. Noor Bibi, a mother of three from Duki district, has two children between the ages of seven and nine who have been suffering from lung disease for the past couple of years. Instead of going to school, her children spend all day looking for pieces of coal in the slag heaps near the mines, to bring home to burn. She says “[t]he whole area is full of smoke and dust. There is no rain either. The mine owners do not help the poor workers. I am just worried about the health and dark future of my children,” while wiping tears from her cheeks (Mandokhail, 2022). 

The children of coal labourers fall ill due to the lack of health facilities, says Yousafzai, the trade union vice president. She says “[t]he government should make the health centres fully functional, keeping in mind the health and education of children. A paediatrician should also be appointed for coal miners’ children. The daily-wage miners earn a meagre amount, which is why they cannot afford proper treatment for their children.” The Mines Labour Welfare Organization branch of the Mines and Minerals Development Department Balochistan is responsible for the welfare of mine workers, including their children’s education and health, under the Mines Act, 1923. However, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan points out that “onsite healthcare is the exception rather than the norm” (Mandokhail, 2022). 

Muhammad Azeem, a doctor says, children brought up in coal dust are exposed to pollution and have more respiratory symptoms compared with children in other areas of the district. He says “[m]ost of the patients are minors. Poverty, poor hygienic living conditions and little access to health facilities are contributing factors for the spread” of tuberculosis (TB) in the area. “Thirty out of forty children are usually suffering from chest infections, asthma and allergies (Mandokhail, 2022).” 

Waqar Ahmed, an assistant professor at the Institute of Environmental Studies at the University of Karachi, says that when a child breathes in the dust-laden air, it affects their respiratory system and causes allergies. “Children are more vulnerable because their air passages are smaller than adults, so they can get choked as a result of inflammation (Mandokhail, 2022).”

Sources and further reading: Mandokhail, R. (2022, July 29). Coal dust casts a pall over children’s health in Pakistan. DAWN.COM. Retrieved August 1, 2022, from https://www.dawn.com/news/1701831/coal-dust-casts-a-pall-over-childrens-health-in-pakistan.