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A province in Pakistan declared a health emergency due to increasing and imposed a shutdown in two major cities. For weeks, smog – due to air pollution has choked Punjab, causing various respiratory illnesses in almost 2 million people and shrouding vast swathes of the province in a toxic haze.

According to government officials, a health emergency was announced to combat the growing crisis. A senior provincial minister, Marriyum Aurangzeb, declared the emergency at a press conference on Friday evening.

According to Aurangzeb, all leaves for medical staff in government hospitals have been canceled, all education institutions – schools and colleges are shut until further notice, and restaurants will be closing at 4 p.n. While takeaway would be available up until 8 p.m. Authorities have imposed a lockdown in the cities of Multan and Lahore and have ordered all construction work in those two places to be halted with immediate effect. "Smog is currently a national disaster,” Aurangzeb said. “It will not all be over in a month or a year. We will evaluate the situation after three days and then announce a further strategy.”

Average air quality index readings in parts of Lahore, a city of 11 million, exceeded 600 on Friday. Anything over 300 is considered hazardous to health.

According to experts, smog – is a dangerous byproduct of large numbers of vehicles, construction, and industrial work as well as burning crops at the start of the winter wheat-planting season. It leads to irritation in the eyes, nose, and throat, and causes coughing, wheezing, chest tightness, and breathing difficulties. It also aggravates existing lung conditions like asthma and triggers asthma attacks.

Doctors say while smog increases the risk of heart diseases like heart attacks and strokes, it also causes cancer in the long run.

Pakistan’s national weather center said rain and wind were forecast for the coming days, helping smoggy conditions to subside and air quality to improve in parts of Punjab. Dr. Muhammad Ashraf, a professor at Jinnah Hospital Lahore and Allama Iqbal Medical College, said the government must take preventative measures well before smog becomes prevalent.

“It is more of an emergency than COVID-19 because every patient is suffering from respiratory tract infections and disease is prevailing at a mass level,” he told The Associated Press.

Apart from asthma, exposure to air pollutants has been linked to respiratory diseases like asthma, COPD, and lung cancer, mainly in children and older adults.

According to the World Health Organisation, acute respiratory infections are one of the top five leading causes of all-causes of global mortality as 17 per cent of deaths from acute lower respiratory infections like pneumonia are attributable to ambient air pollution.

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