Smog soars to alarming level in Lahore posing threat to public health, leading to closure of schools.

ISLAMABAD -- Smog has soared to alarming level in Lahore today (Thursday) posing threat to public health thus forcing authorities to close the schools.

Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar, late on Wednesday night, announced the closure of all public and private schools in provincial capital on (Thursday) after the Air Quality Index soared to over 500 in parts of the city.

Further, the people have been advised that so long as smog persists, the elderly, children and the infirm should stay indoors with their windows closed.

Doctors also say that people who feel the affects of smog should drink plenty of water and wear face masks if they have to travel outside.

It is pertinent to mention here that every year, with the arrival of winter season, chemical smoke after mixing with fog, forms a thick cloak of fog, hovering over the roads and everywhere, from dawn to dusk, causing threat to public health due to toxic gases also hindering visibility.

Smog, which routinely engulfs Lahore and several other cities of the country from November to December, also disrupts airflow and traffic movement on the roads; leading to economic damage and disruptions in transport logistics causing billions of loss to national exchequer.

According to World Health Organization (WHO) report in 2015, an estimated 60,000 Pakistanis died due to higher levels of toxic, Particulate Matter (PM2.5), which was directly associated with environmental disorders.

The WHO in its report had further revealed that during foggy season, levels of dangerous Particulates Matter (PM2.5), are enough to penetrate deep into the lungs and enter the bloodstream, which damages human health by reaching 1,077 micrograms per cubic meter, (more than 30 times what international health experts consider the safe limit).

Talking to REPORTER, Dr Tehsin Riaz, a noted physician said that smog causes itchy-eyes and sore-throat which were teh symptoms of smog. He said that there was clear evidence that polluted air causes depression and Alzheimer's disease, an irreversible brain disorder that slowly destroys memory and thinking skills and harms the ability to carry out the daily routine tasks.

The Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO) in its recent report said that Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) stations did not provide sufficient information during the smog season, adding they could only provide reading of fog-points' measurement, and its observations.Suggesting remedy, the report...