Unhygienic beverages, lollies causing diseases among kids

[LahoreEstate]

Sunday, July 05, 2009
Our correspondent

Islamabad

Sale of unhygienic beverages and lollies is causing various viral diseases and stomach problems among people especially children.

The vendors offering colourful and delicious beverages and ice creams has set up their stalls at almost every nook and corner of the twin cities, besides roaming around with their small carriages carrying these summer ‘delights’.

The stalls and carriages with the shinning bottles of bright and colourful syrups are attractive enough to grasp the attention of the people, especially the children, who consider it a must to enjoy the cold sips of the flavoured ice-lollies or have cold and colourful drink.

According to the health experts the water used in such beverages is mostly contaminated which could lead to the diseases like diarrhoea, hepatitis A and E, typhoid and gastro while the children are more vulnerable to catching such diseases in this blistering season.

Dr Sharif Astori from Federal Government Services Hospital (Polyclinic) while talking to ‘The News’ said that there had been a considerable increase in the patients suffering from throat infections and diarrhoea during this summer.

“A big number of patients especially children with the complaint of vomiting and stomach-ache are thronging the emergency departments of hospitals these days,” he said.

He warned people to avoid usage of unhygienic beverages as it could lead to food poising and vomiting that could cause electrolyze dehydration in which the patient could go into shock. While describing the remedies he said that one should increase the intake of water and ORS in order to prevent oneself from dehydration in case of diarrhoea.

He said besides contaminated water the syrups used to add flavour and colour to the beverages and drinks are also substandard and cause various infectious diseases and stomach related problems.

On the other hand the parents seem perturbed over the open sale of substandard lollies at every corner of road these days.

“It’s hard for the children to resist the temptation and hard for the parents to stop their children from buying them,” said Salima Mukhtar, a mother of two.

She said that the vendors moving around the city throughout the day while chanting slogans makes it next to impossible for the parents to control their children.

“It is the responsibility of district administration to take strict action against the vendors involved in selling the substandard beverages and lollies in order to protect the health of people,” she said.

Meanwhile, the vendors claim that they ensure the cleanliness of beverages and lollies. “We are providing whatever best we could in the limited budget,” said Aftab Khan, a vendor at Faizabad.

He said that they were selling their products in a very low price as they had to look at the affordability of the customers. “One should not expect us to use the mineral water but we try our level best to maintain the quality in the minimum budget,” he said.

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