Authorities issue city-wide ban on deadly manufacturing process — here's what it means for public health

Authorities in India are cracking down on illegal plastic-related industrial activities after public outcry over foul-smelling, health-threatening pollution. 

As The Tribune reported, officials have rolled out a multi-agency task force to ensure unauthorized plastic processing and recycling facilities within Bahadurgarh residential zones and agricultural areas cease operations in accordance with a ban on such activities. 

The task force will begin regular inspections and file legal charges against offenders to bring Bahadurgarh into compliance with environmental safety regulations. 

India is among the countries that generally have a better plastic recycling rate than the United States, whose abysmal rate — as low as 5% — led the nonprofit Greenpeace to dub plastic recycling stateside a "dead-end street." 

Yet robust recycling alone can't eliminate the hundreds of millions of tons of toxic plastic waste entering our ecosystems each year — or erase the dirty fuel-derived, heat-trapping pollution that enters the atmosphere during plastic manufacturing. 

That's one reason why India and other governments have taken steps to ban single-use plastics, while more and more consumers are beginning to choose plastic-free products. 

However, although recycling is usually better than sending existing plastics to landfills, unauthorized facilities in Bahadurgarh were defying environmental norms, openly burning plastic and releasing harmful fumes that exacerbate respiratory illnesses like asthma. 

The illegal operations also caused groundwater contamination and degraded agricultural soil, threatening to disrupt the livelihoods of farmers. 

Moreover, when authorities investigated, they discovered extensive misuse of domestic electricity lines, which can lead to grid strain that disrupts power supply to homes. In certain circumstances, this can prove to be deadly. 

A warming climate has supercharged extreme weather events globally, and last year, 71% of people in India reported experiencing severe heat waves, according to a survey by the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication. Heat is the top weather-related killer worldwide.

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Key officials enforcing the crackdown include the Deputy Municipal Commissioner, Deputy Commissioners of Police, Superintending Engineer of UHBVNL, District Town Planner, and the Executive Officer of the Municipal Council, according to The Tribune. 

Authorities are also asking residents to actively safeguard community health by reporting suspicious plastic burning or unauthorized operations.

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