Polythene everywhere: Yemen in danger! [Archives:2006/928/Health]
By: Minal S.
[email protected]
The day was Friday, about 5a.m when I started an exciting journey towards Taiz after landing the previous day in Sana'a. I had only seen India and Thailand and this was a totally new country for me. Being a Friday, all shops were closed, roads had a deserted look and men were seen carrying machine guns, AK-47's and I too felt a bit afraid, but that all got eased out with my friendly driver. Throughout the journey I'd ask him umpteen questions and he'd reply. (Though except for a few words I never understood what he said in Arabic and vice-versa)
After we'd left Sana'a and were on the outskirts, I saw something strange! I saw a colourful boundary around the highway and was shocked to know that it wasn't anything else than a sea of polythene bags. When I got accustomed to the new life of Taiz, I'd go to fetch my daily needs from the market and felt very strange when each shopkeeper gave me a polythene bag for every single item I bought. The use of polythene is seen at every nook and corner of the country. That's because, I have travelled to Aden also and seen the same scene everywhere. Whenever I sit alone, I always rewind my memory and think of the highlighting past features. In the same way, I always think of the future of this country.
Recently I was in Bombay, India for my summer vacation and was a victim of the floods that occurred on the 26th of July last year. Since Bombay is known as 'the business capital of India', it is the largest metro in the country and is resided by billions of people. Due to pollution and due to the similar extensive use of polythene there, the entire drainage system of this metro was clogged. Being an island, Bombay was trapped as the rivers and lakes were over-flowing above the danger mark and there was no outlet for the flowing water than to remain in the metro itself. Hence, Bombay welcomed it's own created environmental floods. Thousands perished and countless were bereft of their houses and their priced possessions. The overall scene was pathetic.
All over a sudden, I switched over to the flood incident only to open the eyes of every citizen and every common man of this country. Now I have the residence visa for this very country, so I automatically become a temporary citizen of Yemen and thus I take this as my responsibility to be concerned if any kind of danger revolves around. After all, “Charity begins at home.”
What is it?
In order to know what polythene is, we should first find out the scientific origin of polythene. Polythene is a polymer of the gas ethane (C2H4). It is a tough, white, translucent, waxy thermoplastic (which means that it can be repeatedly softened by heating). It is used for packaging bottles, toys, wood preservatives, electric cables, pipes and tubing.
Polythene is produced in two forms: Low-density polythene, made by high-pressure polymerization of ethene gas (the monomer), and high-density polythene, which is made at lower pressure by using catalysts. This form, first made in 1953 by German chemist Karl Ziegler, is more rigid at low temperatures and softer at higher temperatures than the low-density type. Polythene was first made in the 1930s at very high temperatures by ICI.
Polythene is used for making sandwich bags (as polythene preserves things for a longer period as it doesn't allow air / moisture to enter and exit), cling- wrap, freezer bags, water pipes, car covers, squeeze bottles, liners, liners for tanks and ponds, moisture barriers in construction, pipes, wires and cable insulation. It is also used in surgery, book covers tc, the uses are innumerable.
Hazards of polythene:
Polythene has several hazards among which the most alarming is that it is non bio-degradable. This means that, if polythene bags are cast off after use, they remain littered on the ground, mix up with soil but are not soluble like paper, wood and other bio-degradable products. So, if after a few years the place where the polythene bags had been deposited is dug again, we will find the polythene as it was.
Even if the same pit of deposited polythene is again excavated after a decade or after several such decades, the polythene will be found as it is. This condition causes several environmental hazards. Moreover, Polythene cannot be perished when burnt. Try burning polythene. What do you see? It's very natural that polythene does burn but doesn't perish like wood , paper and other products. It changes its form but doesn't perish. Thus, it again remains inside the surface of the earth, but doesn't dissolve. When burnt, it causes emission of toxic gases into the air and causes a major air-pollution hazard for the environment.
Another thing is that Polythene is easily clogged. As polythene is non bio-degradable, it gets clogged in drainages and thus it may result in a serious clot which may become unsolved at times. Also while playing, if children happen to come into contact with polythene and if they put it in their mouth or wear the same around their face, polythene immediately results in suffocation and the result may lead to death.
Polythene is not water-soluble and if spilled in seas, oceans, rivers, lakes or any other water bodies, refuses to be soluble in water. It remains floating on the surface of water and this is the reason why tourists and visitors are advised not to carry any edible products at important places of national interest. Another hazard is that after polythene gets mixed up with soil, the land automatically becomes infertile, not allowing any agriculture. Nothing grows on the polythene-infested land thus making the land barren.
Saving Yemen
This problem of polythene bags was realized in my hometown Bangalore. Bangalore has always been known for being ahead of time and this city started using paper bags almost three decades ago as it had an intuition about the after effects of this life-threatening product – polythene. It's up to the citizens of Yemen to decide whether we should encourage, continue or ban this product?
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[archive-e:928-v:14-y:2006-d:2006-03-13-p:health]
