ISLAMABAD: An application calling attention to the death of 18 stone-crushing labourers in Gujranwala has been submitted to the Supreme Court. The workers died of a terminal disease known as Silicosis or Grinder’s Asthma, which affects the lungs of people who are exposed to silica dust for prolonged periods of time.

The application was filed by Usama Khawar and Yahya Farid Khawaja, human rights activists from the Public Lawyer’s Front (PLF), asking the chief justice to take a suo motu notice of the unfortunate deaths.

Both activists told Dawn that on his last day in office, former chief justice Tassaduq Hussain Jillani had recognised the gravity of the issue and called for reports on the incident from the secretaries for labour and human resource departments of Punjab, Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The Gujranwala commissioner and the heads of environment protection agencies of the four provinces and the federal government were also asked to submit reports, but a date for hearing has not yet been finalised.

In their application, the activists plead that 18 young labourers, including nine men from a single village in Gujranwala, had died because of this disease. The latest death was that of Chahal Khurd-resident Safdar Ali, who succumbed to Silicosis on May 22. His brother had also died of the same disease a couple of years earlier.

All victims worked in stone-crushing factories and were not provided basic safety equipment

Thirteen men from the Wahndo area of Gujranwala, nine from the village of Nutt Kallar and two from Thatha Ghulab Singh and one man from Thaphnala have so far died of this disease.

The activists also apprised the court of reports of over one hundred deaths from the same disease in Dera Ghazi Khan and other regions of Punjab over the last few years.

Nearly all the victims worked in stone-crushing factories and none of their heirs have been compensated by either the factory owners or the provincial government, the application claimed.

Work at these stone-crushing factories entails the feeding of stones into grinding machines, which turn large rocks into smaller stones and grind them into a fine powder. Working in this dust-filled environment, labourers mix the powdered stone with boric acid, and then pack the mixture into bags with shovels and their bare hands. The fine dust, known as powdered silica, scars the upper lobes of a person’s lungs. This leads to shortness of breath and severe coughing in victims, who are often misdiagnosed as having tuberculosis or pulmonary edema.

The application states that the labourers had repeatedly requested the factory owners to provide them with protective gear, such as masks, but no such measures were taken.

In most cases, the activists said in their petition, doctors were unable to accurately diagnose their condition. Nearly all victims went to see a pulmonary specialist at the Gujranwala District Headquarters Hospital, but to no avail.

Published in Dawn, July 13th, 2014