Panjaka Srinivasan
Kishanpur village falls in Dansal block of Jammu district in Jammu and Kashmir. It lies along the banks of Tawi River, and till recently lived in relative obscurity. But, a short clip on social media platform, Facebook, of Keshvi Thakur, a class two student from a school there, caught people’s attention. The little girl made an appeal to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
She asked him to intervene and do something about the black smoke from a tar coal plant, locally known as luk (Tar Coal), which was causing high air pollution and making life difficult for hundreds of children in the area. Keshvi complained that the black smoke belching out of the factory was causing high air pollution. Children were forced to remain indoors and couldn’t play outdoors.
The seven-year-old girl is just one of the over 1,600 students from four schools in the area that is often blanketed in black smoke coming out of the tall chimney from the plant that makes coal tar for laying of roads. These schools are Pavanatma Convent School, Government High School Kathat, Government Middle School and Gyan Ganga Public School.
“Depending on the direction of the wind, the black smoke fills our school premises. Even the trees here are coated with the black grime, as are the uniforms of the children,” Sister Anu Jose, Principal of Pavanatma Convent School, told On Air. “The luk plant was set up during the COVID pandemic. The school has made repeated appeals to the owner of the plant to shift it, but nothing has happened,” she said.
According to local residents, the luk plant belongs to a family member of a senior politician from Jammu constituency. Hence, many of the irate residents who spoke to On Air, want to remain anonymous out of a sense of fear.
“Eight out of ten children come down with a bad cough or some chest-related problem. The matter has been raised several times with authorities, com- plaints have been made to the pollution control committee in Jammu as well, but nothing has happened,” complained Jose who herself has been a victim of the polluting smoke and has been suffering from bronchial related issues. “It is not just the school children and teachers. There are others living in the vicinity, including older people, pregnant women and babies, and they are all affected,” she added.
Tar coal, a coke by-product, contains carcinogens and, though phased out globally, is still used in road and construction works in India
Tar coal is derived from coal and is a by-product of coke. Though being phased out in the use of road-construction in many parts of the world, it is still used in the building of roads and as a binder in some construction works in India. It is said to contain carcinogens (substances that can cause cancer).
According to the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), there is sufficient evidence to suggest that those who are exposed to coal tar in the course of their work may be vulnerable to cancer. Several studies have shown that working in proximity to coal tar increases the risk of cancers related to lungs, skin, urinary bladder and kidneys.
Atul Sharma, a resident of Kishanpur and a transport and building material contractor, said he is recovering from a lung-related ailment: “I can’t stand outdoors for even 10 minutes. The luk plant has polluted the air. We are constantly breathing in the smoke.” Sharma’s child attends one of the four schools in the vicinity of the luk plant. “My child is never really free of a hacking cough and cold. Outdoor school assemblies have stopped. And, the smoke from the tar coal plant is forcing the students to wear masks,” said the hapless father.
“There should be no such pollution-causing units anywhere near schools, but there are four schools within a few hundred meters of the luk plant,” Sharma pointed out. “This has been a long-standing problem, but the authorities neither care nor want to do anything about it.”
According to him, the schools have been here for more than 25 years and the luk plant was set up about four to five years ago during the COVID pandemic. Residents want the plant to be permanently shut down or relocated to an industrial area. At present, the tar coal plant is not operating due to extreme cold in the region. But, by the end of March, the plant will start bellowing black smoke again.
On Air reached out to the J&K State Pollution Control Committee and was told to send questions via email. No response to email has been received despite a reminder.
TOXIC AIR AND CHILDHOOD HYPERTENSION
It is a chilling reality: the air a pregnant woman breathes can haunt her child’s health before they are even born. The largest U.S. study to examine the association between air pollution and child blood pressure found that exposure to higher fine particulate matter (PM2.5) in the first trimester of pregnancy was linked to a greater risk of high blood pressure in children and a direct threat to their cardiovascular system.
The multidisciplinary study, which was recently published in the journal Environmental Research, tracked over 4,800 children aged 5–12 years. Scientists examined children’s exposure to two common pollutants—PM2.5 and nitrogen dioxide (NO₂)— and found that in the most critical window of the first trimester of pregnancy, as the foetus begins to form its most vital organs, exposure to PM2.5 can be devastating.
The study found that higher PM2.5 exposure during this period was directly linked to a greater risk of childhood hypertension and higher systolic blood pressure percentiles. In simpler terms, the pressure in a child’s arteries when their heart beats is being pushed to dangerous levels before they have even taken their first breath.
The research also highlighted that children aged 0 to 2 years when exposed to elevated PM2.5 levels, show significantly increased risks of high blood pressure. The study suggests that early-life pollution may predispose a child for lifelong heart struggles. It underscores a terrifying truth: there is no safe threshold for air pollution.
(Note: This story was first published in On Air. Read the original story here.)
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