Brick Kiln Pollution and unlucky poor people

For the people of advanced nations, the concept of brick kiln pollution might be uncommon. They may think that how come a brick kiln causes pollution because it is so state-of-the-art factory of bricks production. 

You are right if you are lucky enough hailing from an advanced country. But in less developed and backward countries it is killer pollution which not only harms the health of the workers of a kiln but all those living in its surroundings.

Brick kilns versus other industries

Experts said that manual-based brick kilns create more pollution than a factory of other types of production. It is because in the process of production of the kilns the major activity is burning of the coal and other rough stuff like tyres, tubes and plastic material. They emit a huge amount of smoke.

Effects of brick kiln pollution

Emissions of several harmful gases like carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and particulate matter from the burning of coals in brick kilns cause serious respiratory diseases like bronchitis and asthma. 

Moreover, these pollutants weaken the immune system of human beings and hurt their resistance power to fight the various types of infections.

There is another substance which is called poly-aromatic hydrocarbon that is found in the smoke emitted from factories of brick-making and it causes vomiting, diarrhea, eye irritation, nausea, and disorientation while in the long run, it may also cause renal diseases and even cancer.

Brick kilns in South Asia

In a country like Bangladesh, there are 5,000 registered brick kilns and several thousand other unregistered. These are established unscientifically and don’t ensure safety and environmental standards and emit smoke far beyond the set standards of environmental quality. 

In Pakistan and India, the number of dangerous smoke-emitting brick kilns is in thousand and is alarmingly on the rise without any improvement in their emission process.

They emit more smoke

Brick kilns emit more smoke than any other normal factory because here burning process takes a long time to solidify the bricks from the mud. The low-quality coal is burnt in this process which causes more pollution.

How they work in poor countries

In so many poor countries there are no standard operating procedures to establish and run a brick kiln. In violation of the factory laws, most brick kilns are established adjacent to the residential areas in upcountry. 

Pakistan is one of its glaring examples. In its rural areas, thousands of such factories are working without monitoring any environmental watchdog and people are the worst hit of them.

No separate rules in poor countries

Strangely enough most brick kilns don’t hesitate to burn all used stuff including tyres, tubes and other plastic material in the manufacturing process of kilns. Owners of such factories claim that there are no separate environmental standards for them in poor countries. 

So, they claim to have not been bound to follow the general standards and will remain free from environmental barriers unless the separate rules for them are developed. 

It’s nothing but a criminal approach just to avoid the rules for the short term benefits at the cost of the long term losses.

Working conditions in kilns

The working conditions of kiln laborers are more than the worst. Workers both men and women of downtrodden communities without any knowledge of their rights and privileges work in intense heat without any medical facility. 

If any of them face any burns no one care about him/her and layoff is the only solution to relieve him/her from pain. Despite burn injuries, workers keep working without complaining of any problem. Their wages are also next to nothing and they can’t reject petty wages because of their poverty.