Sunflower plantation proposed to fight smog

LAHORE: A walk was held on the campus of Government College University (GCU) on Friday to raise awareness in society against smog. It also proposed the government eco-friendly idea of growing sunflower to combat the extremely injurious form of air pollution. The walk was led by GCU Institute of Industrial Biotechnology (IIB) Director Prof Dr Hamid Mukhtar which was followed by the formation of a human sunflower in Oval Ground. Prof Dr Hamid Mukhtar said smog was biggest threat to the human health and multiple issues occurred due to it, including eyes and respiratory infections. He said multiple solutions to smog were available worldwide which included smog-eating buildings, smog towers and chemical reduction of smog components. All these treatments were either too expensive for a third world country like Pakistan or the treatment created secondary problems and persistence in environment. “To solve this problem, students of IIB have proposed a better and eco-friendly remedy i.e. mass plantation of sunflowers. They studied the activity of sunflower plant to solve environmental problems. It has been shown scientifically that sunflower plant can reduce the major components of smog and degrade them to harmless components. So, planting sunflower can reduce the continuous persistence of smog that we face,” the GCU IIB director said. GCU Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Hassan Amir Shah said sunflowers, reported to be absorbent of the main pollutants of smog, was a neutral and eco-friendly solution to the problem. He said after the Hiroshima, Fukushima, and Chernobyl nuclear disasters, fields of sunflowers were planted across the affected landscapes to help absorb toxic metals and radiation from the soil. He also said it was not only government's responsibility to combat pollution. “Indeed, the scientists and the common man have a greater role to play. We must do research and promote plantation of trees and flowers in the surroundings for the better future of next generations,” he concluded.