Senior Political Assistant to Chief Minister Punjab, Muhammad Pervez Malik has called for taking measures on war footing basis to check rapidly increasing environmental pollution, as environmental issues may hamper the country's economy.

Sale of seasonal summer fruits ripened with harmful chemical carbide continues unabated in all the markets of Narail and Jessore towns posing a serious threat to public health.

Market sources said a section of traders are selling carbide- ripened summer fruits after treating those with formalin.

Adulterated food items continue selling in the Dhaka city in the absence of proper monitoring by the agencies concerned, posing serious threat to public health.
A large number of food shops, sweetmeat houses, restaurants and producers of such foods are selling adulterated items under the very nose of lawmen, said Dhaka City Corporation officials concerned.

Scientists have said they had identified the toxin in a species of mushroom that killed seven people in Japan in recent years.

In an article published in Nature Chemical Biology on Monday, the researchers said they isolated the poisonous compound in the mushroom, Russula subnigricans, and confirmed its toxicity by feeding it to mice.

Protesters in the Amazon basin have forced Peru's state energy company to shut its crude oil pipeline, a company official said on Monday as the government tries to end weeks of demonstrations over natural resources.

Nine dangerous chemicals used in farming and industry will be added to a list of banned substances whose presence in the environment causes serious health risks, more than 160 government agreed on Saturday.

The nine pesticides and industrial chemicals join 12 substances targeted for elimination under the 2001 Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs).

The inhabitants of the capital city Dhaka are living with high risk of being suffering from more than 30 major diseases including blood pressure, heart attack, stroke, insomnia, hearing disability and trouble in concentration, as the level of noise pollution in the city has raised up to 106 decibel, where the tolerance level is maximum 50 decibel.