Unhygienic Drinks Sold At Every Corner Poses Health Risks To Citizens

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 29th May, 2022 ) :With the rise in mercury during the summer season, the unhygienic drinks and juices available on the roadsides and outside different colleges and schools in the Federal capital are posing risks of various health hazards among the people especially children.

Most of the children buy these drinks and juices, being available on cheap rates, outside their schools and colleges on daily basis and ultimately suffer from various stomach related diseases including diarrhea.

It has been observed that majority of the vendors do not observe any safety standards while washing their utensils and reuse the drinks bottles while serving the customers which transmit different bacteria and viruses to the costumers.

A mother of school going children said, "The consumption of all beverages increases among children during the summer season and unhygienic drinks and spurious juices cause various diseases among them".

She said the authorities must keep vigilance on the selling of unhygienic drinks and juices and take strict action against the violators to save the children from health issues.

"During the last summer season, my son fell seriously ill after drinking a juice from the roadside stall after which I restricted my children not to buy such unhealthy drinks from stalls", Akram Shah, a father of three children said.

"It is better for all to adopt early precautions instead of suffering from long illnesses afterwards. Diarrhea is very common in children during the summer season so we should bind them to consume only home made things", he observed.

Sajjad Khan, a vendor said, "I try my best to ensure cleanliness during preparing drinks but it is difficult to manage better quality with cheap rates." For only Rs. 50 to Rs. 80, how can we ensure quality, quantity and cleanliness at a time", he said.

Talking to APP, a UK-based health expert, Dr. Shazia Siddique cautioned that substandard drinks and edibles may cause diseases like typhoid, hepatitis, diarrhea and different kinds of infections.� She said that the ratio of these diseases increased to around 50 percent in the summer season due to consumption of unhygienic food and drinks.

She urged the government to direct roadside sellers to adopt strict safety measures like using disposable utensils and properly covering edibles otherwise impose strict fines on those violating the safety standards.

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