Toxic cloud threatens southern Asia

A THREE-KILOMETRE deep blanket of sooty pollution stretching across southern Asia threatens to inflict untold economic damage to the region and put hundreds of thousands of people at risk, scientists said yesterday.

The toxic cloud, dubbed by scientists the “Asian Brown Haze,” is a mass of ash, acids, chemical droplets and other particles. It is already disrupting weather systems, triggering droughts in some areas and floods in others, preliminary findings suggest.

Experts are worried that its impact will intensify over the next 30 years as South Asia’s population rises to an estimated five billion. The scientists, working with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), say follow-up studies are urgently needed to unravel the effect the pollution cloud may have on both the region and the world. At a news conference in London, Klaus Toepfer, UNEP executive director, said: “The haze is the result of forest fires, the burning of agricultural wastes, dramatic increases in the burning of fossil fuels in vehicles, industries and power stations, and emissions from millions of inefficient cookers burning wood, cow dung, and other bio-fuels.