Shawdesh Desk:

Around 270,000 children have suffered from eye fatigue and severe headaches in Dhaka city each year, said a research study.

The search carried out by Environment and Social Development Organization (ESDO) in 2022 revealed the alarming information and the findings were presented at a press briefing in the capital on Sunday.

The ESDO’s study has found that visual pollution causes more than 24 percent of people to suffer from eye fatigue among which children are the worst sufferers.

Approximately 270,000 children in Dhaka city receive treatment for suffering from eye strain and severe headaches, based on data compiled from 27 hospitals and clinics in the city, each year, it said.

Furthermore, the residents of Dhaka city who are suffering from mental illness have reached nearly 17 percent.

Based on the results of the research, ESDO has prepared a report entitled “Visual Pollution in The City of Dhaka: A Public Health, Environmental and Traffic Distraction”.

The study showed that the death rate due to road accidents increased by 40 percent, which is 8,800 people in mid-2022 as opposed to 5,227 people in 2019. Visual pollution has been identified as one of the top causes of road accidents, ranking alongside overtaking, reckless driving, and intoxicated driving.

The worst-case scenario is that 95.89 percent of people are not even aware that visual pollution has been affecting their lives seriously for a very long time.

Billboards, cables, wires, decaying structures, stacked-high construction materials, graffiti, etc. are just a few examples of the various irregular forms that are referred to as “visual pollution” and prevent people from fully appreciating a perspective or view.

ESDO Secretary General and Study Team Leader of the research Dr Shahriar Hossain said, “Types of visual pollution include billboards, cable wire and power poles, haze, excessive traffic signs, garbage or rubbish dumps, urban graffiti, light or neon sign pollution generated by excess lights, and digital billboards.”

“Visual pollution such as plastic bags, trash, etc., has worsened the present scenario which has been caused by the general public’s ignorance of environmental issues,” he said.

Children, who have been exposed to visual pollution since childhood, are often devoid of subtle aesthetics, and they become accustomed to their unpleasant surroundings, losing their natural impulse to rectify them, he added.

Maliha Hoque, senior programme associate of ESDO, presented the report while Professor Dr Abul Hashem, former chairman of Chemical Division of BSTI, and Dr Hasnat M Alamgir, professor, State University, were also present.