JEDDAH, 5 November 2007 — A large number of patients suffering from asthma and breathing problems were admitted to the emergency departments of many hospitals and clinics around Jeddah in the last few days due to smoke from a number of major fires that started at the city’s garbage dump last Friday.
“I took my 10-year-old asthmatic son to Dr. Ghassan Pharaon Hospital yesterday and the emergency room was mostly filled with children on oxygen,” said Ahmad Al-Harthi, a Saudi resident of the Al-Ajwad district, which is located near the city dump.
Al-Harthi said that the area where his house is located has been covered with smoke since Friday. “I had to shift my whole family to my brother’s house in southern Jeddah because we couldn’t breathe,” he said.
Al-Harthi’s son, like many other residents of the district and nearby areas, is suffering from breathing problems due to smoke from fires at the city dump. A massive blanket of smoke has covered many of the city’s eastern and central districts.
Hussain Mustafa, a resident of the Al-Nozha area near Hera Street, said that he had suffered difficulties in breathing. “My 12-year-old nephew is asthmatic and had to be taken to hospital. We took him to a private clinic, which surprisingly was filled with lots of people complaining of breathing problems. We had to wait for two hours to get him oxygen,” said Mustafa.
However, an official at the emergency department of Dr. Erfan and Bagedo Hospital said the hospital has not received a major increase in patients with breathing problems in the last few days, although there was a noticeable number of people who needed oxygen.
Dr. Saleh Ali, a general practitioner at a private clinic, said that inhaling smoke is the greatest danger posed by fires. Smoke from a fire may contain poisonous gasses or may be hot enough to burn a person’s throat or air passages, resulting in serious breathing problems.
He added that after inhaling too much smoke, a person might start coughing and vomiting, and experience breathing difficulties, upset stomachs, sleepiness and disorientation. He said that asthmatic people are in more danger of being affected by smoke than others and that it is advisable to get out of a smoke-affected area as quickly as possible. He also stressed the importance of seeking medical attention if someone develops a hoarse voice, and has difficulty breathing.
Municipality officials said at a news conference on Saturday that they have assigned monitoring officials to stop random fires at the dump, which are generally caused by illegal expatriates burning garbage to retrieve metals for recycling.
A huge concrete wall has been erected around Jeddah’s new dump, which is due to begin operation in three months. According to Khalid Aqil, deputy mayor for services, the current dump will be turned into a public park.
