The District Administration has warned of floral bouquets sellers to keep them away from the usage of Parthenium, a toxic weed, in floral bouquets and it has decided to impose a complete ban on Parthenium in bouquets due to it hazardous effect on human lives more than dengue, said Assistant Commissioner City Zoha Shakir.
She addressed awareness seminar on Parthenium arranged by Institute of Agricultural Extension and Rural Development University of Agriculture Faisalabad and the Centre for Agriculture and Biosciences International (CABI) at Institute of Home Sciences, UAF. She said that it is unfortunate that sellers are unaware of its hazardous effects and using it in the bouquets, which were causing many ailments in the society. She said that they were getting the data of the sellers and measures were being taken to aware them. She said that in case of selling weed mixed bouquets, an action will be taken against them. Dr Ijaz Ashraf said that all parts of parthenium were toxic to humans and animals. He said human in contact with the said weed can develop asthma, allergy, eyes and nose diseases etc. He said that it is spreading at an alarming rate across the country. He said that Parthenium may emerge as most hazardous for human and animals’ lives than dengue within a decade or so. He called for collaborated efforts and awareness to eradicate it. He said that they had conducted 50 awareness sessions in two months. Institute of Home Sciences Director Dr Ayesha Riaz said that parthenium weed was being used in floral bouquets. She said it is essential that the general public and farming community should be aware of presence of the said silent enemy. She said that gloves should be used while removing the weed. Balqees Rehana Deputy Director Education said that a massive drive had been kicked off about parthenium awareness. Dr Naima Nawaz said that that there are 30,000 weeds in the world in which 18,000 are harmful. She said that parthenium is among the top 10 most dangerous weed. Dr Adeela Manzoor and a large number of students attended.
