Staff Reporter :
A legal notice has been served on Wednesday upon the respondents to take countrywide immediate measures to stop spraying and introducing disinfectants on human body to contain COVID-19 through various devices such as box/chamber/tunnel/booth/partition/gate hence such disinfecting substances are reportedly found to be harmful for human health.
Planning secretary, health secretary, disaster management and relief secretary, energy secretary, director general of Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), director of Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control & Research (IEDCR), Chief Engineer of Health Engineering Department (HED) of Health Ministry and Principal Information Officer of Press Information Department (PID) have been made respondents in the legal notice.
Barrister Shihab Uddin Khan, a Supreme Court lawyer sent the notice through email and registered post saying that if the respondents fail to take appropriate steps then necessary legal actions would be initiated against the respondents.
The notice said, “It is asserted that World Health Organization (WHO) in their official website clearly provided advice for the public that ‘Do not under any circumstance spray or introduce bleach or any other disinfectant into your body. These substances can be poisonous if ingested and cause irritation and damage to your skin and eyes.’ They further clarified that ‘Bleach and disinfectant should be used carefully to disinfect surfaces only.”
“Ministry of Health has miserably failed to perform their obligation to stop use of such devices. Rather, once such use is endorsed by the government authorities, the general people will be encouraged, which will have pathetic ramifications on human health. In doing so, publican money will be wasted and citizens will be at health risks,” read the notice.
“It is transpiring that some unethical business groups and personnel’s started trying to introduce such devices desperately through misleading public and private offices. They are trying to make Bangladesh as their market hub at the cost of human sufferings. Simply put, their intention smacks of ill motive,” also read the notice.
