Academics announce launch of campaign to prevent abnormalities among babies

LAHORE: The postdoctoral academia announced on Sunday the launch of a struggle to save the unborn and newly-born babies from contracting lifelong abnormalities, saying “it is a war on teratogens, which is no less than the war on terror, on any count”.

The great struggle was launched by the postdoctoral academia on December 18, in various countries of the world, at special ceremonies, organised in connection with the 50th birthday marking of international researcher of Pakistan, Prof. Dr. Aurangzeb Hafi, who is one of pioneering researchers of the ‘terato-kinetics’ study.

These ceremonies were organised in the USA, UK and Pakistan for declaring the war on teratogens and paying tributes to the Pakistani researcher. The ceremony in Pakistan was held at the Punjab University’s Quaid-e-Azam campus by the Asia & Oceania Post-Doctoral Academia (AOPDA), National Postdoctoral Academia (NPA), UN-KAKHTAH and postdoctoral community of the country.

Speakers at the Punjab University ceremony said the struggle initiated on Dec 18 would be a war on drugs and food additives that cause physical and mental complications among the unborn and newly-born babies. It is the war against the chemical agents that cause abnormalities following fetal exposure during pregnancy, they said.

A spokesperson for National Postdoctoral Academia (NPA) told APP that title of the study is ‘Trans-referential research model of teratology’, along with the ‘Trans-positional theory of terato-kinetics and Iatro-teratogenicity’. Latro-teratogens are the substances or medication induced probability perils and fate subsequences, which cause the development of abnormal cell tissues in the unborn as well as newly-born babies, particularly during fetal growth, yielding a multiplex of physio-chemical defects in the fetus.

The research study is evidence-based, well documented, comprising statistical records analysis of nearly 660-730 million disables, — a sum that constitutes somewhat 10-17 per cent approximation of the planet’s population, added the spokesperson. It clearly endorses the alarmingly lethal and provable enough linkages between what is to be later on referred to as ‘iatro-teratogenicity’ and multiple disabilities in newly-born as well as unborn babies.

The spokesperson said the threshold of the research would concentrate and put pivot emphasis on bringing global attention to certain chemicals that could cross the mother’s placenta and pose serious threats to embryo, thus causing speckled wide-ranging physicochemical and neuro-cerebral complexities at embryonic stages. The research study also covers the adverse offshoots of certain food additives and some other ‘ultra-smart utilities’ during pregnancy that should also be brought under legislative consideration.

The research holds the global initiatives for serious consideration of international legislation. It is going to impact more than 730 million disabled persons around the world by initiating not only the new debates in planetary academia and the medico-forensic spheres, but also hitting the legislative orbits around the globe, believes the NPA spokesperson. Ethico-legal hierarchies like the United Nations are intent marked stakeholders of the present research, he added.

In 2013, Prof Dr Aurangzeb Hafi launched the first-ever ‘Model of teratological research’ in the recorded history of medical sciences. The landmark research document is an outcome of nearly over two-and-a-half decades investigative work by the multidisciplinary arch-researcher. The ground-breaking research document was primed for over 1,700 international prestigious universities of the world in accordance with the United Nations mandate on the subject-matter.

Presided over by the Chancellor Emeritus of Asia & Oceania Post-Doctoral Academia Justice (R) Dr. S.S. Paru L.L.D., D.D. Litt., the scientific colloquia, regimented under the aegis of AOPDA, are well-observed by the academicians of reputed institutions around the globe, said the spokesperson.

In his keynote theme-lecture at the Punjab University ceremony, Prof. Aurangzeb Hafi accentuated on subsoil water toxicity hazards due to non eco-compatible sewage and drainage practices. “The environment of the planet, in its totality, is on stake due to lethal vulnerabilities of under-ground water reserves and its repercussion for living organisms would be disastrous,” asserted the speaker.

Prof. Hafi brought into the academia’s as well as public attention the critical issue of different types of teratogens and the complex phenomenon of teratogenicity, which is responsible for various types of multiple disabilities at pre-birth stages as well as in newly born babies. He assertively identified and affirmed the sub-soil hydro-toxicity to be a potential teratogen in the developing countries like Pakistan, where these ecologically incompatible sewerage-drainage practices are deemed as legal developments, and there exist no measures and regulatory policy framework to restrict the same. He stressed the need to tackle the growing impact of inner and outer environmental toxicity, in a broader perspective, in compliance with the UN conventions on the subject-matters under discussion.

In his message, read out at the ceremony, Dr. Wickrema Weerasooriya, former Sri Lankan High Commissioner to Australia & New Zealand, paid rich tribute to the Pakistani researcher, saying that Dr. Aurangzeb Hafi was ranked among the ‘Top of The Top-10’ most impactful persons of the 21st century’s 1st Bi-decadal Merit Gazettes.