The High Court on Sunday asked the authorities to explain in four weeks why marketing and distribution of drinking water, soft drinks, beverages, medicines and other food products in plastic bottles should not be banned. A bench of Justice Mirza Hussain Haider and Justice Muhammad Khurshid Alam Sarkar issued the rule on the government while hearing a public interest litigation writ petition filed by Supreme Court lawyer JR Khan Robin in December 2013. The court also asked the government to explain why steps should not be taken to withdraw and destroy plastic containers from the market. It also asked the government to explain why an order should not be issued to form a high-powered monitoring cell to oversee the withdrawal of plastic containers and a ban on their production. The respondents, health and food secretaries, directors general of health service and Bangladesh Standards Testing Institute and Department of Environment have been asked to reply in four weeks. SC lawyers Badruddoza Badal with Mirza Al Mahmud appeared for the petitioner while deputy attorney general Al Amin Sarker represented the government. Badal submitted that there was an alarming rise in the use of plastic bottles though they are very harmful for health and become all the more dangerous being collected from dustbins for reuse. He said juices, sauce, medicines and cooking oils were also marketed in plastic bottles. Nickel, ethylbenzene, ethylene, benzene and other harmful chemicals in plastic bottles could cause sudden obesity, hormonal and fertility problems, breast and uterine cancer, autism and heart diseases, Badal submitted.