Article on Pollution Holidays-Not Very Welcome One
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Holidays are generally supposed to be fun. But big celebrations can sometimes bring big risks. Massive fireworks displays delight the eye, for instance. They also can fill the air with pollution that hangs around for hours or more. It’s something that people in India had long suspected. Last year, data emerged showing that fireworks bring choking pollution to many people, here, during the festival of Diwali.
This annual four-day Hindu religious celebration commemorates the triumph of good over evil, knowledge over ignorance — and light over darkness.
After the main day of revelry, people celebrate by setting off firecrackers. They can do it all night long. On the day after last year’s Diwali fireworks, people in New Delhi, India’s capital city, awoke on November 7 to especially dirty air. The levels had spiked overnight, starting around when the fireworks began. And in an urban area that is home to 29 million people, a lot were affected.
What’s more, data from the 2018 Diwali festival were no fluke.
A study that came out last August turned up a recent, consistent trend. It linked Diwali fireworks in the Indian capital to short term — but extreme —air pollution. Indeed, the authors of that study concluded: “To our knowledge this is the first causal estimate of the contribution of Diwali firecracker burning to air pollution.”
For 15 years, a growing body of research had raised concerns about such pollution.
Balram Ambade was one of those concerned scientists. He is a chemist at the National Institute of Technology in Jamshedpur, India. Last December, he presented data on particulate matter (or PM) from Diwali fireworks in his city. Scientists measure such pollution in micrograms per cubic meter (μg/m3) of air. In a 12-hour period on the holiday, PM values soared to 500.5 μg/m3. That rise was about 21 to 27 percent higher than before the fireworks went off.
A series of such studies had prompted India’s 31-member Supreme Court to pass a new ban on fireworks last year. Only “green” fireworks could be sold leading up to the holiday.
India’s Council of Scientific and Industrial Research has been working to create these more environmentally friendly fireworks. They emit less pollution. Still, they are not pollution-free. So even these approved fireworks could only be set off between 8 and 10 p.m., the court ruled.
Despite such a rule, India found it hard to enforce the ban. Many people still set off firecrackers. And air monitoring stations around New Delhi showed that PM levels spiked overnight from November 6 to 7. Amounts of the smallest and most risky particles, known as "fines," topped out at nearly 250 μg/m3 — a whopping 150 μg/m3 above normal.
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