KAKINADA : A day after citizens of Vijayawada celebrated Diwali with much pomp and gaiety by bursting a variety of firecrackers, there was a spike in air pollution levels in the city on Thursday night.
According to AP Pollution Control Board’s Continuous Ambient Air Quality Monitoring Station (CAAQMS) located at Vijayawada Municipal Corporation guest house on Bandar Road, the smoke from crackers and fireworks increased the pollution level several times in two parameters which defines the index of air quality.
The two parameters - Particle Pollution and Suspended Particulate Materials PM10 and PM2.5 stood around 550 micro gram per cubic meter as against the standard level 100 and 650 micro gram per cubic meter as against the standard level 60 respectively. Despite the celebrations being a low-key affair this year owing to social media campaigns which encouraged eco-friendly and pollution-less Diwali, there seems to be no drop in pollution levels against the normal and standard levels observed at the advanced and automated ambient air quality monitoring system.
“If the PM10 and PM2.5 cross the standard values, it is considered hazardous. On normal days, the levels reported range somewhere around 90 per cent of the standard values. But after people started bursting crackers on Thursday, the levels of polluted particles in air gradually increased and touched 550 and 650 from 6 pm to 10 pm,” said a senior official from Pollution Control board.
Meanwhile, many people reportedly were inflicted with an injury in their eyes after the crackers emitted hazardous chemicals in the form of smoke. All the major eye hospitals in the city witnessed patients being rushed into the wards with burn injuries or eye infections. “My son felt a burning sensation in his eyes on Thursday night when he burst crackers. We took all precautions while bursting crackers but he could not escape from the harmful air,” said M Pooja, a resident of Gurunanak Colony.The same is the situation at other eye hospitals with patients rushing in with swollen eyes, burn injuries near eyes and red eye problem.