TITLE:
Real Time Ambient Air Quality Status during Diwali Festival in Central, India
AUTHORS:
Shivangi Nigam, Navneet Kumar, N. K. Mandal, B. Padma, S. Rao
KEYWORDS:
PM10, PM2.5, Diwali, Fireworks, Correlation, Regression, Nagpur
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Geoscience and Environment Protection,
Vol.4 No.1,
January
29,
2016
ABSTRACT: In India, festivals are celebrated with lot of
enthusiasm and Diwali is the major festival of light. In this festival, houses
are illuminated by lights and sky is illuminated by fireworks. These fireworks
though create lot of amusement but also pollute the atmosphere in terms of air
pollution. The continuous air pollution monitoring was undertaken during Diwali
festival (2014) at residential site NEERI, Nagpur. Air quality parameters were
compared with CPCB standard. On Diwali day, PM10 and PM2.5 concentration achieve its highest value of 900 μg/m3 and 950
respectively μg/m3. This high concentration is maintained in
atmosphere for two days of this festival in atmosphere which is approximately 8
- 9 times more than that regulatory standard. These particles carry all the
components of the cracker including heavy metals, alkali metals, alkaline earth
and change the atmosphere with positive and negative ions apart from impaction
of sulfur and other acid gases to the atmosphere.