Assessment of the Impact of Diwali Festival on Ambient Air Quality of Udaipur - A Smart city in India

• Published in: International journal of life sciences and technology 2017-01, Vol.10 (6), p.60
• Main Authors: Soni, Kusum, Bamniya, B R, Soni, B K
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0974-5335

Diwali festival the main festival of India is celebrated with great fun and frolic, however amidst the extravagance, then lies a harsh reality of its effect on the health of the city. Increase on concentration of basic pollutants warrants the cause of implementation of specific measures to be taken during the festival. Criteria pollutants SPM, RSPM, SO2 , NO2 and metals measured are found to have either crossed or on the edge of crossing the limits, necessitating the immediate installation of a continuous monitoring and control mechanism. While fire crackers and transport related emissions are the major sources of air contamination, increasing construction activities also contribute to particulate matter. The exponential rise in volume of vehicles, haphazard traffic flow pattern, differing driving cycle pattern and human interceptions deserve due attention. It is concluded that Udaipur city is a strong case for continuous monitoring of ambient air quality due to alarming and increasing level of pollutants specially for particulates. Exposures to airborne metals are known to cause physiological responses in organisms and wide-ranging health effects in humans. Hence determination of metals in particulate matter is important from a toxicological perspective. In the current study heavy metals associated with respirable (RSPM) and non respirable (NRSPM) fractions of suspended particulate matter were estimated in air samples from four stations in Udaipur, India, during November-2015 on the occasion of Diwali. The present study was conducted in order to understand the impact of crackers and related fireworks usage during diwali festival (Festival of lights) in the ambient air quality status including the metal concentrations of Udaipur city during November-2015. This was assessed by evaluating the air quality status by measuring the concentrations of various air pollutants such as Sulphur Dioxide, Nitrogen Dioxide, Suspended Particulate Matter (SPM) and Respirable Suspended Particulate matter (RSPM) and metals associated with particulate matter since usage of crackers is found to be the major activity during this particular festival and such firework related activity releases various gaseous and particulate air pollutants and toxic metals in a greater extent. Hence, in the present study, SO2, NO2, SPM, RSPM and metals were estimated at selected sites during the on diwali, Pre-Diwali and Post Diwali period. As a whole, it is understand that though the concentratio