Indoor Air Pollution Due to Fireworks during Diwali Festival and its Human Health Effects in Lucknow, India

摘要

Extensive use of firecrackers during the mega festival of light Diwali, in India is found to be related to short term variation in air quality. In this study, PM10, PM2.5, CO2, CO, H2S, SO2, NO2 and 10 trace metals associated with PM2.5 were estimated at different locations in Lucknow for Pre and post Diwali. A control day monitoring was also done to obtain the control concentrations of the air pollutants. Monitoring was done in indoor air for 24 hours to measure the effect of Diwali episode. The instrument employed for PM10 and PM2.5 was APM550; for CO, CO2, H2S was YES205 and 206; SO2 and NO2 by impinger method (spectrophotometer method). The average concentration of PM10 and PM2.5 on the day of Diwali were 863.3 and 660 μg/m3 respectively which were 4.42 times higher than the concentration on control day. Concentration of pollutants on Post-Diwali day was observed to be higher than the pre Diwali day which indicate a longer time stay of these pollutants in Indoor air accumulated on Diwali night due to fireworks. On the day of Diwali concentration of pollutants were in order of PM10 (188.51%) ＞ PM2.5 (147.51%) ＞ SO2 (125.69%) ＞ NO2 (79.12%) to Pre Diwali day and showed significantly higher (PM10 & SO2 at p＜0.01 and NO2 for p＜0.05 level) and PM10 (527.51%) ＞ SO2 (459.37%) ＞ NO2 (229.11%) to normal day and all the values showed significantly higher (p＜0.01). The average concentration of metals associated with PM2.5 on Diwali Day was found to be in the order of Ca(2,876.41) ＞ Fe(879.09) ＞ Zn(476.2) ＞ Cu(412.6) ＞ Pb(287.61) ＞ Mn (76.54) ＞ Co(69.87) ＞ Cr(37.81) ＞ Ni(33.2) ＞ Cd(27.82) in ng m-3 and all these values were found to be higher than the Pre Diwali and control. In order to estimate the health impact of short-term degradation of air quality during Diwali, percentage increase in relative risk of mortality and morbidity due to short-term exposure to increased level of air pollutant concentrations was used as the evaluating parameter.