Estimates of air pollution in Delhi from the burning of firecrackers during the festival of Diwali

Ghei, Dhananjay; Sane, Renuka

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0200371

Cited by 40 publications

(15 citation statements)

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“…Educating and creating awareness about immunisation and fostering critical thinking on associated risks and benefits could have a tremendous impact on overcoming hesitant behaviour in a population [ 63 ]. Such an approach has proven advantageous in a different context, i.e., reduced use of polluting firecrackers during the Diwali festival [ 64 , 65 ]. Including a basic curriculum on VPDs in schools could also have a positive impact in the long term by making the new generation aware of vaccination's risks and benefits (e.g., HPV) [ 66 , 67 ].…”

Section: Opportunities To Increase Vaccine Confidence In Indiamentioning

confidence: 99%

Vaccine Hesitancy as a Challenge or Vaccine Confidence as an Opportunity for Childhood Immunisation in India

et al. 2020

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Vaccines have contributed substantially to decreasing the morbidity and mortality rates of many infectious diseases worldwide. Despite this achievement, an increasing number of parents have adopted hesitant behaviours towards vaccines, delaying or even refusing their administration to children. This has implications not only on individuals but also society in the form of outbreaks for e.g. measles, chicken pox, hepatitis A, etc. A review of the literature was conducted to identify the determinants of vaccine hesitancy (VH) as well as vaccine confidence and link them to challenges and opportunities associated with vaccination in India, safety concerns, doubts about the need for vaccines against uncommon diseases and suspicions towards new vaccines were identified as major vaccine-specific factors of VH. Lack of awareness and limited access to vaccination sites were often reported by hesitant parents. Lastly, socio-economic level, educational level and cultural specificities were contextual factors of VH in India. Controversies and rumours around some vaccines (e.g., human papillomavirus) have profoundly impacted the perception of the risks and benefits of vaccination. Challenges posed by traditions and cultural behaviours, geographical specificities, socio-demographic disparities, the healthcare system and vaccine-specific features are highlighted, and opportunities to improve confidence are identified. To overcome VH and promote vaccination, emphasis should be on improving communication, educating the new generation and creating awareness among the society. Tailoring immunisation programmes as per the needs of specific geographical areas or communities is also important to improve vaccine confidence. Fig. 1 Plain language summary

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Section: Opportunities To Increase Vaccine Confidence In Indiamentioning

confidence: 99%

Vaccine Hesitancy as a Challenge or Vaccine Confidence as an Opportunity for Childhood Immunisation in India

et al. 2020

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“…Additionally, a 2 × 17 factorial Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) analysis is used to examine the data altogether from all stations for examining the relative changes for P19/P20 vs. L19/L20 (Lani, 2010). To further separate out the changes in air quality due to concurrent changes in meteorology and activities reduction due to national lockdown is examined by using ANOVA with a difference-in-difference (DiD) method (Ghei and Sane, 2018;He et al, 2020) between 2019 and 2020. Lastly, the air quality impact during and before lockdown is also examined by comparing the daily exceedance of National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) in India.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Examining Effects of the COVID-19 National Lockdown on Ambient Air Quality across Urban India

Navinya

Patidar

Phuleria

2020

Aerosol Air Qual. Res.

120

119

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Lockdown seems the most effective way to prevent the spread of Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) as no vaccine is currently available in the market to cure it. Thus, India has enforced nation-wide lockdown from 25 th March to lower the spread of this contagious virus and associated illness. This study aims to quantify the changes in pollution levels as well as meteorology during the 6-weeks COVID-19 lockdown over 17 cities of India for 5 major criteria pollutants using publicly available air quality data. Hourly averaged data is accessed from the air quality monitoring stations during the lockdown and immediate pre-lockdown periods and also corresponding data from the previous year (2019). During the lockdown, PM 2.5 , PM 10 , NO 2, and CO reduced significantly with relatively small changes in meteorological conditions compared to the prelockdown period. The highest decline is observed over Ahmedabad (68%), Delhi (71%), Bangalore (87%), and Nagpur (63%) for PM 2.5 , PM 10 , NO 2 , and CO, respectively. The Northern region shows the highest decline for all the pollutants with most days below NAAQS during lockdown-86%, 68%, and 100% compared to 18%, 0%, and 38% in 2019 for PM 2.5 , PM 10 , and NO 2 , respectively. The smaller cities Dewas and Jorapokhar show lesser improvement with only 3% and 16% improvement in days under NAAQS for PM 2.5 . SO 2 is the least affected pollutant with little improvement. The major decline is observed during 7-10 am and 7-10 pm hours of the day for PM 2.5 , PM 10 , NO 2 , and CO with more than 40% reduction. The meteorological changes are very small and heterogeneous over India showing a similar extent of changes compared to the previous year but the pollution levels have reduced significantly. Thus, the sharp decline in pollutant concentration during the ~6 weeks period national lockdown can be attributed to the reduced economic and transport activities.

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“…[2122232425] Even in Delhi, the National Capital of India which already has very high levels of air pollution at baseline, burning of firecrackers during Diwali has been shown to increase the levels of PM pollution even further. [26] Apart from burn injuries[27] and noise pollution,[28] air pollution due to the burning of firecrackers has been shown to cause respiratory tract infections, worsening of asthma, COPD, cardiovascular diseases, and even premature deaths. [2930313233] Taking cognizance of the concerns of the ambient air pollution catastrophe during the Diwali festival, the Supreme Court of India banned the sales of firecrackers in 2017.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Personal exposures to particulate matter <2.5 μm in mass median aerodynamic diameter (PM_2.5) pollution during the burning of six most commonly used firecrackers in India

Shah

Limaye²,

Ujagare

et al. 2019

Lung India

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Introduction: Diwali or the festival of lights is the most popular festival celebrated in India when firecrackers are burnt by almost every household for 3 days. Levels of ambient air pollution are reported to be very high during the Diwali festival in India. In this study, we aimed to measure and compare the personal exposure levels to particulate matter <2.5 μm in mass median aerodynamic diameter (PM 2.5 ) during burning of six of the most commonly used firecracker types in India. Methods: Sparklers, ground spinners, flower pots, pulpuls, a garland of 1000 sounding crackers, and snake tablets were burnt outdoors in an open area during the late evening hours. Minute by minute PM 2.5 levels were measured at a distance and height from where they are normally burnt using Thermo pDR 1200, USA, and a set of five such experiments were conducted to examine the variability between the firecrackers. Results: When measured at a distance and height from where they are normally burnt, the burning of snake tablets produced the highest peak level of PM 2.5 (64,500 mcg/m 3 ), followed by a garland of 1000 sounding crackers (38,540 mcg/m 3 ), pulpuls (28,950 mcg/m 3 ), sparklers (10,390 mcg/m 3 ), ground spinners (9490 mcg/m 3 ) and flower pots (4860 mcg/m 3 ). Conclusion: Burning of firecrackers produce extremely high levels of personal exposure to PM 2.5 levels that are likely to have significant short-term and long-term adverse health effects. The initiative taken by the Supreme Court of India in 2017 to ban the sale of firecrackers seems to be a step in the right direction to reduce the adverse health impacts in the community.

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Estimates of air pollution in Delhi from the burning of firecrackers during the festival of Diwali

Cited by 40 publications

References 14 publications

Vaccine Hesitancy as a Challenge or Vaccine Confidence as an Opportunity for Childhood Immunisation in India

Vaccine Hesitancy as a Challenge or Vaccine Confidence as an Opportunity for Childhood Immunisation in India

Examining Effects of the COVID-19 National Lockdown on Ambient Air Quality across Urban India

Personal exposures to particulate matter <2.5 μm in mass median aerodynamic diameter (PM_2.5) pollution during the burning of six most commonly used firecrackers in India

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Estimates of air pollution in Delhi from the burning of firecrackers during the festival of Diwali

Cited by 40 publications

References 14 publications

Vaccine Hesitancy as a Challenge or Vaccine Confidence as an Opportunity for Childhood Immunisation in India

Vaccine Hesitancy as a Challenge or Vaccine Confidence as an Opportunity for Childhood Immunisation in India

Examining Effects of the COVID-19 National Lockdown on Ambient Air Quality across Urban India

Personal exposures to particulate matter <2.5 μm in mass median aerodynamic diameter (PM2.5) pollution during the burning of six most commonly used firecrackers in India

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Product

Resources

About

Personal exposures to particulate matter <2.5 μm in mass median aerodynamic diameter (PM_2.5) pollution during the burning of six most commonly used firecrackers in India