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The Diwali festival: short-term high effect of fireworks emissions on particulates and their associated empirically calculated health risk assessment at Bhubaneswar city

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Abstract

This article elucidates the role of the short-term combustion of firecrackers and sparklers as a significant source of atmospheric pollutants that deteriorate ambient air quality and increase health risks during the popular Diwali festival. The study was conducted at Bhubaneswar during the festive celebration in early November 2021 (4th Nov) and late October 2022 (24th Oct) to assess the level of particulates (PM2.5 and PM10 mass concentration) and the relative health risks associated with them. PM2.5 (113.83 µg/m3) and PM10 (204.32 µg/m3) showed significant rises on D-day at all seven different sites that exceeded the NAAQS in 2021. From 2021 to 2022, an overall decrease in PM2.5 (41%) and PM10 (36%) was observed. On D-day, the total concentration of quantified metals in PM2.5 and PM10 were found to be 4.83 µg/m3 5.97 µg/m3 (2021) and 5.08 µg/m3 5.18 µg/m3 (2022) respectively. The AQI during both years (2021–2022) was found to be high for PM2.5 (unhealthy) and PM10 (moderate), but it was markedly good for all other pollutants on the scale. The overall population in the study area were under a significant health risk was observed in the overall population as PM surpassed the threshold concentration amid the festivities for consecutive years, with PM2.5 being more potent than PM10. The total excess health risk in 2022 was found to be decreased lower by ~ 88% from 2021 on D-day. But, metal exposure (through inhalation) in children were more compared to the adults for both the years. However, the exposure risk of both children and adults were high in the year 2022 with inhalation of metals like K, Al, Ba, Fe and Ca found in higher concentration and directly emitted from the firecrackers.

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Acknowledgements

The authors want to convey their gratitude to the Director of CSIR-IMMT and the Department Head of Environment and Sustainability because of their assistance in carrying out this research. Also, we sincerely thank SPCB unit for providing us with different location data for the study period.

Funding

ISRO-GBP (AT-CTM and ARFI) has indeed been recognized for financial assistance.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Aerosol and Trace Gases Laboratory, Environment and Sustainability Department, CSIR-Institute of Minerals and Materials Technology (CSIR-IMMT), Bhubaneswar, Odisha, 751013, India

    Monalin Mishra, Ramasamy Boopathy & Trupti Das

  2. Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR), Ghaziabad, 201002, India

    Monalin Mishra, Ramasamy Boopathy & Trupti Das

  3. Department of Atmospheric Science, Central University, Ajmer, Rajasthan, 305817, India

    Chinmay Mallik

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  1. Monalin Mishra
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  2. Ramasamy Boopathy
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  3. Chinmay Mallik
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  4. Trupti Das
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Contributions

MM: Conceptualisation, analysis, data interpretation, writing-original draft preparation and reviewing. Dr. RB: Examination, funding acquisition, edit and review. Dr. CM: Supervision, evaluation and proofreading. Dr. TD: Supervision, formal analysis, investigation, editing and review, funding acquisition. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.”

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Correspondence to Trupti Das.

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Mishra, M., Boopathy, R., Mallik, C. et al. The Diwali festival: short-term high effect of fireworks emissions on particulates and their associated empirically calculated health risk assessment at Bhubaneswar city. Environ Geochem Health 46, 21 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10653-023-01810-6

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