DOCTRINES, ENVIRONMENTAL AND HEALTH IMPACTS OF DEEPAWALI

Background: The environmental consequences of firecrackers are very serious, ranging from health hazards to human beings, birds and animals to serious accidents leading to loss of life. People burn crackers world over on different occasions in different countries to express their happiness. Deepawali –the fes­tival of light– is celebrated in India, every year during October or November with great fireworks display. Fireworks in large amounts aggravate the level of air pollutants and cause significant short-term air quality degradation with possible impact on human health. Many studies have reported the accelerated concentrations of pollutants like PM2.5, PM10 etc but then there were no reports on the people’s perception or awareness regarding these pollutants and their effects on human health. The smoke of fireworks consists mainly of fine toxic dusts that easily enter the lungs and represents a real danger for those already sick as well as for the healthy. In addition, fireworks let-offs are the result of explosions releasing a mixture of chemical components.

Methods: This paper presents the study of people’s perception regarding fireworks and their health effects. The study has been carried out in the city of Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, India. Tool used for the study is a structured questionnaire which includes demographic data of the respondents, awareness of the respondents towards pollution due to fireworks and perception of respondents towards health effects due to fireworks.

Results: The study reveals that only a very few of the respondents were having a basic information regarding the pollution aspects of crackers and most of them were totally ignorant of the health effects.

Conclusion: It can be concluded from the study that the people perceive effects from fireworks but does not acknowledge as fireworks a part of religious belief. The study addresses the need of spreading vigorous awareness regarding the pollution problems which lead to the health effects in human beings.