Clouds have extended adverse impact of post-Diwali pollutants, say experts

LUCKNOW: The clouds hovering in the sky for the past two days have extended the adverse impact of pollutants post-Diwali, say experts.

LUCKNOW: The clouds hovering in the sky for the past two days have extended the adverse impact of pollutants post-Diwali, say experts.

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“Pollutants from crackers fade off in two ways -- one, if the sun comes out, they get dry and fly away with the wind and second, if it rains, which happened in the past few years, pollutants settle down on the ground and get washed away. However, this year the clouds hovering in the sky have made the pollution scene bad,” said PK Srivastava, former senior scientist of Central Drug Research Institute (CDRI).

He said that with low temperature and absence of sunlight or rain, the pollutants might trouble people for the next couple of days. “Chemicals from crackers will go away even if such climate continues. But they will go away slowly and might take a few days to go away or settle down,” said Srivastava.

You must have seen colourful crackers in the sky but only a few would know such colours come out from heavy metal such as cobalt and nickel used in crackers. With fall in temperature, these toxic heavy metal pollutants stay in the air,” said Srivastava.

“Breathing gets disturbed due to air pollution as tiny particles settle in the airway or even in the lungs, hence it takes days to recover, particularly if this happens to a person who is a known respiratory patient,” said Dr Raman Kumar, president of the Academy of Family Physicians of India.

There are masks available in the market, but the best way to stay safe from the adverse impact of high levels of air pollution is to stay indoors and avoid exposure to outdoor air as far as possible, said Dr PK Gupta, former president IMA, Lucknow.