🔗 Share this article Delhi Awakens to Dangerous Smog Post Celebrations Tuesday brought residents of the world's most polluted city were faced with breathing severely hazardous air that fell into the "alarming" level. Record-Breaking Pollution Levels Several parts of the city showed an pollution measurement exceeding 500, which equals a tenfold increase over the recommended level established by the global health authority. Particular areas, readings of dangerous airborne particles soared to of 1,800, representing fifteen to twenty times higher than healthy limits. Fireworks Ban and New Developments For the past four years, the government had implemented a total prohibition on the distribution and bursting of fireworks during the Festival of Lights due to their significant contribution to the deadly haze that covers the metropolis as the cold season begins. However recently, the recently formed city leadership approached the judicial authority to propose a relaxation of the ban. They proposed allowing "environmentally conscious pyrotechnics" – which have been questioned by environmental experts as being only roughly 30 percent lower impact – as a compromise between "cultural practices and environment". Judicial Decision and Reality Despite concerns of environmental and health advocates, judges agreed to the proposal, stipulating that green firecrackers could be used during specific periods throughout the festival. Throughout the festival evening, there was widespread flouting of the regulated periods across the metropolis, with little enforcement regarding whether the pyrotechnics being used were actually the more environmentally friendly type. Many monitoring devices throughout Delhi recorded air quality peaking around the night hours to some of the worst measurements recorded during the festival in at least recent memory. Regional Effects The widespread use of firecrackers during Diwali also sparked a blame game with adjacent Pakistan, with officials in Pakistan's Punjab partly blaming declining atmospheric conditions in Lahore on contaminants traveling from neighboring India following the celebrations. Persistent Environmental Problem Extremely elevated concentrations of pollution in the capital have persisted as a serious issue for over a decade and a half, with the condition continuing to worsen. During the festival period, the levels of toxic airborne contaminants in the environment has been documented to spike to seventy percent above the peak records ever measured in China's capital, which was formerly regarded as the world's most polluted city. Various Contamination Factors This crisis in the capital is resulting from a mix of different contributors including automobile exhaust, construction debris, building projects, garbage fires and pollutants from farm burning in neighbouring areas of farming communities. Within these states, rural residents routinely burn crop residue to clear them quickly, producing dangerous smog that remains stagnant over the city as winter air descends. Health and Economic Toll Public health and economic impact on the roughly thirty-three million residents calling home the capital region is enormous, according to multiple research. These hazardous conditions results in high levels of neurological, heart and circulatory and breathing conditions, and can result in oncological diseases. Air quality crisis is calculated to be accounting for ten thousand premature fatalities annually in the city.