The Hindu : Crackers fail to meet requisite norms

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Sep 20, 2003

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Crackers fail to meet requisite norms

By Anjali Malhotra

NEW DELHI SEPT. 19. While the Delhi Government may boast that pollution levels have fallen during Diwali over the past few years, the firecracker industry continues to openly flout the noise pollution standards. According to a test report by the National Physical Laboratory (NPL), Pusa, here in association with the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), most firecrackers available in the market do not meet the requisite noise standards.

And while scientists warn that this is dangerous, for the authorities it spells a failure of the monitoring mechanism. Even as authorities are busy preparing a road map for the anti-firecracker campaign, tests conducted by NPL for the past two years bring to light that even major brands do not meet the noise standards of CPCB. According to the test report for firecrackers available in the market during Diwali 2002, of the 12 samples picked, only one met the standards as prescribed under the Environment Protection Act.

"The samples were selected according to what is easily available in the market and what are most popular among the people. They were picked up from the market near Jama Masjid in Old Delhi," said a CPCB official. The tested samples included "Atom Bomb (timing)", "Chinese Crackers", "Magic Fountain Bomb", "Rajan's Classic Dhamka", and "Hydrogen Bomb". All these samples - except "Three Sound" - violated the noise standard of 125 db (AI) measured at a distance of 4 meters from the point of bursting for all crackers.

"What is even more distressing is that we tested firecrackers from popular, known brands. And while there is a flourishing business of fake crackers, as per this report most of the genuine crackers do not meet the standards either," added the official. The samples had stamps of popular companies like Coronation Fireworks, Sri Kaleshwari Fireworks, Rajan Fireworks and Sri Patrakali Fireworks.

The specified limit of 125 db (AI) is the "safe" limit has been reached after much deliberation, say scientists. "Sounds that exceed this specified limit can be harmful. It can cause partial deafness or even permanently damage the eardrum if the sound exceeds this level. Sometimes exposure to high volume can cause raise the threshold shift which makes hearing difficult. Also, most people are not careful about the specified distance of 4 meters," a scientist said.

According to sources, though the test report has been forwarded to the Ministry of Environment and Forests there has been no response.

The availability of such firecrackers in the market exposes the loopholes in the implementation process for which the Department of Explosives and the Licensing Department of the Delhi Police are chiefly responsible. "There are a lot of violations in the firecracker industry. There is a case pending in the Supreme Court concerning this matter. Last year, during Diwali time, we detected some violations. In those cases we suspended the licences of those people. This time we are planning surprise inspections in all those places that are licensed by us. Also, our team in Sivakasi in Tamil Nadu is monitoring the production of crackers," informed the Joint Chief Controller, Department of Explosives, P. Kataria.

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