Holy city turns gas chamber as AQI ‘very poor’ for 3rd day in row

With the average Air Quality Index (AQI) of Amritsar once again breaching the 350 mark on Saturday, a day after Diwali, the city became a sort of a gas chamber as a thick envelop of smog engulfed the city. Amristaris woke up to a smoggy morning, which intensified during the evening again as AQI hit the 369 mark, remaining in ‘very poor’ category. This is the third consecutive day that the average AQI in city crossed 300 mark.

Visibility remained affected throughout the day as Particulate Matter (PM) 2.5 content remained very high, touching 169 µg/m3, which is very unhealthy. These are fine pollutants indicating air pollution and PM’s main components include sulfates, nitrates, ammonia, black carbon, mineral dust and water. This impacts visibility and causes adverse effects on health. WHO guidelines state that annual average concentrations of PM 2.5 should not exceed 5 µg/m3, while 24-hour average exposures should not exceed 15 µg/m3 more than 3-4 days per year.

“Green crackers are a hype and high PM 2.5 concentration in air is a sign that we must take note of. Cracker burning releases aluminum, barium, manganese and other such elements and these stay in air for 3-5 days, if not dispensed through rainfall or strong winds. The average air quality index in hourly data shows much higher indicators of pollution and it gets worse after sunset as dispersion of pollutants decrease during evening and nigh time,” said Dr Manpreet Bhatti, who specialises in environmental engineering, water and wastewater treatment, ambient air quality and is a part of GNDU’s project on monitoring ambient air quality in the city.