Mamata urged to impose ban on firecrackers to check air pollution

Kolkata, Oct 23 (PTI) Doctors and environmentalists of West Bengal wrote to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday urging her to impose a complete ban on firecrackers like last year to protect the air quality which starts deteriorating due to burning of fireworks during the Diwali festival.

Several of Kolkata's leading doctors and experts in other fields, who are also part of the Bengal Clean Air Network (Bengal-CAN) submitted a letter to Banerjee on the need for a safer and cleaner festive season.

The letter said the air quality starts deteriorating after firecrackers are burst during Diwali and West Bengal becomes a gas chamber.

The signatories offered support on their part to the administration in generating awareness about pollution caused by firecrackers.

“The upcoming winter season poses a problem in West Bengal and hence, there is a necessity for a pollution-free Diwali celebration this year,” the letter, signed by members of the Association of Radiology Oncologists of India, Society of Emergency Medicine India, South Asian Medical Students Association and other leading NGOs, said.

Dr Soirindhri Banerjee of the Department of Radiation Oncology, IPGMER & SSKM Hospital, who is also a signatory said, “It is extremely important to recognise the potential of smoke and suspended smog as significant worsening factors of respiratory infections. As festivities continue, we urge all to celebrate with lights and lamps and consciously curb the use of firecrackers to control air pollution." The letter also stressed that if the ban is implemented it would lead to reduction in the level of not just air but sound pollution as well. PTI SCH NN NN