‘Neighbourhood smog’ is often referred to as localised or urban smog — a high concentration of ground-level air pollution confined to a specific neighbourhood, residential zone, or local community
It has been leading to coughing fits and aggravating lung diseases like asthma and COPD, said physicians even as several hospitals have seen a rise in patients with sudden respiratory distress since Wednesday night. Unlike broad regional smog that covers an entire metropolitan area uniformly, neighbourhood smog is heavily driven by hyper-local emission sources and localised microclimates, leading to micro-hotspots of poor air quality within a specific area, said experts. Kolkata: Bursting of crackers in some south and central Kolkata pockets over the last few nights has been leading to ‘neighbourhood smog’, often referred to as localised or urban smog — a high concentration of ground-level air pollution confined to a specific neighbourhood, residential zone, or local community. “It helps to trigger and aggravate lung conditions like COPD and asthma, other than causing long-term damage to the lungs. That apart, it creates a choking feeling within sleep since crackers are now being burst late into the night.
An Indian study measured personal PM2.5 exposure from six common firecrackers and concluded that burning them produces ‘extremely high levels of personal exposure to PM2.5. ’ Researchers expect significant short- and long-term health effects from this,” said Jash.
Neighbourhood smog infiltrates the lungs at point-blank range, said Debraj Jash, head of pulmonology at Manipal Hospital, Salt Lake and Broadway. Neighbourhood smog forms through a combination of local emission sources, specific atmospheric chemistry, and local weather or geographic conditions that could also be triggered by residential heating, biomass burning, localised traffic congestion other than firecracker smoke.
“Crackers burst at ground level, right where people stand, so you get a concentrated dose before the smoke spreads.