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On Tuesday morning citizens of the planet's dirtiest urban center were faced with inhaling dangerously toxic air that registered in the "severe" level.

Alarming Pollution Readings

Multiple areas of the city registered an AQI exceeding 500, which translates to 10x the healthy threshold recommended by the World Health Organization.

Particular areas, readings of dangerous airborne particles reached peaks of eighteen hundred, representing fifteen to twenty times higher than healthy levels.

Firecracker Ban and New Changes

Since 2020, officials had maintained a complete ban on the sale and use of fireworks during the Festival of Lights due to their major role to the deadly smog that engulfs the metropolis as winter sets in.

Yet earlier this year, the recently formed local leadership approached the judicial authority to propose a easing of the prohibition.

They proposed allowing "green crackers" – previously questioned by environmental experts as being only about 30% lower impact – as a compromise between "heritage and environment".

Court Decision and Implementation

To the disappointment of medical and ecological activists, judges complied with the request, specifying that eco-friendly pyrotechnics could be used during designated time windows throughout the celebrations.

On Monday night, there was extensive violation of the regulated periods across the capital, with little monitoring regarding whether the pyrotechnics being used were actually the more environmentally friendly variety.

Numerous air quality sensors throughout the capital recorded contamination spiking around late evening to the most severe measurements seen during celebrations in at least the past three years.

Regional Implications

Extensive ignition of fireworks during the celebrations also triggered a controversy with bordering the neighboring country, with officials in Pakistan's Punjab province pointing to deteriorating pollution levels in Lahore on contaminants coming from neighboring India following the events.

Chronic Pollution Problem

The dangerously high readings of air contamination in the capital have continued as a significant challenge for more than 15 years, with the condition showing no improvement.

During Diwali, the amount of hazardous particulate matter in the atmosphere has been observed to spike to seventy percent above the most severe levels ever measured in China's capital, which was formerly considered as the globally most contaminated metropolis.

Multiple Pollution Sources

The problem in the city is resulting from a convergence of multiple factors including transportation pollution, construction debris, development work, rubbish burning and smoke from farm burning in adjacent states of Punjab and Haryana.

Within these states, farmers routinely set their fields on fire to expedite field preparation, producing dangerous pollution that becomes contained over the city as cooler air arrives.

Medical and Economic Consequences

Public health and economic consequences on the nearly 33 million inhabitants calling home the metropolitan zone is enormous, according to multiple studies.

The contaminated air results in high levels of nervous system, heart and circulatory and respiratory diseases, and can result in oncological diseases.

The pollution is calculated to be causing ten thousand premature mortalities each year in the capital.