Kolkata: West Bengal Pollution Control Board (WBPCB) chairman Kalyan Rudra on Friday appealed to associations of highrises and housing complexes in Kolkata and its adjoining areas to keep their roofs locked on the night of Kali Puja to prevent firecracker-related accidents.
Rudra cited a past incident in Howrah where a person was killed after being struck by a firecracker launched from a rooftop. “We had received information from a senior police official in Howrah a few years ago that while bursting firecrackers on the roof of a highrise, one fell on the head of a person in Shibpur, proving fatal.
I would appeal to all association members of multistoried buildings to keep their roofs under lock and key on Kali Puja night for safety,” he said.
He was addressing representatives of 80 highrises from the city and suburbs at a meeting held at the WBPCB’s Salt Lake office.
Rudra noted that after restrictions were imposed on sound-emitting crackers, many have shifted to light-emitting ones, which contain heavy metals harmful to both humans and biodiversity.
“Lead affects the central nervous system, sodium impacts the skin, copper harms the respiratory tract and zinc may cause vomiting. These particles mix with ambient air and affect the brain, heart, lungs and can even lead to cancer.
The animal kingdom too suffers due to such pollution,” he said.
Urging restraint, Rudra advised people to completely avoid bursting crackers or use only green crackers, which cause 30 per cent less pollution, and to adhere to the two-hour window between 8 pm and 10 pm on Kali Puja and Diwali.
He added that the Petroleum and Explosives Safety Organisation (PESO) and the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) have listed approved green crackers on their websites.
Each green cracker packet carries a QR code revealing details about its composition and manufacturer. “If the code doesn’t work, it might be a fake cracker,”
Rudra cautioned.