BEHIND THE SCENE

The most celebrated 5-day festival of India  "Diwali"  has already arrived and the splendor  can strongly be felt.  All the "Happy and safe Diwali"  wishes are already surrounding our ears.  Why not Holi, Mahashivratri, Eid, New Year's  and other festivals wished to be safe and only Diwali is supposed to be so?  Undoubtedly, we all know the answer.

Since years, we have been focusing  and talking about the adverse after-effects of burning crackers on health and environment.  We discuss about the unabated air and noise pollution and the resultant global warming.  Hardly we chew over a few questions like:

·         Where does crackers comes from?

·         Who makes them and how do they make them?

Regardless of all the after-effects, crackers do have sabotaging pre-effects too in their making process.  Chemicals used in fireworks like Cadmium, magnesium, aluminium, lead are manually sieved and mixed several times to attain the finest raw material for serving its purpose satisfactorily.  Albeit, machinery for mixing these chemicals have arrived in the market to reduce human errors, but they are not yet made available in factories to assist the workers.  This compels them to stay long in the contact of those chemicals.  Many a times they don’t even have the protective covers/clothes and fall victim to skin diseases.

Health issues caused by certain heat-reactive chemicals used in fireworks are:

·         Copper, sulphur di oxide causes respiratory problems.

·         Lead,  nitrates are responsible for affecting the nervous systems.

·         Aluminium and nitrites cause skin irritation and related diseases.

·         Cadmium causes anemia and damages the kidney.

Many firework factories also have children working below the age of 13.  The prominent example is Sivakasi Fireworks Industry for fireworks, match sticks and printing.  These factories  not only sabotage the childhood but also the health of these children.

We being the customers spend a few hours for a few days yearly into these hazardous cracker-caused environment and what about those, for whom this environment isn't a choice but a way of earning their livelihoods.  By obviating the use of crackers, we not only protect our mother earth, but also aglow their lives by reducing the crackers demands.

So, instead of a boisterous Diwali celebration let's celebrate a genuine Diwali.  And subsequently, give them a reason to celebrate a happy as well as healthy diwali.