GUWAHATI: Amid the clamour for use of green crackers in the festive season, experts have claimed that like any other firecracker, green crackers too essentially contain various chemical toxic compounds, though in lesser quantities but cannot be called "eco-friendly".
Environment activists said most green crackers are said to cause around 30% less pollution than an average cracker.
Professor Bhisma K Patel, who teaches chemistry at IIT Guwahati said that green crackers too, in many cases, use polluting chemicals like aluminium, barium, potassium nitrate and carbon.
"But the quantity is reduced which in turn lowers the emission by about 30%. In some green crackers, these chemicals are not at all used. Green crackers are made using less polluting raw materials. Their chemical formulation ensures reduced particle emission into the atmosphere by suppressing the dust produced," Patel said.
He added that while regular crackers emit about 160 decibels of sound, green crackers' emission rate is limited to 110-125 decibels.
Green activist Sumaira Abdulali told TOI, "The green crackers developed by the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) which decides on chemical contents to avoid noise as well as harmful emissions that can pollute air, have less emissions. Samples of so-called green crackers bought by Awaaz Foundation are apparently not green crackers. But they contain dangerous and banned metals."
"We tested firecrackers in labs and all of them contained materials like mercury, lithium, barium, lead and arsenic which are banned by the apex court. These can't be called green as they are deadly poison. Mercury is a neurotoxin which causes severe birth and growth defects in children and constant and prolonged exposure of arsenic can be fatal."
