How green are green crackers & why they’re still trumped by traditional fireworks despite SC ban

Unlike regular crackers, green crackers don't contain barium and have suppressors like dust & zeolite that reduce particulate emissions. They can be identified by CSIR NEERI logo.

File photo of people buying green crackers ahead of Diwali festival in Delhi | ANI

Bengaluru: In October 2018, the Supreme Court imposed a ban on all but green fireworks due to the growing air pollution across the country. Despite the ruling, toxic fireworks continue to be a problem each year, with India’s air quality plummeting around Diwali.

The court’s order came on the back of a petition originally filed on behalf of three infants back in 2015. Following the order, the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research’s National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) — in collaboration with the Ministry for Forest & Climate Change — began to work on a project to create a new formulation for fireworks. 

This formulation, made available in October 2019 — a year after the SC order — was aimed at reducing emissions and sound drastically by replacing traditionally components like metals and additives with options that are less dangerous to health and produce lower emissions. These fireworks are called green crackers.

As Diwali approaches, ThePrint spoke to officials at NEERI and the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board to know more about green crackers, the challenges in getting them adopted, and their pros and cons.

Green crackers — what are they

According to CSIR NEERI’s official definition, green crackers are fireworks made with a reduced shell size that don’t contain charcoal or barium in the form of commercial barite, which produces a bright green colour in regular fireworks and emits extreme amounts of noxious smoke.

In traditional fireworks, compounds of barium, potassium, or ammonium are used as oxidisers — components that react to produce oxygen and amplify the explosion, and contribute immensely to emissions and sound.

Instead, these fireworks contain suppressors like dust and zeolite that reduce particulate emissions and are meant to either reduce particulate emission PM 2.5 by a minimum of 30 percent, or particulate matter emission by 20 percent and gaseous emissions by 10 percent compared to conventional fireworks. This is in line with the 2018 Supreme Court ruling, which also bans the use of antimony, lithium, mercury, arsenic, lead, barium oxides, and potassium oxides in fireworks.

Particulates considered are mainly sulphur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide.

Significantly, unlike traditional fireworks, green crackers make substantially less sound — 110-125 decibels compared to 165 decibels in traditional firecrackers.

There are three categories of green fireworks:

SWAS or safe water releaser, contains a little pouch, which emits water vapour during an explosion, preventing the emitted particulates from rising higher.

STAR or safe thermite cracker, uses low quantities of thermite — a mixture of metals and metal oxide. In traditional fireworks, thermite undergoes an explosive reaction, releasing heat and particles. 

SAFAL is safe minimal aluminium cracker, a category that reduces the use of that metal in fireworks, mostly substituting it with magnesium, thus also reducing sound.

Green crackers are also less expensive to both produce and purchase, and can be identified by their CSIR NEERI logo on the packaging. They also have a mandatory QR code on the outside for identification purposes.

Manufacturing and testing

Green crackers are manufactured by traditional firework units that are mostly clustered around Tamil Nadu’s Sivakasi, with a handful in West Bengal. 

While addressing a press conference in 2019 to announce the green crackers project, Harsh Vardhan, then Union minister for Science & Technology, Earth Sciences, Environment, Forest & Climate Change, said the Indian fireworks industry has an annual turnover of Rs 6,000 crore and provides livelihood to 5 lakh families.

According to Sadhana Rayalu, chief scientist at NEERI, manufacturers of traditional firecrackers have signed agreements with CSIR NEERI under which raw material used is tested for purity and contents, while effects of explosions are tested in labs and outside after manufacturing. Teams of scientists and officials from pollution safety boards are present physically to measure air quality and decibel levels checks.

Emission tests are conducted at the Firecracker Emission Testing Facility (FETF) in Nagpur, a collaboration between CSIR-NEERI, and the Ministry of Climate Change (MoEF&CC), she said.

However, due to logistics involving transporting samples all the way to Nagpur, a temporary raw materials, chemicals composition, and emissions (RACE) testing facility is being set up at Sivakasi, Rayalu told ThePrint.  

The facility, which is expected to be operational in the next few months, can test the fireworks for purity and composition, emissions, sound, and quality control, she said. 

Emissions tests cost Rs 8,260/sample for manufacturers, while purity testing and raw materials tests cost Rs 11,800, Rayalu said, adding that nearly 1,200 manufacturers are now registered with NEERI, and have undergone several training programmes that are periodically held in Sivakasi, Nagpur, and Kolkata.

Significantly, it’s the Petroleum and Explosive Safety Organization (PESO) — the nodal government agency under the Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry for regulating the safety of hazardous substances such as explosives, compressed gas, and petroleum — that provides authorisation for the use of these firecrackers.

Manufacturers need a NEERI registration number and their mandatory explosive license number for these tests.

‘Lower acceptance’

Scientists at NEERI and officials at the Karnataka State Pollution Board cite an “uptick” in the adoption and use of green crackers since their rollout, although there are no clear numbers to corroborate this yet.

But officials also say that there is still some way to go before these are widely accepted. While Rayalu claims that persuading people to use green crackers was “very challenging” and “intellectually stimulating”, M.G. Yathish, senior environmental officer at the Karnataka State Pollution Board, said low noise-producing fireworks are still unpopular.

In addition, counterfeit products are also a cause for worry, and many state authorities have formed investigative teams.

“We have directed all deputy commissioners to form their task force, comprising police officers, local pollution control board officers, fire safety officers, health officers, and tehsildars,” Yathish said. “These bodies will check in on any manufacturing and storage of material and fireworks in the state. Illegal and counterfeit items will be seized, with criminal charges.”

But Yathish also admits that even this may not be “completely effective” in resolving the problem. “Only making the use of green crackers mandatory can do so,” he said. 

Fewer problems but a long way to go

According to Yathish, apart from the reduction in emissions and noise, there are a couple of other advantages to green crackers.

“With traditional fireworks, we always see accidents such as loss of eyesight or rupturing of eardrums. These cases have come down substantially,” he said, adding that Karnataka has seen an improvement in air quality around Diwali over the last few years. 

But manufacturing green crackers isn’t without its flipsides. For one thing, some of the raw materials used for making green crackers are not easily available and are expensive to source, he says. 

But the biggest disadvantage is that green formulations still emit smoke and particles and also make noise, even though it’s lower than traditional fireworks.

The easiest and most practical thing to do is to not use fireworks at all, said Yathish.

“Even in our government speeches now, we ask to stop the use of fireworks completely. I personally think just lighting lamps is enough, but we also have to tread carefully so as to not hurt the sentiments of those in favour of fireworks,” he said. 

Meanwhile, scientists at NEERI are also developing a newer formulation with even lower emission levels.

“Periodic review of new formulations to meet higher emission reduction of 50-70 percent has been addressed by CSIR-NEERI by reducing the use of conventional oxidisers and fuel and identifying new oxidisers,” Rayalu told ThePrint. “The piloting, shelf life, and stability tests are in progress jointly by CSIR-NEERI and fireworks manufacturers to achieve 50-70 percent emission reduction in particulate matter.” 

(Edited by Uttara Ramaswamy)