India celebrates many festivals, and Diwali, festival of light, is a cultural event of Hindu origin illustrating that light overpowers the dark. In these days, the light in the dark of night is given by fireworks, which compound an existing air pollution issue in the capital, Delhi.
Residents awoke on Thursday (8/11/2018) to find the city blanketed in a toxic fog. The Supreme Court had restricted the timeframe for setting off firecrackers to only two hours in the night, but the order was openly flouted.
Diwali, the most important Hindu festival in north India, celebrates the victory of good over evil.
The levels of tiny particulate matter (known as PM 2.5) that enter deep into the lungs reached as high as 999 micrograms per cubic metre in some areas of the capital on Thursday morning, according to reports.
The US embassy tweeted that the air quality measure in Delhi had soared to 526, putting the pollution in the “severe” category and posing a serious health risk to residents.
Last month (October 2018) the Supreme Court said it wanted to test if banning fireworks would make a difference to Delhi’s air quality, ranked among the worst in the world.
Delhi government monitors showed the density of fine pollutants — small enough to evade the body’s natural defences and breach the blood-brain barrier — reached 1,665 in Anand Vihar, a central neighbourhood. The World Health Organisation’s safe limit for pollutants that size is 25.
Air Sign, Air Pollution:
In a simple manner, if we look to the chart cast for Delhi on evening of Diwali, we find that air signs with malefic planets dominate.
On day of Diwali, we find Sun, Moon and Venus all in Libra, air sign. Venus is owner of Libra and afflicted by conjunction with Sun, a natural malefic. Venus is vargottama (in the same sign in Navamsha) and once again afflicted by presence of Mars. In Navamsha, Venus and Mars are aspected by Sun and Moon, malefics. In the Prashna chart for Diwali, Mars – a natural malefic – is in Aquarius, air sign. So we have a rash of malefics in air signs on evening of Diwali, delivering air pollution.
The Indian capital is the sixth worst place in the world for pollution, according to World Health Organisation (WHO) data.
The Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP), an emergency government initiative to try and improve conditions, has also launched around Delhi. It bans activities like rubbish burning to try and improve air quality.
What are PM 2.5 particles?
- Particulate matter, or PM, 2.5 is a type of pollution involving fine particles less than 2.5 microns (0.0025mm) in diameter
- A second type, PM 10, is of coarser particles with a diameter of up to 10 microns
- Some occur naturally – e.g. from dust storms and forest fires, others from human industrial processes
- They often consist of fragments that are small enough to reach the lungs or, in the smallest cases, to cross into the bloodstream as well.
Mention of particulate matter in the bloodstream takes us to the birth chart of India, Independence on 15 August 1947. In this chart we find a malefic planet with the Ascendant, and five planets in Cancer, traditional fourth house where cardiovascular matters are sighted in medical astrology. Here we find Moon (own sign, malefic), Mercury (takes the nature of planets it is conjunct, Saturn (natural malefic), Sun (natural malefic), Venus (malefic). Moon rules the circulatory system, indicating propensity to heart and lung issues. On this occasion Rahu was transiting the natal house, indicating poisons in liquids (Cancer), and the circulatory systems (Particulate matter in the bloodstream).
