Green Crackers

News:Government of India has launched green firecrackers in a bid to resolve the crisis of air pollution.

Facts:

Background:

• In October 2018,the Supreme Court had banned the manufacture, sale and use of firecrackers that are loud and toxic to man, animal and the environment.
• The court had allowed for sale of green and improved crackers through licensed traders.

What are Green Crackers:

• Green crackers are so named because they do not contain harmful chemicals that would cause air pollution.
• In green crackers the commonly used polluting chemicals like aluminium, barium, potassium nitrate and carbon have either been removed or sharply reduced to slow down the emissions by 15 to 30%.
• Scientists at Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has developed less polluting green firecrackers named as (a) Safe Water Releaser(SWAS) (b) Safe Thermite Cracker(STAR) and (c) Safe Minimal Aluminium(SAFAL).

Additional information:

About CSIR:

• Council of Scientific and Industrial Research(CSIR) is an autonomous research and development body established by the Government of India in 1942.
• It covers a wide spectrum of science and technology –from radio, oceanography, geophysics, chemicals, drugs, genomics, biotechnology and nanotechnology among others.
• It provides significant technological intervention in many areas with regard to societal efforts which include environment, health, drinking water, food, housing, energy, farm and non-farm sectors.