Mumbai, Nov 11 — Actor Gajraj Rao, who was recently seen in the streaming anthology 'Lust Stories 3', has expressed his frustration at the state of affairs in the aftermath of the explosive Diwali celebrations.
On Wednesday, the actor took to his Instagram, and penned a note, sarcastically telling people that the damage to their lungs from the smoke or firecrackers is irreversible.
He wrote, "I don't know why the public doesn't understand this. Well, these are their own lungs, not the clothes that they buy from Myntra that they would exchange after a week".
The actor, however, turned off the comments on his post.
Mumbai witnessed a sharp deterioration in air quality after Diwali, with the city's AQI touching 171 on November 9, up 28% from 134 recorded the day after Diwali last year. Eight monitoring locations entered the 'poor' category, largely generated by firecracker smoke, was identified as the principal pollutant. Health experts have warned that exposure to fine particulate matter can cause respiratory irritation, cardiovascular complications and systemic inflammation, particularly affecting children and senior citizens.
The fire brigade also witnessed an unprecedented workload: between November 6 and November 9, it received 282 fire calls, of which 200 were attributed to firecrackers. On November 8 alone, 137 of 142 fire calls were cracker-related. One person died in a fire incident. Subsequently, BMC banned rockets and aerial firecrackers across Mumbai until November 25.