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On Tuesday morning citizens of the planet's dirtiest urban center found themselves inhaling dangerously toxic air that fell into the "severe" level.

Alarming Air Quality Levels

Multiple areas of the capital registered an pollution measurement over 500, which translates to a tenfold increase over the healthy threshold established by the World Health Organization.

Certain monitoring stations, readings of dangerous airborne particles hit highs of 1,800, equating to 15-20x above healthy standards.

Pyrotechnics Ban and Current Changes

For the past four years, the government had maintained a total prohibition on the sale and use of pyrotechnics during Diwali due to their major role to the deadly pollution that blankets the city as winter sets in.

Yet in recent months, the current local government petitioned the supreme court to seek a modification of the restrictions.

The suggestion was allowing "environmentally conscious pyrotechnics" – which have been doubted by environmental experts as being only about 30% reduced emissions – as a middle ground between "heritage and public health".

Legal Decision and Implementation

To the disappointment of public health and environmental activists, judges approved the appeal, stipulating that eco-friendly pyrotechnics could be ignited during designated periods throughout the Diwali.

Throughout the festival evening, there was widespread flouting of the regulated periods across the capital, with minimal regulation regarding whether the firecrackers being used were actually the supposedly greener variety.

Many air quality sensors throughout the capital showed air quality reaching highest levels around midnight to some of the worst measurements recorded during the festival in at least three years.

Cross-Border Consequences

The proliferation of pyrotechnics during the festival also sparked a blame game with adjacent the neighboring country, with officials in Pakistan's the Punjab region partially attributing declining atmospheric conditions in the city of Lahore on pollutants coming from across the border following the celebrations.

Persistent Environmental Issue

The dangerously high readings of air contamination in the city have remained as a significant problem for over a decade and a half, with the condition gradually deteriorating.

During the festival period, the concentration of toxic airborne contaminants in the atmosphere has been found to shoot up to seventy percent above the most severe records ever recorded in Beijing, which was formerly regarded as the planet's dirtiest city.

Diverse Contamination Contributors

The situation in the capital is resulting from a combination of different contributors including heavy vehicle emissions, construction debris, development work, garbage fires and smoke from crop residue ignition in neighbouring regions of farming communities.

In these regions, rural residents regularly set their fields on fire to expedite field preparation, producing dangerous pollution that becomes contained over the capital as colder air sets in.

Medical and Financial Toll

Both financial and medical consequences on the nearly 33 million people living in the capital region is substantial, according to various research.

This pollution leads to increased incidence of neurological, heart and circulatory and breathing diseases, and can potentially cause malignancies.

Environmental contamination is projected to be causing 10,000 premature mortalities per year in the capital.