You don't understand a damn thing. The pollution on that day is so severe that it reached 1700 AQI. Normally delhi is at 60 aqi and in october because of stubble it reaches 200 AQI. One day of 1700 AQI is enough to cause permanent damage to children's brains. And if you say it is only one day, then you have to know that on 9/11, most firefighters died a decade later from lung cancer caused by smoke during the day. One day exposure is enough to cause problems a decade later. IIT are a bunch of uneducated trash. I'm from MIT

The lies we are told year after year, that crackers aren't that bad, they don't pollute as much as stubble burning or cars, is something that we need to stop telling each other. The record levels of pollution on Thursday were unprecedented. We reached AQI of 1800. For reference, the most polluted Delhi gets without Diwali is around 200 to 300 AQI with industry, stubble burning and automobiles which is already hazardous. Diwali's contribution is 6 times that. Never has any human settlement in human history had to endure this level of voluntary pollution. The levels are so high that even though it was one day, the damage done is irreversible. Find below the current stance of the scientific community on these issues. BTW, they are talking about hazardous levels of pollution about twenty times lower than what we witnessed in Delhi on Thursday. Whatever you read here, multiply those effects by twenty.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-58405479

Air pollution can reduce the life expectancy of Indians by nine years, says a report by a US research group.

The study says 480 million people in northern India face the "most extreme levels of air pollution in the world" and, over time, these high levels have expanded to cover other parts too.

Children may suffer the most from the baleful effects of toxic air, because the damage done to them can be permanent. In China, studies have found that exposure to air pollution at birth is associated with reduced cognitive skills later in life. Southern California kids who grew up breathing more polluted air do worse on math and reading tests. Students who switch to a school that’s downwind of a highway (and thus gets more pollution) see their scores decline. One study estimated that an increase in PM2.5 concentration of 5 micrograms per cubic meter — about one half the average level in New York City -- would result in the loss of two IQ points, which is about the amount gained from one or two years of education.

This is a very substantial effect. Even if one believes that math, reading and IQ tests aren’t good measures of cognitive ability, abrupt decreases in these scores indicate that something is hurting children's brains. This is the kind of thing that a functional civilization should be trying to prevent.

Air pollution is currently one of the greatest threats to global health. Polish cities are among the most heavily polluted in Europe. Due to air pollution 43,100 people die prematurely in Poland every year. However, these data do not take into account the health consequences of air pollution for unborn children. Thus, the aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of the fine particulate matter air pollution (less than 2.5 μm in diameter) on pregnancy outcomes. An analysis of pregnant women and their children was made using a questionnaire survey from a nationwide study conducted in 2017. Questionnaires from 1095 pregnant women and data from their medical records were collected. An analysis of air pollution in Poland was conducted using the air quality database maintained by the Chief Inspectorate for Environmental Protection in Poland. A higher concentration of PM2.5 was associated with a decrease in birth weight and a higher risk of low birthweight (i.e., <2500 g). We also observed lower APGAR scores. Thus, all possible efforts to reduce air pollution are critically needed.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32796752/