green fireworks

Know which colors leave the least pollution in their wake.

Protect li'l lungs: Keep kids far enough away so they won't breath in fallout from fireworks.

RODALE NEWS, EMMAUS, PA—A Fourth of July without fireworks is about as exciting as a Christmas without deep-discount sales at the mall. But anyone who’s lingered at a big fireworks display after the sparks have fallen back to Earth has probably wondered about the environmental impact of all that smoke clouding a post-display sky. And if you’re setting them off in your own backyard, should you be even more worried?

THE DETAILS: Interestingly, those massive fireworks displays, which seem to occur at nearly every major public event these days and weekly (sometimes even daily) at theme parks, account for only 14 percent of all the fireworks sold in this country, according to the American Pyrotechnics Association. The remaining 86 percent are sold to consumers.

The good news: Legal fireworks (the key word here being “legal”) sold in the U.S. must comply with regulations set forth by the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), and aren’t allowed to contain more than 130 milligrams of chemicals, about the same amount as half a full-strength aspirin tablet. And if you look at the list of chemicals that are allowed, many are also used in food and medical applications. For instance activated charcoal, used in the gunpowder that ignites a firework’s fuse, is also used in water filters to remove contaminants. If you’ve ever had a barium enema, you’ve had the same chemical pumped into your system that’s used to make green fireworks green (in the color, rather than eco, sense of the word). So for the most part, fireworks displays don’t seem to be significant sources of chemical exposure.

However, that’s not to let them off the hook completely. The CPSC does allow the use of perchlorate, an oxidizer that helps ignite the fireworks and has been linked to thyroid problems. Scientists say that most of the perchlorate used in fireworks should burn off when the fuse is lit, but if it’s a dud or doesn’t burn completely, you’ve got a component of rocket fuel on your hands that could contaminate groundwater and mess with your hormones.