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.
WHAT IT MEANS: Fireworks are probably pretty low on the list of chemical threats to the environment, but there’s room for improvement. There has been a movement towards getting rid of perchlorate in fireworks; however, when it comes to truly ecofriendly fireworks, we may have to wait awhile. “You couldn’t really get much in the way of colors if you were to have so-called green fireworks,” says John Werner, a technical consultant for a Chinese fireworks manufacturer who also sits on the Board of Directors for the National Council on Fireworks Safety. “If you want to start getting more brilliant colors then you get into chemicals like barium and perchlorate.”
If you want your July 4th to be a little healthier and more ecofriendly, without depriving your family of sparklers and loud, popping firecrackers, here are a few tips:
• Go white without the red and blue. White fireworks usually don’t contain perchlorate, says Werner. So favor them if you want to minimize contamination of your yard and groundwater.
• Green isn’t very green. Even though barium has relatively small human health effects (too much can make your stomach upset), it’s very persistent in the environment and builds up in the tissue of aquatic animals. Of all the metals used to generate firework colors, it has the most significant environmental impact. Green-colored fireworks are the most likely to contain barium.
• Stay small and minimize smoke. According to scientists at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, the amount of pollution from fireworks, both commercial and backyard, is relatively small, and the primary pollutant, aside from perchlorate, is particulate matter from the smoke that fireworks leave behind. It can irritate lungs and noses, particularly in children. So keep kids at a distance and stick with smaller fireworks (bigger, more explosive fireworks, such as cherry bombs and M-80s are usually illegal, anyway). Avoid kinds that claim to emit lots of smoke (like, say, smoke bombs).