Huge firework displays for July 4th in US, but the nation's air quality suffers

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20240703-how-4-july-fireworks-pollute-the-air-and-might-damage-your-health

by blondie9x • 2 years ago

2 7 2 years ago

h2odragon• 2 years ago

Most of the fireworks use stuff that disperses quickly.

It's the BBQ grills that are putting aerosolized greases into the air, the stuff that floats and clings and stays around.

That's where those lovely delicious smells that linger live.

blondie9x2• 2 years ago

No fireworks do not just fade away. The microplastics released into the environment take extended time periods to degrade, impacting lives for generations. The millions of animal deaths annually are forever. The shortened lifespans from the smoke caused by fireworks also is permanent.

BBQs aren't killing animals and releasing microplastics nor toxic smoke that pollutes the air nationally.

dekhn3• 2 years ago

Before we discuss this further: are you a scientist?

dekhn3• 2 years ago

I continue to flag BBC articles on HN due to their low quality and irrelevance to the site.

blondie9x2• 2 years ago

HN is all about everything that impacts engineers in our work lives, and home lives. Did you know fireworks cause microplastics levels to spike in your environment leading to endocrine system hormonal damage in your family? I bet not.

dekhn3• 2 years ago

I did not know that fireworks contained plastic (although I should have). However, please be aware that the health impacts of microplastics aren't really well known, which places this article in the "mostly scare-mongering" rather than "actual risk we should care about"; this is typical of the BBC these days. Of all the things that Americans do that are unhealthy, plastic pollution by fireworks is pretty low on the list of enumerable, measureable harms. While, fireworks and firecrackers are quite dangerous on their own for explosive reasons.

A better source would probaly be this observational study (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0025326X2...) and I was unable to find any high quality studies that showed any strong evidence of direct harm.

It (BBC) is just a low quality source for information impacting our lives, with an emphasis on dire-sounding, but poorly understood harms.

losalamosal• 2 years ago

I suspect that the largest producer of fireworks, China, also is the largest consumer of fireworks—by far. It’s surprisingly hard to find the numbers though. Try Googling “fireworks consumption by nation”. Like the BBC, Google seems to think this is a US-led issue. Would like to see the actual numbers if anyone can find them.

Huge firework displays for July 4th in US, but the nation's air quality suffers

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