Firework displays do a lot of damage – please think again if you are planning one
There are lots of other, better ways to celebrate
Over the last couple of decades – in fact ever since the massive celebrations at the turn of the millennium – firework displays have become bigger and more dramatic, and it’s common for even individual households to be setting them off on bonfire night or at family celebrations.
But please, if you are planning to hold one this year on the fifth of November, or a birthday, or an anniversary, or just for a party, please rethink this and consider cancelling it in favour of some other way of celebrating.
Fireworks cause a great deal of damage, litter and pollution, and they scare pets and local wildlife.
They do much more harm than good!
Why is this a problem?
- Fireworks propel a cocktail of chemicals into the atmosphere, soil and water
- Many of these can harm both people and the environment.
- The vivid colours in firework displays come from metallic compounds such as barium or aluminium
- These have negative impacts on animal and human health
- To produce the oxygen needed for an explosion, many fireworks contain poisonous oxidisers known as perchlorates
- These can dissolve in water, contaminating rivers, lakes and drinking water and killing wildlife
- The gunpowder that fuels their flight is toxic, including containing carcinogenic substances
- Fireworks scatter smoke and plastic debris
- Perchlorates can limit the human thyroid gland’s ability to take iodine from the bloodstream, resulting in hypothyroidism
- Children, infants and foetuses suffer the worst from hypothyroidism as thyroid hormones are crucial for normal growth
- Particulates get lodged in people’s lungs, an immediate danger for those with asthma in particular
- Air-quality monitors are known to spike for about three hours after a fireworks show
- Fireworks frighten wildlife, livestock and domestic pets (and many children too!)
In other words, fireworks cause a lot of long term damage for our short term pleasure.
Take action
Please drop your plans for a firework display this summer, you know it makes sense.
’nuff said!
Thank you.