Would a lightshow not be a better option?

‘I saw a horrendous amount of road kill this morning,’ a friend commented as he arrived for lunch on on New Year’s Day. ‘I wonder why.’ I wondered why too – and then it occurred to me – fireworks. Animals scared out of their layers and onto the roads by the cacophany of yet another fireworks display.

It is not that I want to stop people having fun. But, when light displays are now so inventive, artistic and truly spectacular, why are we still so wedded to fireworks – not only a disaster for the environment but deeply anti social?

Environmental damage and air pollution from fireworks

• Fireworks use at least six different metal compounds, many of them toxic, to create the colours that explode in the air when lit. These include barium and aluminium, particles of which can be inhaled by everyone, both human and animal, within a several mile radius of the event – and can linger for days. In Spain for example, metal particle pollution from Girona’s Sant Joan fireworks fiesta could still be found in the city a week later.
• Fireworks are already the largest manufactured source of some types of metal particles in the UK atmosphere.
• As well as particulate matter fireworks release fine clouds of smoke affecting local air quality.  Alarmingly, firework residue was found to deplete lung defences far more than pollution from traffic sources, suggesting a greater toxicity.
• Across India, Diwali fireworks have been linked to a 30% to 40% increase in recorded breathing problems.
• In Germany, tests have shown how goal and match celebrations with flares, smoke bombs and other pyrotechnics can fill football stadiums with high concentrations of airborne particles.
• Additionally, to produce the oxygen needed for an explosion, many fireworks contain oxidisers known as perchlorates – a family of very reactive chlorine and oxygen compounds used by NASA to boost space shuttles off the launch pad.
• Perchlorates can dissolve in water, contaminating rivers, lakes and drinking water and have been linked to thyroid problems, causing limits to be set for drinking water in some US states. This is a major concern for lakeside resorts and attractions that have frequent firework displays.

Fire and injury dangers

• Fireworks can not only easily cause fires at the site of the display but, if the weather has been dry (as, for example, around the 4th July celebrations in the US) they can easily spark wildfires.
• At least 18 people died from firework-related incidents in the UK in 2020 and about 15,600 people were treated in hospital emergency departments for fireworks injuries.
• Injury is usually to the hands, legs or eyes and a significant proportion of the injuries are to children –  predominantly burns.

Social damage

• Noise and light pollution can affect large areas adjacent to the site of the display. This applies both to large public and to private displays.
• Noise and bright lights can negatively impact a wide range of people and animals:
  • Those suffering from PTSD after wartime or other violent experiences
  • People with  migraine, epilepsy or any condition triggered by either noise or light.
  • Sudden loud noise can affect those susceptible to shock – those suffering from heart conditions for example
  • Pets and wild animals can be traumatised by the noise or, in the case of the wild animals, get killed or injured in trying to escape from it.

The light display alternative

Modern light displays use powerful LED lights. They are:

• Very energy efficient
• Silent
• Cold (so minimal risk of fire)
• Reusable so create no waste
• Do not cause injuries to operators or watchers
• Do not cause air pollution

They can….

• Create  more than  four billion colour combinations.
• Combined with drones and GPS sensors they ‘present almost unlimited opportunities for artistic storytelling in the sky’.
• So offer far more exciting, dramatic, colourful and spectacular shows than you could ever create with fireworks.

So why are we still using fireworks?…….