Fireworks go green this Independence Day

This year let’s hope our Independence Day celebrations are more eco friendly than ever. Although the celebratory fireworks are meant to paint the sky with light, they however fill the sky with smoke, lead and mercury since they are always in the mix. Among the toxic culprits being addressed lately, potassium perchlorate is a reliable and inexpensive oxidizer, but it has been connected to cancers and thyroid problems. The technologies behind fireworks have changed little through the ages. Today’s fireworks products may be able to last longer and burn brighter, they essentially contain a form of gun powder used in wars fought in China some 800 years ago. Strontium and lithium may be used for red, barium and copper lead for green, and sodium glows golden. Calcium deepens colors. Zinc makes smoke clouds, aluminum sparkles, and antimony adds glitter. Scientists in Germany and at Los Alamos National Laboratory have explored reducing perchlorate, smoke, and carbon by using substances rich in nitrogen. Los Alamos researchers responded to complaints some 10 years ago from Anaheim, Calif., residents about pollution from fireworks shows every night at Disneyland. The theme park in 2004 announced it was adopting safer air cannons that use compressed air instead of a chemical propellant, eliminating black smoke.

A report by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission went ahead and counted fireworks-related injuries in 9,600 people in 2004. It found that Improperly-handled explosives pose more imminent dangers and increase the rate of injuries per amount of fireworks released. However this has declined in the early 2000s to nearly one-third the level of the early 1990s, according to the National Council on Fireworks Safety. These and many other steps have ensured some preventative measures towards greener and healthier nights of light for our future and the next partying generations to come. Oh! and a very Happy Independance Day.
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