Eco-Friendly Fireworks for 4th of July
by Yuka Yoneda, 07/03/09
What’s not to love about fireworks? Bright bursts of color, awe-inspiring flashes of light… asthma??!!! More and more people have been voicing their concerns about the health risks (from particle-filled smoke and lung-clogging antimony to heart-toxic Barium and body-contaminating perchlorates) associated with our favorite nighttime spectacles, especially since we’ll be experiencing a ton of them tomorrow for 4th of July. Are there such things as eco-friendly fireworks? Scientists are busy working on them right now, but at the moment, they are too cost-prohibitive to make an appearance in displays this year.
Since we can’t purport to be green fireworks experts, here are the articles that we’ve found to be the most informative on the subject:
Eco-Friendly Fireworks Offer Safer Alternatives from Discovery News
Oh No Mommy, Will the Greenies Take Fireworks Away from Us? (haha) from Treehugger
Eco-Friendly Fireworks and Other Green Alternatives for July 4th from Greenopia
+ 5 Cheap and Easy Ways to Green Your 4th of July
Image credit: d4rr3ll and Mr. Magoo ICU
I can see that fireworks give off certain toxic gases, but never really gave much thought to the fact that the gases could be that harmful to ourselves.
It is only a couple of times a year we see fireworks and many of us only let off a few in the garden or go to large displays where the fireworks are quite a distance from spectators.
So is it really worth the expenditure required to create greener fireworks?