Each year, we celebrate our national birthday with colorful explosions as fireworks ignite around American neighborhoods on the Fourth of July.
These displays provide brilliant light shows each Independence Day, but they also cause spikes in air pollution levels that may be hazardous to the health of individuals. The Olympic Region Clean Air Agency (ORCAA) sees elevated levels of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) air pollution at many of its monitoring stations each Independence Day. In some cases, levels at the monitoring sites reached unhealthy air quality!
ORCAA wants to make sure people are aware of the potential health risks associated with exposure to the pollution from fireworks. The smoke from fireworks dissipates within a few hours, but individuals with asthma or other respiratory conditions may be impacted for days afterward.
To minimize impacts from fireworks pollution, individuals might consider:
- Limiting their use of personal fireworks – smoke from these concentrations near ground level.
- Residents are encouraged to attend community-sponsored aerial fireworks displays. These also create pollution, but much higher above the ground, where it can dissipate more completely before reaching people at ground level.
- People who do set off fireworks on their own should:
- Keep the fireworks clear of buildings and combustible materials (including vegetation).
- Ignite them only during the evening of the Fourth.
- Dunk the leftover paper and plastic debris in a bucket of water (to reduce risks of fire), and then carefully dispose of that waste.
- The waste should never be burned – not only does state law prohibit burning the material, but the colorful wrappings contain chemicals that would release additional dangerous toxics into the air when burned.
ORCAA encourages all residents to have a fun, but safe and healthful, Fourth of July holiday.ful, Fourth of July holiday.