An Environmentally Unfriendly Start

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 3... 2... 1... HAPPY NEW YEAR! 

As people all around the world gathered to witness the display of fireworks, I couldn't help but think about how many more New Years we can experience on Earth. This year, the fireworks in Singapore were held around neighbourhoods to manage crowd control, although not all went as planned. An incident of a firework projectile hitting a nearby house resulted in a halt in the fireworks display, and concerns were raised regarding the safety of fireworks. However, how harmful are fireworks really? 


Source: Channel News Asia. (2022). https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/hdb-block-hit-fireworks-projectile-ubi-new-year-2410346

Air Pollution from Fireworks 

While decorative, fireworks are a rather potent source of air pollution, releasing PM10 and PM2.5 particles into the atmosphere. These particles are largely detrimental to one's health even when one is exposed to them in a short period of time, and are commonly associated with cardiovascular and respiratory illnesses. Greven, et al. in 2019 investigated the link between air pollution from fireworks during New Year's celebrations and daily mortality in the Netherlands. They discovered that there was a drastic increase in the concentration of PM10 particles in the first hour after the New Year's celebration as compared to hourly concentrations on other days of the year. Although New Year's celebrations seem to imply that there is only a brief exposure to harmful particulate matter, one of the concluding points was that there were positive associations between firework events, PM10 concentrations and daily mortality. However, further research was recommended, and the data did not account for other human activities which may have increased the presence of particulate matter during the hour of research. Apart from that, fireworks also release gaseous pollutants such as sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxide and lead to increased concentrations of water-soluble ions and metals. The harmful effects of these were relatively underexplained in the study. 

While other celebratory events also utilise fireworks, I feel that New Year's celebrations are the most detrimental as it is an occasion where countries all around the world are setting off fireworks at the same time, leading me to wonder just how environmentally detrimental this one event is, considering the amount of pollutants fireworks contain. 

References: 

Greven, F.E., et al. (2019). Air Pollution during New Year's fireworks and daily mortality in the Netherlands. Scientific Reports, 9: 5375. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-42080-6

Tham, D. (2022, January 1). HDB block in Ubi hit by 'stray projectile' from New Year fireworks display. Channel News Asia. https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/hdb-block-hit-fireworks-projectile-ubi-new-year-2410346


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