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Working Towards an Eco-Friendly Fireworks Display
phobos13013 writes "Here's an article just in time for 4th of July fireworks shows! The ACS's Chemical and Engineering News provides a fairly technical discussion about the hazardous chemicals in modern fireworks displays. Perchlorate is currently the oxidizer of choice in fireworks, but it is also known to be a thyroid blocker. Since perchlorates are water-soluble anions, they dissolve into groundwater quickly. A study performed last summer over a lake in Ada, Oklahoma showed that less than a day after a fireworks display, the lake's chlorate levels jumped by a factor of 1,000. It took weeks for the levels to drop back down to their baseline. On the other hand, heavy metals are used to produce the pretty colors typically associated with the best fireworks. The trend is to start using nitrogen-based oxidizing fireworks; they produce less smoke, which means a smaller amount of colorizing agents can be used in displays."
Just in time? I just finished burning all of my fireworks. Maybe in time for next year...
Nuclear engineers build weapons. Civil engineers build targets.
Fireworks drive away evil spirits, so, you know, really, the more poisonous the better.
Prisencolinensinainciusol. Ol Rait!
The Philippines keeps on hosting the the Pyro-Olympics, maybe the heavy metals make them more agreeable each time they're asked to do so.
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I think that the lead in bullets is poisoning the land where too many people are being shot and more attention should be applied to having a bullet that doesn't use heavy metal. /sarcasm
But if they can only set off green fireworks that'll make for a pretty boring show.
They want to get rid of fireworks completely because they scare dogs.
Specialization is for insects. -Heinlein
How about **watching** the fireworks instead? Yeah I know that's an outlandish idea, but try it some time... you see all these pretty patterns!
Compared to all the tailpipe emissions of people driving to the firework display, the chemicals used on the lawns they are sitting on, the peroxide the "blonds" all used to bleach their hair etc etc, the chemicals in the actual fireworks are insignificant.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
I know that thousands of fireworks are used in the US at 4th of July, just like many other days around the world, but still, do they do that much harm? I wonder...
One of my Labrador Retrievers, who is trained as a "gun dog", goes ballistic when he hears fireworks go off. He thinks they are shotguns which means that somebody is out hunting which means he should be doing the same.
He gets very upset when he finds out that this isn't the case. It just depends on how the dog is raised. Operant conditioning and all that.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
...if these levels are affected by the show I just saw.
I'm currently in Barcelona, Spain and witnessed the best July 4th Fireworks show I have ever seen, including any Disney display.
But the most relevant part was that they shot fireworks off the pier into the mar, sea, which exploded off of the water, something I doubt they would do in America...
Polluting the environment and fireworks are the two things America does best. Why do you hate us?
http://twitter.com/OLDTELEGRAM
Hmm... It would cause quite a brouhaha internationally because of its anti-satellite possibilities, but I always thought that an orbiting electrostatic cannon would be cool. Shoot bits of aluminized mylar at several miles per second with a solar array as an energy source, and they would hit like hand grenades. Analyze the composition of asteroids and other Near Earth Objects (the incandescence upon impact would reveal via spectroscopy of what the target was composed), deflecting potential Earth-impacting objects (OK, it would have to shoot like a chain-gun, and hit like a 2000 lb bomb, but, theoretically, early enough alterations would deflect a threatening NEO), but most importantly, would provide spectacular ionospheric displays that you wouldn't have to be up until 4:00 AM to see, a la the Leonids and Perseids.
Anonymous Dipstick, AKA Geek Unorthodox
A once a year, thousand times spike in a trace amount chemical, and it dissipates within a month? Let's get a little perspective? How many plastic water bottles and cigarette butts find their way into the same lake, and how long does it take them to dissipate? How much waste comes out of the nearest McDonald's location in a single day? From the nearest coal fired power plant? There are bigger problems to deal with than a dubious annual spike in a trace chemical.
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
Just use CFLs. They're just as good as incandescents.
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Hello, there are 195 countries in the world. The United States is ONE of them.
Well, just so you know, they do set fireworks off over the ocean in America.
In California, at Point Arena, they blast them off of the public pier, and in Fort Bragg, they shoot them off of the bluff top and right into the Pacific Ocean.
Oh, and they pollute the ocean with toxic chemicals from the abandoned lumber mill around here also.
It's the American way after-all.
If it don't GO... chrome it. ~ Frank Banks
I just got back from shooting fireworks, by the lake that serves as the water source for where I live. Epic amounts of fireworks were set off near it also...
I'm all for being environmentally friendly and all, but green fireworks would get old after awhile.
How many plastic water bottles... find their way into the same lake, and how long does it take them to dissipate?
Doctor: You appear to have a very strange cylindrical lump in your thyroid gland.
Patient: Oh my, is it serious?!
VLC FOR MAC IS DYING! IF YOU DEVELOP, PLEASE SAVE IT!!
Nothing says "I love America" quite like cheap, toxic, Chinese fireworks. Don't bother cleaning up your litter either, I really like seeing that shit in the street in the middle of August.
i.e., explosives in the hands of non-experts, instead? It boggles the mind that in this safety-obsessed world it's still possible to randomly spray your general vicinity with things that go BOOM. In my observation, the kind of people who buy fireworks are often the ones who can't be trusted to be responsible with them. There's something about fireworks that turns normal people into pyromaniacs.
So... one part in a billion instead of one part in a trillion? How about discussing actual effects instead of using hyperbole?
If video games influenced behavior the Pac Man generation would be eating pills and running away from their problems.
I just plum don't give a fuck.
I'm wondering whether some advanced LASER show wouldn't be more useful.
I doubt though that anything like holograms could be easily used for this but who knows where we can get with the following
http://www.media.mit.edu/spi/holoVideoAll.htm
What I like about this is the idea that it doesn't have to be perfect for a fireworks display so the technology should be usable early on, and any artifacts could be declared special effects.
The problem will be that high powered lasers will be needed to get the same effect as with a normal firework.
I'm also wondering where the noise will come from, it could be replaced by music from "Disaster Area" however.
With some luck one could use the lasers to make some noise, here is a good one
http://legolas.ece.wisc.edu/current/laser/index.html
They are talking about shock waves at least.
All in all if you look at the cost you will figure out that producing the Laser will be expensive energy wise, more so than fireworks actually. Also you won't be able to develop stuff like this in China so you may have to pay some engineers locally to come up with something. With all the SUVs they are driving it won't be good for the environment either.
If you want to see a star spangled banner in the sky though, just turn off the lights and pray for good weather. That will give you a whole milky way of stars if the moon isn't out. I saw this once in Australia it was just awesome.
Je me souviens.
Cause you keep stealing those "feathers" from Chinese who are the real champions of both disciplines?
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
What about the negative impact of excess Nitrogen in water tables. Most people have heard about farms being a source of pollution, leading to eutrophication of ground water, algae blooms, fish kills, nasty smelling water, etc.
The 1st limiting nutrient in most aquatic environments is Nitrogen. It's the Nitrogen in animal waste that is the problem for surface water. I'd need to see the effect of Nitrogen based fireworks on Nitrogen levels in the water before I jump on this bandwagon.
Bureaucracy expands to meet the needs of the expanding bureaucracy.-Oscar Wilde
For the record, the fireworks sucked this year in Ada.
And it's prob the same company, the same study and the same SMALL pond. Being broke has some advantages, (not really, but work with me) I can't get in trouble (yet) for reading rec.pyrotechnics, nor can I get in trouble for making my own fireworks, but I did read about this goofy study last year or so.
Alright, I'm cool with 100+ mpg cars, low-yield nuclear reactions, hydrogen, and treeless paper. But on the 4th of July I do not want anything ruining my ability to launch of cardboard, gunpowder filled explosives into the atmosphere. Now that I think about it when I drive around at night on July 4th it is always hazy with a cool mist. Grand explosives that are illegal in my municipality and state that are launched off anyway because I don't really care are the whole reason why the Fourth of July is one of my favorite holidays.