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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."
TFineA addresses this issue: the company they profile currently makes most of their sales to Vegas shows, professional wrestling events, and rock concerts, where you do in fact have people in a confined space breathing the fumes and exposed to particulates night after night after night. The other big market is the military, for signal flares and training aids. Again, fairly regular exposure.
In all, some interesting chemistry.
Uh, "if it looks roughly mouse-shaped according to my infra-red sensitive pit, eat it"? --Chris Burke 09-08-10
Erm, this is already the case for shotgun shells. Lead poisoning in waterfowl led to the banning of lead-based shotgun pellets.
Depleted uranium is used for reasons that have nothing to do with lead toxicity, but instead for its density and its self-sharpening trait. Keeping the penetrating point and maximum kinetic energy is important when punching through armor.
That said, there are growing areas banning lead bullets, including sometimes for law enforcement, due to the perceived health risk.
You can never go home again... but I guess you can shop there.
I think this illustrates the GPs point. Since typical indoor Cl2 levels tend to be in the PPT range and occupational hazard levels are capped by OSHA at 1 PPM, a 1000 time increase would still trend toward putting you within an "acceptable" limit for long term exposure (1PPM is roughly the exposure you get from going for a swim in a chlorinated pool).
Now, if I had to put up with a 1000-fold increase in whining from my kids for a month, that would be another matter altogether.
obviously you haven't learned what sarcasm is.
DU is thousands of times more toxic than lead, and will persist in the environment for the rest of the Earths lifetime.
For the record, the fireworks sucked this year in Ada.