Working Towards an Eco-Friendly Fireworks Display 110
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."
Re:PETA vs Gun Lobby (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
Re:I wonder... (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm glad that some folks think of things like in TFA, but at the same time - some things should just be left pretty much as they are. Though the levels in that lake may have risen to 1000 times normal (and one of the sampling sites was next to and between the "Ignition site"), they were back to normal in 20-80 days:
After the fireworks displays, perchlorate concentrations decreased toward the background level within 20 to 80 days, with the rate of attenuation correlating to surface water temperature. Adsorption tests indicate that sediments underlying the water column have limited (~100 nmol/g) capacity to remove perchlorate via chemical adsorption. Microcosms showed comparatively rapid intrinsic perchlorate degradation in the absence of nitrate consistent with the observed disappearance of perchlorate from the study site. This suggests that at sites with appropriate biogeochemical conditions, natural attenuation may be an important factor affecting the fate of perchlorate following fireworks displays.
Some things are worth a little danger, and thus also a little caution, or life wouldn't be so much fun...
Re:PETA won't be satisfied (Score:3, Interesting)
Exaggerate much?
I dislike PETA as much as the next guy, but your taking this a bit far.
My pets panic on the fourth and on New Years. I live in suburbia like most people. How many people ACTUALLY have hunting dogs? Really? What percentage?
Not many, anymore, I'd guess, times have moved on.
Just because a sport has a traditions, doesn't make it okay. Bullfighting and Cockfighting stretch back a bit, therefore throwing Christians to the lions and gladiatorial combat should be fine too? Should Human sacrifice also be fine just because its traditional to certain cultures? Times move on, as do values, this is generally considered a good thing.
I don't find torturing animals for our amusement fine, just because some idiotic older cultures did so. Hurting animals for our amusement is idiotic, do we really need to cause pain to be happy? I would consider this a sad bit of evidence for humanity.
Sure, animals should be for food, and skins, but killing them for shits and giggles is kind of dubious.
If we can make environmentally friendly fireworks, I really don't see any reason to get pissed. Just as I don't see any reason to get mad at prohibiting seeing other entities pain (for its own sake) as a bad thing.
Green...? (Score:1, Interesting)