Health and Environmental Advocates Push for Non-Use of Firecrackers and Fireworks to Cut Toxic Air Pollution
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29 December 2023, Quezon City. Advocates for health and environmental protection are urging Filipino families to usher in the New Year with cleaner air by not lighting firecrackers and fireworks.
“Lighting firecrackers and fireworks -- legal or illegal ones -- generates environmental pollutants that can aggravate the air quality, which can have life-threatening effects on the most vulnerable groups, especially the children, senior citizens, and people with cardiovascular, neurological, respiratory and other medical conditions. Breathing in these microscopic pollutants may result in coughing, wheezing and shortness of breath, as well as asthma and heart attacks,” said Limpin who is also the past president of the Philippine College of Physicians and the Philippine College of Chest Physicians.
Among the environmental pollutants generated by the exploding firecrackers and fireworks are suspended particulate matter (SPM), greenhouse gases carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxide, and chemicals associated with the manufacture of firecrackers and fireworks like aluminum, barium, copper, lead, potassium and strontium.
Inhaling PM 2.5, Limpin said, can be very harmful as these fine particles can travel deep into the respiratory tract and the lungs. For instance, a study by the Manila Observatory showed PM 2.5 reached “very unhealthy” levels as a result of firework activities during the 2019 New Year revelry. The hourly and average PM2.5 of 143.4 micrograms per cubic meter (μg/m3) between 6:00 pm on December 31, 2018 and 8:00 am of January 1, 2019 exceeded the 24-hour National Ambient Air Quality Guideline Value (NAAQGV) of 50.0 μg/m3.
According to the US EPA’s Air Quality Index (AQI) levels of health concern, when the air quality has reached the “very unhealthy” level, sensitive groups are advised to “avoid all physical activities outdoors and reschedule to a time when air quality is better or move activities indoors.” All others are advised to “avoid long or intense activities and consider rescheduling or moving activities indoors.”
For her part, Lucero emphasized that the right of every Filipino to clean air is violated outright by the lighting of firecrackers and fireworks, which according to some will blast away bad luck and usher in good fortune.
Money intended for the purchase of firecrackers and fireworks are better spent for a healthy “media noche” in the company of our joyful and hopeful family members and friends, the EcoWaste Coalition said.
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