The animation below shows the accumulation of fine particulate (PM2.5) after Independence Day fireworks set off on the night of July 4. In addition to the day long pollution from the barbeque grills and holiday car trips.
The timeline begins in the early hours of July 5, with orange and red colored unhealthy levels continuing through the still night. Many of these metro areas in the Midwest, East and Southeast recently had their air basins flushed clean by winds or rain.
Source: airnow.gov
Testimonials:
Air Quality Advisory Issued For Smoke and Ozone For July 4 Through July 5 Due to Fireworks
- Clark County Department of Air Quality (DAQ) is
issuing an advisory that will be in effect from Friday, July 4, through
Saturday, July 5, for potentially elevated levels of smoke and ozone over the
Independence Day holiday due to local fireworks. Air Quality officials say smoke is made of
small dust particles and other pollutants that can aggravate respiratory
diseases and contribute to ground-level ozone formation.
Fireworks Caused Louisville to Exceed Air Pollution Standards on July 4 For First Time Since 2010
- “Just by the nature of how the standard works, you’d see a spike, you
could clearly see a lot of PM in the air, on our monitoring data around
9, 10, 11:00, 12:00, 1:00, 2:00,” he said. “And then it dissipates as
people go to bed and they stop shooting fireworks off.”
Fireworks' 'recreational pollution' makes environmentalists fume
- Fourth of July on the Washington Mall, New York Harbor and countless
other cities and towns throughout the US...
... the British medical journal The Lancet
points out the "great consequences for health, especially in periods
with extremely high particulate matter less than PM2.5 in diameter."
For all their dazzling geometry and stirring booms and crackles,
fireworks deliver a smorgasbord of grim chemicals into the skies above.
Perchlorate, the chief propellant, contaminates the ground and water below. It inhibits the thyroid's absorption of iodine...
That brilliant green blossoming above is created with barium nitrate, which is not only radioactive and poisonous...
Blues are made with copper compounds like polychlorinated dioxins...
The brilliant whites sparkling above are most likely brought courtesy of
aluminum compounds, which also bioaccumulate in any living thing below...
Reds can come from lithium, which is toxic and creates irritating fumes when burned, or strontium...
Add to the palette painting the night sky antimony, rubidium, arsenic,
magnesium, potassium nitrate and lead, each producing its twist or effect...
There are also the gaseous by products to be considered. Studies have
found spikes in free radical nitric oxide, the highly toxic nitrogen
dioxide and acid rainmaker sulfur dioxide following firework shows.
Another study found that the ultraviolet light emitted by the flashing
light triggers a burst in ozone levels.
Photo essays of visibly distressed landscapes in the urban American West. Our health, and our landscape, is being destroyed by the toxic components of the air pollution we generate. These photo essays, centered mostly in Santa Barbara, CA, and Portland, OR, serve as stark reminders.
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The AQI rolling graphic is very convincing! Wonder if any city fathers and mothers look at this free indicator available every day? Chris
ReplyDeletepreventing too much pollution is good - confusing pollution with climatic changes is sick, evil, BECAUSE: water regulates the climate, not CO2! IF CO2 was regulating the climate; would have being SAME climate in rainforests and deserts, because is SAME amount of CO2. Therefore: climate can be improved on many places on the planet, IF it wasn't for the sick propaganda!!!: https://globalwarmingdenier.wordpress.com/2014/07/12/cooling-earth/
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