In the past week, leading up to the 4th of July, I have read numerous articles about the toxic dangers looming in most fireworks. As the fireworks fill the sky with beautifully colored lights, the children on the ground beneath ooh and ahh, and then comes the toxic rain of chemical residue. The toxins are dangerous not only for those watching the fireworks, but also the animals and plants in the area.
I discussed a few of these articles with my 7 year-old son. He’s usually pretty gung-ho about green changes but this was one he wasn’t ready to change. We had a fun pool party at my parent’s house and then went out for some ice cream. Afterwards, both of the kids got a bit morose about the thought of missing the fireworks.
We were driving right by the football stadium where the fireworks are launched when they started. I felt bad so we pulled in to the parking lot and we watched most of them from our car (and watched a retirement home bus run into a truck right next to us). The kids loved them and as a mom, I loved to see their eyes light up as the beautiful sight enamored them.
We left a bit early, thinking that the police would come to discuss the little bus/truck incident and didn’t want to get stuck. On the way out, we could smell the stench of the fireworks and see all of the haze in the air. When we got home, Alexander walked in and noticed that we left a light on in the house. He said, “Hey, we wasted electricity, that’s not green.”
I was going to take this as the perfect opportunity to discuss “toxic fireworks” but he was tired so I just tucked him in to bed. Tomorrow, though, I plan to discuss the environmental impacts of fireworks and see what he has to say after smelling and seeing the after-effects this year.
Now I love viewing fireworks and I think that celebrating Independence Day is important, so I’m a bit conflicted by this one. I know that there are some firework products on the market that are more environmentally friendly (used by Disney and during indoor pyrotechnic shows), but it is unlikely that they are going to be used on a wide-scale level for years (if not decades). So what do I do next year?
What are your thoughts on this? Skip the fireworks, explain their environmental impacts to your children and celebrate in other ways or suck it up and view the show?
Photo by sanctumsolitude
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I too feel conflicted about this, now that you’ve pointed out to me the toxic effects of fireworks.
At a minimum I think we need to take regard of the consequences for wildlife when we choose sites for setting off fireworks.
One year I became really concerned at a fireworks display because it was right next to really tall trees where some kind of white storks were roosting. With the start of the display all the birds took off and they were flying around in the dark until the display ended. That wasn’t acceptable to me.
As regards your kids, I think if it were me I’d not say anything else about it for the moment. Sometimes belaboring the point can lead to entrenchment of attitudes. I guess if you want to bring it up again you might look at rating the effects of fireworks compared to some other things your kids would identify with. Then let them draw their own conclusions. Give information and try to keep the emotions out of it.
What do you think?
Thanks for your insight Alison. Today, my daughter actually commented about the smoke bugging her asthma without me even mentioning anything. I think my son picked up on it but I didn’t bother pursuing the conversation. We do have another year to think about it. I typically like him to come to his own conclusions but I was pretty tired and didn’t want to go last night. LOL
The stories about the birds saddened me. Those poor things were scared out of their homes and had no clue what was going on.