Fireworks? NO! Top Reasons Not To Use Fireworks – Ever
Here are a few things you might want to consider before you or someone you love lights that fuse:
Pets are Terrified and Go Missing
4th of July is the #1 day of the year for pets to go missing. source The loud noises are terrifying and in their attempt to flee they easily get disoriented and can’t find their way home. Some people go as far as giving their beloved pets sedatives to keep them calm through the ordeal. However, many of them take these sedatives from their own personal supply meant for humans which may not work or be the right dosage for their furry/feathered friends. Love your pets? Do you really? If you do, you won’t use fireworks and will spread the word to others.
Animals Die
Love animals? Then you must be against all fireworks. Animals have zero concept what day of the week it is or that it’s a holiday. They think this is the new reality and the world is ending. They don’t know that it will most likely stop after a few hours. All animals, especially birds, get disoriented when trying to flee fireworks and can either get lost or literally crash into things and die. source Many animals simply die for cardiac arrest. Why don’t we see their dead bodies everywhere after a fireworks display? The same reason we rarely see dead animals at anytime: When threatened all animals typically try to hide and die hidden. Keep in mind that while we and our pets can come indoors to get away from the chaos our animal neighbors are stuck out there in the midst of the barrage. Coming indoors is not an option for them. Real animal lovers don’t tolerate fireworks.
Veterans and PTSD Sufferers Suffer
Many people suffer from PTSD, not just our veterans. So what could be more patriotic than supporting our troops on the 4th of July and refraining from using fireworks? At least when there are scheduled civic firework displays a person can predict the time and place when it will start and stop. But when it is a private user, who can, and will, light them off any time of day or night, holiday or not, it can seem like the neighbor’s house has just erupted in a spontaneous giant gun fight. source It’s a miracle someone with PTSD doesn’t just come over and “take care of things”. Be nice. Consider our veterans and all of us who suffer from PTSD.
Fireworks are Highly Toxic
Love all those colors in the sky? Most of those are created with highly toxic heavy metals. The more colorful the more toxic. Metals like lead, cadmium, antimony, copper, barium, strontium, magnesium, and chromium. source 1 and 2 These are showered over surprisingly vast areas where they are directly inhaled by viewers, workers, and land in our water and food supply. Highly elevated amounts have been found in bodies of water and the local wildlife for days and weeks after a fireworks display.
Fireworks Contain Plastics
Many fireworks, especially those designed to go airborne, now contain plastic parts. source When the firework explodes it showers millions of tiny plastic particles into the environment where it gets eaten by animals and enters our water and food supply.
Fireworks are Dangerous
There is no oversight, no regulations, and little to no 3rd party quality control in place for the manufacture of fireworks. Most people in the US are buying them illegally from a friend of a friend or some distant “relative” who happens to live in a state or county where they are legal. It’s nearly impossible to know where they are being sourced. Fuses may have random timing, instructions may be misprinted or just wrong. Defects abound. “Oh, is this a dud? Let me check…” POW! source
Elevated Fire Risk from Climate Change
Yes, as our forests continue to dry out due to human-driven climate change there is an ever-increasing risk of fire. However, it’s not just nature but our neighborhoods that are drying out. This risk has become even more magnified with the planet’s massively increased population density. It’s just a matter of time before an entire neighborhood, or town, or city, gets wiped out by fireworks. Just look to the recent fires that devastated the Altadena and Pacific Palisades areas of Los Angeles. These fire did NOT start from the use of fireworks but they do demonstrate that we are coming into a time where fires in large human population centers will be far more likely. source Fireworks already cause almost 20,000 fire a year just in the US. source
Fireworks Use is Not a Right
The law in your area may allow you to use fireworks. But where in the spirit of the moral law that says a right is only valid if “it causes no harm to others”? This is clearly not the case with fireworks. Fireworks harm EVERYONE EVERY TIME they are used. Without exception.
Some Traditions be Damned
Some may say, “But it’s a tradition! We’ve always done this.” First, no you haven’t. Second, there was also a proud tradition of slavery, whale and buffalo hunting, only men of property having the vote, and royalty. Get over it. There’s no room for any of those things in a moral and just society and so the same should be said for fireworks.
Fireworks are for the Ignorant, the Vain, and the Weak – And How to Change Behaviors
Currently, due to widespread ignorance of the harm, many people use fireworks thinking it somehow shows patriotism, dedication to a cause, celebration of a moment or an achievement. Some may also refer to setting off fireworks as “blowing off steam”. However, to what end? Are we really righting any wrongs or expressing any real power towards the things that cause us pain? The reality is we are either being fooled or fooling ourselves. Committing an act that is not in our own best interest, and in fact causes us actual harm, is self-defeating.
For comparison, it wasn’t very long ago that we would be viciously attacked if we suggested to someone that they not smoke cigarettes in public. Making such a request would bring on immediate disdain, name-calling, all sorts of derogatory remarks and potentially a physical fight. But these days most people feel a sense of shame and would never entertain the idea of smoking in public. If someone does smoke in public the reaction and retribution is typically swift, and anyone can feel fully empowered to do so. The enforcement of the legal and, perhaps more importantly, social norm of banning smoking from public spaces is the right of anyone, from the elderly and infirm to the smallest of children.
Here’s hoping the day comes soon where neighbors educate neighbor, friends educate friends, into choosing to not light that fuse. People who use fireworks should feel embarrassed. Let’s make fireworks go the way of smoking in public.