Not just a flash in the pan: short and long term impacts of fireworks on the environment

Abstract

Fireworks are used globally, mostly for recreational purposes, despite overwhelming evidence that they negatively affect wildlife, domestic animals, and the environment. Fireworks cause short-term noise and light disturbance, causing distress in domestic animals that may be managed before or after a fireworks event, but impacts to wildlife can be on a much larger scale. The annual timing of some large-scale fireworks events coincides with migratory or reproductive behaviour of wildlife, and thus may have adverse long-term population effects on them. Fireworks residues also contribute significantly to chemical pollution of soil, water, and air, which has implication for human as well as animal health. Modern technological alternatives to traditional fireworks – both ‘eco-friendly’ fireworks, and reusable drone and laser-based lightshows – provide safer, ‘greener’ alternatives that also present a sustainable way forward for maintaining cultural traditions without perpetuating their adverse impacts.