Smog Control: Ban Fireworks?

[Fu Lai]

 

Reduce fireworks in case of smoggy Spring Festival

(Xinhua)

 

Beijing's government should be prepared to control and even ban firecrackers if the city encounters heavy air pollution during Spring Festival, according to an article in the Beijing News.

 

Here are excerpts:

 

The country's capital has suffered from recurrent and days-long heavy smog and haze in January. As the Spring Festival is approaching, some are worrying that if the holiday were enshrouded in pollution, the city couldn't endure any more pollution caused by celebrating fireworks.

 

Such a worry is reasonable, given the dreadful experience that citywide fireworks in the lunar New Year's Eve last year helped to raise the density of PM2.5 –– air particles smaller than 2.5 microns and fatal to respiratory and blood systems –– to crazy high levels. The index around the Chegongzhuang monitoring station even reached an outrageous 1,593 micrograms per cubic meter, while the World Health Organization suggests only 25 micrograms per cubic meter as safe.

 

Thanks to strong winds, the heavy firework haze last year was quickly driven away, but it must be unimaginable if both the dirty smog and haze on windless days along with the firework pollution start to choke the air.

 

"Under the cover of haze, using fireworks is just like bombing ourselves with poisonous gas," as one resident said.

 

Firework pollution hasn't been taken into account by current emergency plans, and this loophole should be closed by introducing different levels of control over fireworks regarding different air pollution. For example, to advocate people to use fewer firecrackers when the air is lightly polluted, and a temporarily ban on fireworks in downtown areas in case of heavy pollution.

 

Technically, there's still a legislative problem, as the power to ban fireworks belongs to the Beijing Municipal People's Congress. To introduce the practice that the congress temporarily authorize the city's government to conduct special administrative measures during the 2008 Games, the latter can also be similarly authorized to impose a fireworks ban considering air conditions.

 

In a return to Chinese traditions, Beijing lifted the firework ban in 2005, but the environment has endured great changes since then, with rising air pollution, and people are also complaining more about noise.

 

As many people become more aware of their health, serious thinking should be taken in issuing and implementing better policies, as well as improving emergency mechanisms.

http://english.sina.com/life-city/2013/0130/641.html

Of all the sources of deadly smog, fireworks has to be a small contributor. Seems like this is a "no fun" proposal while the big fish are left to carry on.

[Doug]

Yeah reminds me of Richard Nixon turning off the Christmas lights and 55. Oooooo

[tsap seui]

I can't drive no stinkin' 55. My first wife and I got a speeding ticket on a trip we were taking on our motorcycle, 62 in a 55, just days after that stupid insanity went into effect. I had just lazily shifted into 3rd gear after a gas stop. Wound up throwing my stupid helmet in the bushes....took me half an hour to find it....LOL We switched from route 81 to stop light riddled route 340 up in West Virginia and I stopped more often for a doobie break to try and slow me down...well, it was my chopper's fault, I had just put in a trans sprocket with 2 more teeth so the motor would turn at 80mph like we were going 55mph. I could have made the whole trip south loafin' in 3rd gear. Had to take a few mile runs at 100 to keep the carb clean....the dang motor kept asking me, "Why the hell you goin' so slow tsap seui? I need my fins in the wind too, ya know." All I could answer is, "I hear ya, we're going so damn slow the bumble bees don't even sting yore face when you hit them." lol

[Fu Lai]

Decision made... pretty please set off fewer fireworks... pretty please?

 

Air pollution prompts Beijing to limit fireworks
Updated: 2013-02-01 14:49 (Xinhua)

Air pollution concerns have prompted Beijing authorities to ask residents to set off fewer fireworks during the upcoming Spring Festival.

"To improve the air quality and create a favorable environment for you and your family members, please set off fewer fireworks or no fireworks, in order to reduce emissions of pollutants," an official with the Beijing Office on Fireworks and Firecrackers said Friday.

The official said the office has closely followed Beijing's air quality reports and issued the proposal to citizens via media.

Setting off firecrackers and fireworks during the Spring Festival, or Chinese Lunar New Year, which falls on Feb 10 this year, is an old tradition. To reduce accidents and the impact on citizens' lives, Beijing restricts fireworks within certain areas during a 16-day period around the Spring Festival.

Three fireworks retailers in Beijing have 750,000 cartons of fireworks in stock for this year's festival, down from 810,000 cartons in 2012. The number of shops approved to sell fireworks in Beijing has been reduced from 1,429 to 1,337, the official told Xinhua.

After an hours-long firework-ignition spree on the eve of the Lunar New Year in 2012, the density of PM2.5 increased sharply to hit 1,593 micrograms per cubic meter at the Chegongzhuang monitoring station, located downtown, or 1.5 times higher than the most polluted day so far this year in Beijing.

The prolonged smog that shrouded many parts of North and East China in January sparked debate over fireworks during the Spring Festival.

On Friday, the capital's air quality index was above 110, or Level III, indicating slight pollution in the downtown area, after rain and wind on Thursday dispersed the smog. The forecast for air quality over the weekend is positive.

From Jan 1 to 28, Beijing had 23 smoggy days, about 10 more than the same period over the past 10 years and the most since 1954, said Liang Xudong, head of the Beijing Urban Meteorology Institute.

The average density of PM2.5 in January was 180 micrograms per cubic meter in Beijing, about 30 percent higher than the same period in the years from 2009 to 2011, according to meteorological monitoring data.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2013-02/01/content_16194315.htm

[Doug]

In Chengzhou fireworks are a constant all day everyday.

 

 

I guess a lot of weddings.

[tsap seui]

This is the second Chinese New Year in 7 years that I will be able to talk to my wife without it sounding like downtown WWII in the background for weeks on end....lol

[Randy W]

.

Fireworks did This ??

 

http://www.globaltimes.cn/Portals/0/attachment/2011/fb9cd574-ea29-4309-b9bc-483745de599e.jpeg

[Randy W]

http://www.lostlaowai.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/shanghai-air-quality-mascot-250x171.jpg

[Feathers268]

 

At least 14 bridges have collapsed across the country since 2007, caixin.com reported, raising public concerns over the quality of infrastructure and construction codes.

True enough fireworks going off together can be quite destructive. I know we always took great care setting up the 4th displays, but 14 bridges in little over 5 years? China's infrastructure is relatively young I'd be more concerned the bridge quality throughout the country.

[Dennis143]

In Chengzhou fireworks are a constant all day everyday.

 

 

I guess a lot of weddings.

With no guns to shoot in the air like we got, what else ya gonna do?

[Fu Lai]

 

 

At least 14 bridges have collapsed across the country since 2007, caixin.com reported, raising public concerns over the quality of infrastructure and construction codes.

True enough fireworks going off together can be quite destructive. I know we always took great care setting up the 4th displays, but 14 bridges in little over 5 years? China's infrastructure is relatively young I'd be more concerned the bridge quality throughout the country.

Yes, infrastructure maintenance is key for every country.

 

According to the 2006 Bridge Inventory issued by "Better Roads", there are close to 600,000 bridges in the US. This includes all bridges of 20 foot or greater length that carry roadways open to the public. It does not include railroad bridges.

 

Other interesting fact: according to the same report, close to 25% of all bridges are either Structurally Deficient (SD) or Functionally Obsolete (FO).

 

Per the Federal Highway Authority (FHWA): "An SD bridge is one that (1) has been restricted to light vehicles only, (2) is closed, or (3) requires immediate rehabilitation to remain open. An FO bridge is one in which the deck geometry, load carrying capacity (comparison of the original design load to the State legal load), clearance, or approach roadway alignment no longer meets the usual criteria for the system of which it is an integral part."

I'm not sure how an exploding bomb like a fireworks truck can be prevented.

Edited February 3, 2013 by Fu Lai (see edit history)

[Mick]

Bridges and dams here in the U.S. are in a deplorable state of disrepair. About six months before the I-35 bridge collapse in Minneapolis/St. Paul, I was part of a team of writers/reporters working on a story for PBS. My part of the assignment involved investigating dams and bridges in a four state area that included Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, and Mississippi. What I discovered was truly horrifying. Even more troublesome was the fact that what I found out was pretty much reflective of what others found in across the board. If we don't take measures to rectify this, things are going to get very dicey. It's not so much a case of bad construction. Many of these bridges and just about all of the dams were well-built, but they are just plain too old.

[Randy W]

This was from a 100 year old, abandoned dam

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2XwfodpoI4

[Feathers268]

 

I'm not sure how an exploding bomb like a fireworks truck can be prevented.

Having worked on a profesional pyro crew for over 15 years, I can give a little insight. Black powder fireworks are very sensitive to static charges something so minor as sliding a box across a truck bed can set off a shell. Once one goes off, the whole lot goes up in a chain reaction. Usually if you here of a crew meeting with disaster, it is due to mishandling of a box leading to disaster. Because of this, DOT has strict guidlines about the transport of fireworks as to how the are boxed and even what major bridges they can be carried over. In 2006, while eating breakfast in Beijing, I watched 2 men unloading gas cylinders from a flatbed truck. They would let the cylinders drop off the side about 5 feet, bouncing off the pavement. I cringed everytime I watched this happen. I can't say how the fireworks were stacked for transport, but if care wasn't taken it would be easy to create a hazard.

As for my comment on the bridge failures, as Mick stated, yes there are many bridges in bad shape here, but we are talking about much older struckures. Here in NYC bridges range up to over 100 years old. The subway is over 100. Is SF, both the Bay Bridge and the Golden Gate Bridge are 75 years old. If these are not maintained properly you will have problems. Much of China's infrastructure is much younger than that. If structurs are failing only after say 10 years or 20 years, there is something more wrong than just poor maintanance.

[Doug]

 

In Chengzhou fireworks are a constant all day everyday.

 

 

I guess a lot of weddings.

With no guns to shoot in the air like we got, what else ya gonna do?

I'm about ready to sell mine and make some money. I need something BIGGER . An AR just don't cut it, but got a good deal.