Fireworks-Smog Link Found

But Ozone From Cars, Trucks And Buses Is Greater Threat

(AP)  The fireworks that delight crowds during celebrations like the Fourth of July and New Year's Eve create more than just dazzling colors. They produce smog, too.

Scientists in India say fireworks can generate ground-level ozone - a key ingredient in lung-choking urban smog. They reached their conclusion after monitoring air quality during a Hindu festival when celebrants flooded New Delhi's streets to ignite sparklers.

Previously, the interaction of sunlight and air pollutants had been the only known source of ground-level ozone, which poses a health threat to people with respiratory problems.

But researchers from Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi found that the flickering light emitted by burning sparklers during the Diwali festival of lights in November 1999 was enough to cause an atmospheric reaction that produced ozone.

They said the findings could give air quality experts something more to worry about, particularly since big fireworks displays often occur during the peak summer ozone season. Their research appears in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature.

But fireworks are far from a big concern in one of the United States' most notoriously smoggy regions - the Los Angeles area - said a spokesman for that area's air quality district.

That's because the ozone increase detected in New Delhi - about 9 parts per billion - is minuscule in comparison to ozone produced in L.A. due in large part to auto pollution, said Bill Kelly, a spokesman for Southern California's South Coast Air Quality
Management District.

Los Angeles recorded a peak of 180 parts per billion of ozone in 1999, far above the EPA maximum of 124 parts per billion.

"It's clear from their research that fireworks are producing ozone, but in terms of ozone, we're primarily concerned about the 10 million vehicles that operate in our region every day, 24-7," he said.

Ozone, or smog, is the result of sunlight interacting with a number of pollutants including hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides from tailpipes or evaporation from motor vehicles. At high levels, it is a severe irritant that can damage lung tissues and aggravate respiratory problems.

Arun Attri, an associate professor of biophysics at Jawaharlal Nehru University who led the research, said he suspects that all types of fireworks produce some amount of ozone.

But he noted that most of the fireworks lit during the Diwali festival are hand-held sparklers that keep the ozone close to the ground. That's markedly different from fireworks displays elsewhere that send incendiaries high above cities to produce colorful explosions.

He said his team's findings weren't entirely unexpected because many people with respiratory ailments flee Indian cities during the Diwali festival to avoid fireworks-induced pollution.

He hopes the research prompts Indian officials to consider fireworks restrictions during the November festival, which marks the victory of the Hindu god Rama over the demon kig Ravana in Hindu mythology.

"Maybe they will listen to reason to make some changes," he said.

Air quality experts with the Environmental Protection Agency declined to comment on the study because they had too many questions about the researchers' methodology, said EPA spokesman Dave Ryan.

"There just wasn't enough information for them to make a judgment on the validity of the study. There's just not enough there," Ryan said.

He said the EPA has no regulations governing fireworks displays, although the Clean Air Act permits state and local governments to enact such restrictions.