Watching firework displays could be bad for both your health and the environment, claim UK scientists.

Alison Tomlin and colleagues at the University of Leeds measured the concentration of particles resulting from bonfire and firework celebrations. By fitting their data to a simple model they found that at the peak of the event, the resulting sooty atmosphere contained approximately 10 times more particles than was usual for the time of day.

Tomlin showed that incomplete combustion due to open bonfires and fireworks, can lead to large increases in the numbers of sooty particles over typical urban concentrations. The impact of particles on human health and the environment depends on their size and chemical content.

The particles in the study tended to be larger than those from vehicle emissions but were still small enough to cause health problems, such as respiratory and cardiovascular disease. In addition, the particles could have a larger climate impact due to their longer atmospheric lifetimes. 

William Maenhaut, a leading specialist in the affects of biomass burning on the environment, from Ghent University in Belgium, said that the interesting finding of the work was that Tomlin and co-workers 'were able to model the particles during the event using a simple aerosol processing model'.

In an age when climate change and pollution are major issues, Tomlin plans to explore further emissions from biomass sources and compare them to other sources such as vehicles. 'The real challenge is to determine the impact of atmospheric effects, such as condensation and coagulation, on the mixing state and size distribution of the particles over a large area,' said Tomlin. This will help determine their potential climate impact, she suggested.

Michael Brown