Turn of the year
German environmental aid wants fireworks ban on New Year’s Eve – doctor calls firecrackers and rockets “nonsense”
New Year’s Eve fireworks in Cologne (archive image)
© Christophe Gateau / DPA
Hardly anyone denies that fireworks and firecrackers are not necessarily sensible. But there is a dispute over the question of whether this form of fun has to be accepted despite the noise and injuries.
The fronts are still hardened, compromises hardly in sight: Some want to shoot rockets into the sky on New Year’s Eve and ignite loud firecrackers. The others demand clean air, rest, and fewer injuries.
Once again, a few weeks before December 31, the German Environmental Aid Initiative (DUH) called for a ban on fireworks at the turn of the year and for the future. This time the initiative secured support from the police union (GdP), some doctors and animal rights activists. At an internet press conference things got emotional at times.
New Year fireworks and air pollution
Last year, the purchase of fireworks was banned across Germany due to the corona pandemic, and some cities also set up prohibited zones.
The managing director of Environmental Aid, Jürgen Resch, wants to build on this. “Fireworks at the turn of the year with black powder must be avoided.” The main arguments he cited were air pollution from fine dust, injuries to hands and eyes from gun explosions and the effects of noise on animals. Resch called on the federal government to change the Explosives Act as soon as possible and to ban the New Year’s Eve fireworks this year.
Rockets and firecrackers produced thousands of tons of unnecessary waste, said Resch. The released fine dust is “extremely hazardous to health”, the bang causes injuries and psychological stress in sensitive people. Domestic animals such as dogs and cats as well as farm animals and wild animals also suffered from the nocturnal noise. Resch said private fireworks were already banned “in most states”, but initially there was no evidence of this. In Europe, some major cities have banned private fireworks in recent years, otherwise it is largely allowed.
Light and laser shows as an alternative
Resch rejected compromises such as large fireworks in central places in the big cities instead of private fireworks. A ban on the very loud firecrackers is ultimately not the right step, private fireworks must be abolished as a matter of principle. Instead, there should be light and laser shows on New Year’s Eve.
The vice-chairman of the police union, Jörg Radek, (GdP) would at least accept municipal fireworks: “The high risk of injury and incalculable fire hazards for everyone are good reasons enough to only allow fireworks in certain places in the municipalities.” It is also about the safety of police officers and firefighters that night.
Fireworks are “nonsense”
The lung doctor Norbert Mülleneisen talked himself into a rage on Monday and said that fireworks were “complete nonsense” and “nonsense”. He compared the feelings of people with asthma who are exposed to the fireworks smoke on New Year’s Eve with the torture method waterboarding, which causes a feeling of suffocation. He advises asthmatics to stay indoors.
An ophthalmologist said there were 500 eye injuries each year, 400 of them minor and 100 severe, so that patients would have to stay in hospital. It is not known how many hand and eardrum injuries with inpatient treatment there are on New Year’s Eve due to firecrackers.
The fireworks manufacturers and hobby fireworkers reacted indignantly and accused environmental aid of wrong arguments and numbers. It is about a popular New Year’s Eve tradition and the cultural asset of fireworks, emphasized the Association of the Pyrotechnic Industry (VPI). Most of the patients in the emergency rooms of the hospitals are there because of alcohol consumption or other injuries, not because of firecrackers. In addition, serious injuries are “exclusively the result of illegal or improperly burned fireworks”.
“Targeted Misinformation”
The Federal Association of Pyrotechnics (BVPK), an association of professional and amateur fireworkers, accused the environmental aid of polemical escalation and “targeted misinformation”. According to the Federal Environment Agency, the fine dust pollution from New Year’s Eve fireworks is much lower than claimed by the DUH, it is also only for a short time and only accounts for 0.7 percent of the fine dust in a year.
Many people loved the turn of the year with individual New Year’s fireworks. “To let the sparks fly once a year is a very special fascination for many people.” A ban on small fireworks in front of your own front door or in the garden will neither lower the number of corona infections nor relieve hospitals.