Green Options » Pittsburgh 250 http://greenoptions.com/tag/pittsburgh-250 Posts tagged 'Pittsburgh 250' Mon, 27 Oct 2008 19:35:37 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 en Bright Lights and Big Bangs: The Chemical Composition of Fireworks http://sustainablog.org/2008/10/27/bright-lights-and-big-bangs-the-chemical-composition-of-fireworks/ http://sustainablog.org/2008/10/27/bright-lights-and-big-bangs-the-chemical-composition-of-fireworks/#comments Mon, 27 Oct 2008 19:35:37 +0000 Caroline Savery http://sustainablog.org/2008/10/27/bright-lights-and-big-bangs-the-chemical-composition-of-fireworks/ Part 2: Do Fireworks Pose Significant Environmental Danger?

Pittsburgh, PA.  A place known for its peoples’ good ol’ blue collar fervor, our enthusiasm for everything from our football team (STEELERS!!) to our beer (Iron City) to our hoagies (Primanti’s, brother!).  We are thus naturally inclined to encourage bombastic public demonstrations of our affection–in this case, in celebrating ourselves!

I viewed the record-setting Pittsburgh 250 fireworks display from a wonderful vantage point on the North Shore, as I cheered my city on from the balcony of McFadden’s with a massive group of Couchsurfers visiting Pittsburgh for their regional meet-up weekend.  All the while I was marvelling at the bright splashes and the thundering bursts–thirty minutes in duration!–the thought kept flitting across my mind: “what exactly is IN that massive smoke cloud pooling across the river?”

The Composition of Fireworks, a page compiled by Reema Gondhia at Imperial College in London, gives you the factual rundown of the makeup of fireworks.  A firework’s chemical arrangement, however ingeniously designed to manifest our titillating visual delights, provides some unsettling names–chemicals with long rap sheets from research institutions indicating their threat to living systems.  Read on for some distrubing examples.

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]]> http://sustainablog.org/2008/10/27/bright-lights-and-big-bangs-the-chemical-composition-of-fireworks/feed/ Bright Lights, Dark Cloud: Examining the Environmental Effects of Fireworks http://sustainablog.org/2008/10/26/bright-lights-dark-cloud-examining-the-environmental-effects-of-fireworks/ http://sustainablog.org/2008/10/26/bright-lights-dark-cloud-examining-the-environmental-effects-of-fireworks/#comments Sun, 26 Oct 2008 21:58:30 +0000 Caroline Savery http://sustainablog.org/2008/10/26/bright-lights-dark-cloud-examining-the-environmental-effects-of-fireworks/ Part 1: Pittsburgh’s Environmental Record–and “The Smoky City’s”
Love of Fireworks

On Saturday, October 4, 2008, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania celebrated its 250th birthday in a climax of a fireworks display, thirty minutes long and launched from 17 different locations around the city, including barges floating on Pittsburgh’s three rivers and off of downtown skyscrapers.

Pittsburgh loves its fireworks.

I’ve noticed that after every Pirates game, whether the outcome is good or bad, there are fireworks.  Steelers games.  Community events.  And now, Pittsburgh’s 250th birthday warrants the biggest blast of them all.  How many folks out there have actually watched fireworks for thirty straight minutes?  Since Pittsburgh’s 250th birthday celebration, I have.  Your neck hurts!

In the official press release about the event from Zambelli Internationale, Pittsburgh set a record of 17 firework launch positions, “the largest in the country.”  The site also describes a formidable array of effort: 40 professional pyrotechnicians and nearly 40,000 fireworks went into Pittsburgh’s big day.

Personally, while I was watching the spectacular displays, after a while I stopped being awed by the visual splendor and noticed my mind wandering to this thought: “what exactly is in those thick black clouds of firework byproduct eclipsing downtown?”

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