Enjoy New Year’s Eve minus the blast

Once more (for the umpteenth time), with much more feeling: Iwasan ang paputok (avoid firecrackers). Year in and year out, we hear/read about the grim New Year’s Eve statistics: lives lost and injuries due to fireworks, stray bullets, firecracker ingestion (piccolo and luces). I remember many New Year’s Eves ago, a co-worker lost his young daughter when she was hit by a stray bullet from a gun fired by one of his neighbors at the stroke of midnight. The perpetrator did not confess to his crime until about a year later — he said he could not sleep as his conscience was hounding him. Suffering pangs of guilt, his hair had turned snowy white.

We’ve heard enough of these senseless deaths and we say in unison, “Enough!” Though it’s not good enough, the Department of Health notes that fireworks-related injuries (mostly involving children, six to 10 years old) are now eight percent lower.

Meanwhile, EcoWaste Coalition, a waste-and-pollution watchdog, recently aired its serious concern over the unregulated use of pyrotechnic devices laden with lead and other toxic metals.

Using a handheld X-Ray Fluorescence analytical device, the group sifted through 20 samples of  consumer fireworks that it purchased for P8 to P170 each last December 2 and 3 from street vendors on Juan Luna, M. de Santos, Sto. Cristo, and Tabora Sts. in Divisoria, Manila, and discovered lead and other heavy metals in all of them. Detected in the pyrotechnic samples were such toxic heavy metals as aluminum, barium, cobalt, copper, iron, lead, and zinc, which are combined with the black powder mixture to create the desired colors and sparks.

Aileen Lucero, EcoWaste Coalition national coordinator, laments, “We are deeply concerned about the cocktail of toxic fumes and residues from the use of firecrackers and fireworks containing undisclosed quantities of lead and other heavy metals.”

She adds, “To make it worse, many of these hazardous products are packaged for retail sales and eventually sold to innocent children like ordinary candies.”

Aileen points out that while a child may luckily escape getting injured by dangerous firecrackers, still he could unluckily inhale the toxic smoke resulting from the blast.  This smoke is full of poisonous chemicals that can irritate the eyes, nose, and throat, trigger asthma, and cause even far serious health problems.

Earlier, a pulmonologist, Dr. Maricar Limpin, warned that the “blasting of firecrackers and other pyrotechnic devices yields greenhouse gases, metal oxides, particulates, and other pollutants that we inhale, affecting the lungs and other vital organs such as the kidneys, heart, and brain.”

Lead, a potent neurotoxin and probable human carcinogen, was detected at up to 6,519 parts per million (ppm) in 10 samples — way beyond the allowable limit for lead of 90 ppm.

The XRF device detected antimony, another probable human carcinogen, in what is called the “Pulling Fireworks” at 12,000 ppm.

Barium was detected in nine samples, especially in the sparklers, in the range of 495 ppm to over 100,000 ppm.  Three  products were found to contain barium above 100,000 ppm —  Leopard King’s Sparklers, Lion Fireworks’ Sparklers, and Leopard King’s Happy Flower.

In view of these explosive findings, the general public is urged to avoid firecrackers and fireworks and instead opt for non-polluting, non-injuring ways to welcome the new year. Instead of buying those expensive pyrotechnic products that will only end up in smoke (literally), we can use the money to buy food or to donate to charity or help the victims of the recent calamities.

Yes, we can have a blast on New Year’s Eve minus the firecrackers, fireworks and pyrotechnics. Here are some earth-friendly tips from the DOH and environmental groups:

• Save a finger, blow a torotot (Pinoy-style trumpets).

• Create your own cymbals from pot and pan covers and bang them with all your might.

• Shake maracas made of used tin cans.

• Rattle a tambourine made of flattened bottle crowns.

• Joggle “piggy banks” or “shakers” from paper box or plastic bottles with seeds, pebbles, or coins.

• Tap drums made of big water bottles, biscuit cans, or buckets.

• Create whistling sounds, or blow a whistle.

• Beat a batya or palanggana (washbasin) with a ladle or stick.

• Knock empty coconut shells (as in the folk dance Maglalatik).

• Switch on the radio or play your favorite music or musical instruments.

• Ring your alarm clock or play ringtones altogether.

• Honk car or bicycle horns.

• Clap your hands and stomp your feet.

• Do the “Roar” like DOH Assistant Secretary Eric Tayag — twerk and twist.

• Scream at the top of your lungs: Happy New Year!