A 2021 YouGov poll showed that 1 in 5 Americans don’t like fireworks. This is for a variety of reasons including noise disruption, potential damage to personal and public property, unpleasant odors and damage to the environment. 

According to the Moffitt Cancer Center, fireworks are made up of gun powder, accelerant, heavy metals, numerous contaminants such as ozone, carbon dioxide, nitric oxide and sulfur dioxide and known radioactive carcinogens aluminum, barium, cadmium, dioxins and rubidium and the heavy metal strontium which has been linked to damaged bone marrow, anemia and impaired blood clotting.

The toxic smoke and dust produced during firework displays can be inhaled directly into the lungs. According to the Wisconsin DNR, short term exposure can aggravate lung disease, cause asthma and acute bronchitis and increase susceptibility to lung infections. In people with heart conditions, short term exposure to the smell from fireworks has been linked to heart attacks and arrhythmias. The smoke from personal fireworks tends to concentrate at the ground level, where it is more likely to be breathed in.

The sounds associated with fireworks can be very upsetting to children, pets and gun violence victims and veterans with PTSD. Dogs have exceptional hearing so the noise combined with the unpredictability leads to many dogs perceiving them as a threat activating their fight or flight response. Dogs may react to this by barking, trying to run away and hide, acting restless, panting, pacing or whining. More dogs run away on the 4th of July than any other day of the year.

Annie Tang, a staff psychologist at Edward Hines Jr. VA Hospital states “As beautiful as (fireworks) are, the sounds, smells and shockwaves can be triggering for veterans with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder or PTSD. These can bring up emotional and psychological reactions and bring trauma memories from the past, which can bring up intense fear and anxiety.” Of course the irony of veterans being troubled, sometimes in debilitating ways, by fireworks on July 4th is that we, as a nation, are celebrating the very freedoms they fought to defend.

Due to the above reasons, we the undersigned, ask the city of Flatwoods to enact an ordinance regulating firework usage within the city. Similar ordinances have ranged from outright bans to limiting fireworks to 2 nights and having a designated cut off time.