Chee Hang Chan, Wing Cheong Lo
Abstract: As the Hong Kong government announced monthly fireworks and pyrotechnics displays to promote the city as a tourist destination in February 2024, some environmental groups raised concerns about the air pollution impact from fireworks and pyrotechnics in the Victoria Harbour, claiming that the monthly fireworks will generate air pollutants including sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxides, and other aerosols. As such, our paper studies the relationships between fireworks and pyrotechnics displays and air pollution through scientific data analysis from existing databases.
While fireworks tend to produce a temporary air quality deterioration compared to pyrotechnics, our study concludes that the air quality impact from both fireworks and pyrotechnics displays is short-term and hence minimal. The findings are consistent with previous studies conducted in Hong Kong, indicating that the impact is limited. Still, we propose extra measures to minimize fireworks-related pollution, as well as some research directions and methodologies for further studies on post-monitoring the effects of the fireworks and pyrotechnics displays in Hong Kong. We anticipate that our research will contribute to Hong Kong’s sustainable tourism industry to foster a harmonious balance between the economic benefits of fireworks and pyrotechnics displays and the potential environmental impacts that come along.
Ref: JPyro 2024 (28-53)
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