New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day are always days full of extravagant and grand festivities across the globe. People have parties, drink, set off fireworks, and just overall have fun and celebrate the start of a new year. However, sometimes these celebrations are a bit too much and can get a bit dangerous. For example, drunk driving happens on a very large scale over the holiday weekend, leading to high arrest counts and increased driving risks for all. Another danger that comes from this holiday celebration has to do with the fireworks that are set off. There is the risk of danger from the direct contact with fireworks, for example, setting things on fire or getting injured in an explosion. But there is also the danger that comes after fireworks, poor air quality, which Phoenix and other parts of Arizona is dealing with right now.
When many set off fireworks in a short period of time, they pollute the air all at once.
On the first of the year, Phoenix had a high pollution alert go out to residents because of how bad the air quality was after the celebrations of the night before. One resident spoke to her local news affiliate stating, “It’s kinda gross, and it makes it hard to breathe.” Fireworks were being set in extremely high numbers in the city, with more people lighting them up than usual. Another resident commented that the sound of the fireworks was so frequent and loud, that they felt as though they were under attack in some way.
This is not the first time something like this has happened in the Arizona state capital.
Over the last decade, there have been a total of four New Year’s Eve and Days that have had unhealthy air quality reports. For each of these, they have ranged as the highest risks in the state’s history, only being beaten out by one severe dust storm a few years back.
The head meteorologist for the National Weather Service branch in Phoenix explained why the holiday suffers with poor air quality on such a high scale. Alex Young released a statement stating that the smoke generated from the fireworks gets trapped in the low parts of earth’s atmosphere, which is why it sits in such a low, dense place in Phoenix. This then causes the air quality to be so poor, it can be almost suffocating.
