Despite the ban on the sale of fireworks, the fireworks were banned again at the turn of the year 2022, but the harmful particulate matter pollution was significantly lower.
Berlin – The German Environmental Aid (DUH) has rated the sales ban for New Year’s Eve bollards as a success. This is reported by the epd news agency. Compared to previous years without a sales ban, according to information from the environmental protection organization, the extremely harmful particulate matter has fallen by more than 90 percent on average. According to its own information, the environmental aid relies on an initial evaluation of official measurement data.
A measuring station in Bremen, for example, where the use of firecrackers and rockets had been banned throughout the city, for example, would have recorded a particularly high decrease in the hourly peak load for fine dust. Accordingly, in the night of January 1, 2022, only 46 micrograms per cubic meter were measured – which corresponds to a decrease of 96 percent.
Fine dust pollution on New Year’s Eve: Böller sales ban brings significant relaxation
Almost similar declines of 94 percent were recorded on Landshuter Allee in Munich, where Böllern was reportedly banned in the entire inner ring. On Frankfurter Allee in Berlin, the decline was at least 87 percent, according to Umwelthilfe.
Environmental Aid Federal Managing Director Jürgen Resch also called for a complete ban on firecrackers in the whole of Germany in the future with a view to those injured and killed by fireworks. The new Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser (SPD) should revise the Explosives Ordinance and permanently end the private use of pyrotechnics on New Year’s Eve.
Sales ban for fireworks on New Year’s Eve should relieve clinics – nevertheless injured
The sale of firecrackers was banned at the turn of the year, not because of the massively high levels of fine dust pollution every year, but to relieve hospitals, which get a lot of additional work every year due to fireworks accidents. During the Corona crisis, however, these were already being used to an above-average rate of late. For this reason, the sale of New Year’s Eve fireworks was already prohibited at the turn of the year 2020/2021.
According to a study by the health insurance company Barmer, this ban had actually brought some improvement a year ago. Compared to previous years, there were around 40 percent fewer hospital treatments after New Year’s Eve accidents across Germany in the first year of the corona pandemic. Although the number is likely to be lower this year as well, some cities and municipalities reported serious accidents after New Year’s Eve. Few even ended fatally. (ska with epd)
