By George F. Lee, Star-Bulletin
Honolulu celebrated the New Year amid the smoke,
crackle and flare of fireworks on Friday night.

Polluted air
spurs health chief
to urge total
fireworks ban

Bruce Anderson says the
huge volume of fireworks
now poses a significant
air pollution problem

By Leila Fujimori
Star-Bulletin

The heavy smoke from fireworks in Pearl City exceeded federal and state safety standards for particles in the air for a 24-hour period, according to the state health department.

The findings prompted Health Director Bruce Anderson to urge legislators to ban fireworks in Hawaii.

"From a public health standpoint, it's a no-brainer," Anderson said yesterday. "There's no advantage and certainly a lot of harm."

"Anything short of a total ban would be unenforceable," he added.

Anderson, who grew up in Hawaii, recalls his boyhood when he would buy a pack of 50 firecrackers and pop them one at a time. But he said things have changed.

"Now they're shooting off strings of 10,000 and 20,000 at a time, in addition to aerial fireworks. It's a much more significant air pollution problem."

Over a 24-hour period on New Year's Day, Pearl City recorded an average of 164.2 micrograms of airborne particulates per cubic meter of air. The safety standard which is not supposed to be exceeded more than once a year is 150 micrograms over a 24-hour period. Kapolei averaged 147.5 micrograms.

Between 1 a.m. and 2 a.m. New Year's Day, the Pearl City station registered 2,326.4 micrograms of airborne particulates per cubic meter of air, topping Kapolei's 3 a.m. peak of 1,464.8. Other Health Department stations -- 1250 Punchbowl Street, Liliha, Paia, Maui and Kihei, Maui -- fell within the safety standard.

The Kihei station on Maui had the cleanest air, registering low levels of particulates between 10 p.m. and 3 a.m.

Numbers from two special stations at Kalihi and Palolo fire stations had not yet been received by the Health Department yesterday.

"I expect them to be higher," said Bruce Anderson, Health Department director. "Those stations are in areas where historically, they have had the worst pollution." Also, valleys tend to have higher concentrations of smoke, particularly with the light, variable winds on New Year's Eve, Anderson said.

Air quality consultant J. W. Morrow conducted his own unofficial check in the back yard of his Enchanted Lake home. Morrow set up instruments to measure wind direction, wind speed and particulate matter that could be inhaled.

He said he found airborne particulate matter four to five times the federal and state health standard during a 24-hour period, and smoke was 100 times normal levels, up to 2,400 micrograms per cubic meter within a one-hour period.

Visibility was so poor, "we could not see the sides of Keolu Drive, much less the side street to turn into," Morrow said. He blames population growth and density for the growing problem.

Fireworks pose a greater threat to those with lung and heart diseases when its fine particles of smoke are inhaled deep into the lungs, said Morrow, a former American Lung Association consultant.

The Department of Health is collecting more data than in years past, and will provide air quality and hospital emergency room data to aid legislators as they consider fireworks legislation.