Smoke from fireworks





I love Independence Day, what an amazing way to celebrate our freedom as Americans. Our family was like many families, attending a parade, having a BBQ with the family and friends, and watching the Capitol 4th of July celebration on TV.

The only bad thing about the day was the night-especially when all the neighbors started lighting off fireworks. We had taken our box of fireworks out to light too, but I couldn't believe how smoky our street already was. As far as I could see up and down both sides of the street, the night was hazy and smelly.  I should have gone inside and watched from the house.

I love to watch fireworks, but I was getting a tight chest and having a hard time breathing. I wondered if I was alone, but it looks like I'm not. A Google search showed an article from Lincoln, Nebraska. The Lincoln-Lancaster County Health Department was issuing a warning to people that fireworks could cause asthma attacks, acute bronchitis and could also increase the chances of respiratory infections. They also warned about possible heart problems, saying that exposure to smoke from fireworks could result in angina, arrythmia and heart attacks!

Sheesh! And we just wanted to have fun and celebrate Independence Day. Well, the 4th of July is over now, but many cities and counties may still have firework celebrations during the summer. If you have asthma or heart problems, you may want to read the health alert    

 A little precautions can still let you have a great summer and enjoy the celebrations!

Comments

  1. Hello Andrea,

    Thank you for your delightful asthma blog. Me and my colleagues are currently doing a research study on asthma at Stanford University in California and Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden. The goal is to find out about the behavior of asthma patients in order to develop new monitoring methods that can improve the life for asthma patients.

    The input from real asthma patients is very valuable for our study and we would really appreciate if you could support us. We would be very grateful if you could help us in any or all of the following ways:

    1) Participate in a short (10-15 minutes) telephone/skype interview about your asthma and how it is monitored. An online survey could also work, but we would much prefer to be able to talk to you.

    2) Recommend us any other asthma patients that we could interview similarly as you.

    3) Write a post in your blog, asking if any of your readers would be interested in participating in an interview (we can provide a draft for the post).

    If you could help us out, just get back to us at asthmastudy@outlook.com and we can see what slots are available in our calendars. This study continues for another two weeks (until July 24th).

    Best regards,
    Robin & colleagues

    ReplyDelete
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