Sunday, January 2, 2011

EcoWaste says public may pay for toxic revelry

The smog created by firecrackers and fireworks during the New Year’s eve revelry may cause more Filipinos to develop respiratory problems in the next few days, an environmental group said Sunday.

“We now have to pay the real price of our merrymaking in the form of aggravated respiratory ailments such as asthma and allergic rhinitis. The extra pollutants in the atmosphere have added another level of danger to the already-contaminated air that we breathe," EcoWaste Coalition president Roy Alvarez said on the group’s blog site.

Alvarez said fine particles in the air can penetrate the upper respiratory tract and be deposited deep in a person’s lungs.

Total suspended particulates now pollute the atmosphere following the firecrackers and other pyrotechnic devices used in the past few weeks, he added.

Most susceptible to risks associated with these minute pollutants are children, elderly, and people with heart and lung diseases, EcoWaste said.

The group said President Benigno Aquino III should lead a campaign against firecrackers the way he led and succeeded in trouncing the “wang-wang" sirens that even ordinary people used to get ahead in traffic.

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