Article by Brad Reed republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

An internal National Park Service report recommends Washington, DC residents “wear an N95 mask when outdoors” and “remain indoors as much as possible during and after the show.”

President Donald Trump’s plans for a massive fireworks show in Washington, DC on July 4th could lead to a public health disaster, according to leaked National Park Service documents obtained by The Washington Post.

As the Post reported on Wednesday, internal NPS models project that Trump’s plan to launch an estimated 850,000 fireworks over a 40-minute span on Saturday will lead to “very unhealthy” air quality throughout downtown Washington, DC, Arlington, and the area around Capitol Hill.

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NPS’ internal report recommends that residents “wear an N95 mask when outdoors” and “remain indoors as much as possible during and after the show.”

George Thurston, a professor of medicine and population health at New York University, said that the amount of pollution projected by the NPS is so severe that people should “minimize exposures” to outdoor air during the fireworks show, while adding that wearing “an N95 mask would be a good idea.”

Thurston also expressed concern about DC residents living in low-income neighborhoods, which are disproportionately exposed to environmental pollutants and could be particularly vulnerable to hazardous air quality stemming from the festivities.

A Tuesday report from Capital Weather also expressed concerns about Trump’s planned fireworks, noting that “the approximately 860,000 shells anticipated in this year’s show will be at least roughly 50 times more than the usual 10,000 to 20,000 shells” launched during past events.

The problem could be made worse, Capital Weather added, by the extreme heat Washington, DC is expected to get on July 4, with temperatures projected to peak at 100ºF.

“Unless there are strong winds, there will very likely be near-record amounts of smoke to go with all the fireworks,” Capital Weather explained. “As of now, winds only look to be around 5 to 8 mph, which will struggle to push the smoke along. If a chance of scattered storms materializes, it could become even more humid and primed for smoke to hang around.”

Article by Brad Reed republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

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