The Jordan Harbinger Show - 854: Fireworks | Skeptical Sunday

Episode Date: July 2, 2023

Fireworks cause pollution and health risks while disturbing veterans and pets. On this Skeptical Sunday with David C. Smalley, can we find alternatives? Welcome to Skeptical Sunday, a special edition of The Jordan Harbinger Show where Jordan and comedian and podcast host David C. Smalley break down a topic that you may have never thought about, open things up, and debunk common misconceptions. On This Week's Skeptical Sunday, We Discuss: Studies have shown that fireworks have negative effects on human health and the environment as they release toxic metals and contribute to air and water pollution. The noise from fireworks can be extremely distressing for combat veterans, individuals with PTSD, and pets, leading to anxiety, panic attacks, and even running away. Fireworks-related fires cause significant property damage and pose a risk to both people and wildlife. Fireworks regulations are fragmented and challenging to enforce, and there are political and monetary pushbacks against stricter regulations thanks to moneyed interests (like fireworks manufacturers) lobbying lawmakers. One 21st-century solution to overcome these negatives is the use of drones for aerial displays, which are quieter, more environmentally friendly, and can still provide a visually stunning experience. Connect with Jordan on Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. If you have something you'd like us to tackle here on Skeptical Sunday, drop Jordan a line at [e-mail] and let him know! Connect with David at his website, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube, and make sure to check out The David C. Smalley Podcast here or wherever you enjoy listening to fine podcasts! If you like to get out of your house and catch live comedy, keep an eye on David's tour dates here and text David directly at [phone] for tickets when he comes to your town! Full show notes and resources can be found here: jordanharbinger.com/854 This Episode Is Brought To You By Our Fine Sponsors: jordanharbinger.com/deals Sign up for Six-Minute Networking — our free networking and relationship...See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This episode is sponsored in part by Conspiruality Podcast. You know how I'm always talking about critical thinking and spotting manipulation? Well, there's a podcast that's all about dismantling new age cults, wellness grifters, and conspiracy mad yogis, basically the wild overlap of spirituality and misinformation. It's called the Conspiruality Podcast. The hosts, a journalist, cult researcher, and a philosophical skeptic, dive deep into how this stuff spreads, from Project 2025 and the Heritage Foundation's dystopian vision of the future to how former leftists get pulled into far-right conspiracies.

An interesting episode to check out is called Speaking Truth to Goop, where Jen Gunter breaks down the pseudoscience behind the wellness industry in a way that is super entertaining and eye-opening. It's sharp, funny, and makes you a lot harder to fool, which if you listen to this show, you know I'm all about that. From exploring cults to analyzing our cultural and political landscape, the Conspiratuality Podcast will help you stay informed against misinformation and resist fear tactics. Find conspiruality on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to the show. I'm Jordan Harbinger, and this is Skeptical Sunday, a special edition of the Jordan Harbinger show where fact checker and comedian David C. Smalley and I

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So switch to a different app if you use the Stitcher app to listen to this podcast. If you're on Android, I suggest podcast addict. It might not be as pretty, but it works really well. If you're on iOS, Apple, you should use Overcast, in my humble opinion, or Apple podcasts. But definitely no longer Stitcher.

It will not update anymore in the next couple of months. So if you're using the Stitcher app, now is a good time to switch to a new podcast app. And if you have any problems with this, you're kind of boomer in terms of your tech. You don't know what to do. You can always email me, Jordan atjurbinger.com. I will try to point you in the right direction, but the Stitcher app will no longer work for this show. Now today, the fireworks industry netted $2.2.2 billion in 2021. Billion. In 2020, when the pandemic was on and nobody was really gathering or even celebrating much of anything, the fireworks industry netted $1.9 billion. Talk about recession proof. As always, where there's money, there's a powerful lobby. You might even say with there smoke, there's fire, David. The American Pyrotechnics Association generates their fortune by presenting a loss of fireworks as a loss of American history, loss of tradition, a loss of freedom. But what's the point of fireworks, really?

Why do we turn away from fireworks negative effects on the environment, among other drawbacks, and insist on looking up at explosions to celebrate Independence Day, a baseball game, a day at an amusement park? Are fireworks a necessary part of patriotism along with flags and guns? On this skeptical Sunday, let's bang out the facts with comedian David C. Smalley. Thanks, Jordan. This one, this topic's going to be fire. Oh, indeed.

Okay. Tell me what are the pros and cons of fireworks. That's my first question. Just lazy. Wind you up and go. All right. Yeah, yeah. So look, I realize by now people know I'm here to ruin their good times, right?

I'm the Debbie Downer of the podcast world. I just won't let people have a good time. Correct. I mean, you don't have to answer that so quickly. Oh, okay. Oh, sorry. Correct. Okay.

Jordan. Look, fireworks are fun. Right? I mean, it's cool to watch things blow up. Word. But as for your pros and cons question, all right, look, the reality is the cons are extensive. Fireworks damage property, they pollute the environment, and quite literally blow off fingers. Like, it's a problem. And there are more incidents every year than you can count on both hands, especially if you use fireworks.

So how often does somebody actually blow off a finger? Like off? Yeah. So according to the United States, a consumer product safety commission. Firework injuries are actually up 25% in the last 15 years. So it's definitely gotten worse over time. And in 2020, maybe because we were all just at home doing this ourselves, it actually spiked. It was 15,600 people being sent to the emergency room. And 31% of those emergency room visits are classified as hands or fingers. So I don't think they count the number of fingers that are blown off. Ah, too bad. But it's about 4,800 people per year have hand or finger injuries due to fireworks.

You know, this makes sense. And when we were creating this episode, I was thinking like, okay, how many people are blowing their hands up? Nobody's even celebrating anything. And during the pandemic, right? But here's the thing. I realize now, when I was growing up, I had a cottage up north and I would go out there. And it was kind of like, we affectionately refer to our neighbors as rednecks. They were nice people. And they played with fireworks a whole lot. There wasn't a home theater where you could go in their house and sit down and watch a bunch of really nice movies most of the time. You really just went outside and drank beer and shot guns and fireworks. So if people didn't have to go to work then and there were things were slowing down, these people didn't just go into their room and play Xbox.

They went out and did more fireworks. So it doesn't surprise me at all that the Fourth of July and the gatherings all sort of went down, but fireworks injuries and revenues basically stayed the same. Yeah, you don't have to tell me I was raised in Texas. That's what I figured. Literally blowing stuff up or just go and shooting, one of the most common pastime. Yeah, and by go, I don't mean shooting is a redneck thing.

I just mean shooting things off your porch is, and there's a lot of that. Yeah. So, for sure. I've definitely seen some nasty firecracker hands in my day as well. I actually wonder what else gets injured most of the time. I've seen blood blisters on hands from, oops,

I didn't realize I had to let that go, or I tried to, but my fingers were sticky from the ribs, that kind of thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I'm assuming hearing ear damage has got to be up there as well. Maybe the backs of heads as people are running away from the giant homemade firework you created in your backyard.

Yeah, so I actually thought the same thing when I first pulled up this chart and I was looking at the sort of breakdown on the body. It shows the percentages. Hearing and ears specifically are actually on the lower end. The way they classified is 21% to the head, face, or ears. And then 14% to the eyes. and then 34% other body parts. But if you count the eyes as part of the face,

it's kind of evenly distributed. It's about 30 to 35% per part of the body kind of. I mean, just the phrase other body parts gives me a little bit of a shutter. Not going to lie. Yeah, I don't think we want to know the details. No. And specifics and definitely no photos.

You taped a what to your what, sir? Just make it stop the pain. You inserted a what into where? Yeah, exactly. Yeah, an absolute nightmare. And to keep in mind, these are just emergency room visits. I feel like I've told this story before on the show. But someone, they call them, I think, jumping jacks,

the ones that skip and sort of make a loud hissing noise and they just kind of skip across the ground. Sure. Someone threw one of those at me when I was about eight years old. This guy was a full grown man. He thought it would be funny to skip it toward me. I was an idiot. And I just fell down and covered up because I thought it was going to bounce. So I covered up.

It hit my head, set my hair on fire. Oh my gosh. And I had hair spray in my hair. I was a little cat. He just spiked my hair up. Set my hair on fire. And we were at a lake. And I went head first into the lake to put the fire out and I couldn't swim.

Wow. So at eight years old, I was literally on fire and nearly drowned all within about 30 seconds. This is like a law school hypothetical. Who's responsible and how much are they responsible when the boy just was doing this and then did this and then did this and then dot, dot, dot, dot. he died. It's like, oh, it's called foreseeable consequences. Anyway, it really is like a hypothetical. Well, but guess what? No emergency room visit. Sure. So as traumatic as that was for me, that's not even in the stats, you know? So how many rednecks do we know we're going to have a giant scar on their hand and go, oh, fireworks event, 1989? I mean, they're going to do that because they never went to the

emergency room. It's definitely going to be worse than the statistic show. That's true. You go when you're like, I slipped in the bathtub, okay? That's how it happened. Right. So in Torrance, California, in July of 22, just this past year, a 12-year-old girl actually blew off every finger on her left hand. Oh, my God. That's terrible. I feel like there's a hundred different types of situations that could lead to something like this. Sure. The LA Times covered this one specifically. And in this instance, what happened was another kid in the neighborhood. The article says he found it, but he gave it to her and told her it was a smoke bomb.

So she thought it was going to sizzle and let out all this colorful smoke. Oh, no. So she held on to it, thinking she was going to be able to play with it, and she lit it with a sparkler. Turns out it was an M80. Oh, my God. And it popped, and it took every finger off her hand. So sad. That is truly horrible.

So she wasn't even necessarily negligent. Somebody tricked her. She might have been a little negligent, but somebody tricked her, whether the kid meant to or not, he might have got it from an adult. Also, M80s, those are illegal. literally since the 60s. No exaggeration. I mean, there's a law, I think it was 1965. But then again, that didn't stop me when I was a kid either. I played with those. They were no doubt manufactured and sold illegally. And you just got to ask where the hell are the parents in this situation. I thought the exact same thing. So as far as the legality, the New Hampshire Department of Safety

says this on their website, and I'm quoting, illegally manufactured explosive devices are frequently referred to as fireworks because of their resemblance to a large, firecracker. These items are commonly known as M80s, M-100s, M-250s, and M-500s. I think that just depends on the size. Cherry bombs, quarter sticks, and even blockbusters. These devices and others of light construction are federally banned explosive devices and should never be referred to as fireworks. Well, when you put it that one. Right. I've never even thought to not call them that. No. It's an interesting thing. It's not a little, firework sounds like something we can control. It's a thing that we do.

No. Like, worst case, you get your hair lit on fire. That's it. And then you jump in a lake and you can't swim. And you jump in a lake and almost die. And then constantly have panic attacks around fireworks as an adult. Long story. No, I actually don't have panic attacks.

What will happen is I get highly agitated. Oh, I thought maybe you curl up in a little ball and look for the nearest water source. It's quite the opposite. I like literally want to fight people. The guy that's having a good time, come on, shoot off the bottle rocket. I'm like, I better leave before I go to jail. PTSD, man. I do. It is. But my response is like not to run. It's the fight part of that fight or flight response. Right. It's the fight part of flight or fight. Yeah. This is the different website,

American pyro.com. Great domain. Yeah, perfect, right? Cherry bombs, silver salutes, and M80s have been banned by federal law since 1966 because of large amounts of explosive composition they contain. And if you find any of these items, do not touch them. Immediately call your local police or fire. If you are aware of someone selling these illegal and dangerous items, contact the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms immediately at 1-888-A-T-F bomb. So, yeah, they're pretty damn illegal. So people are just out here posted up on the side of the road selling federally banned explosives and we're just like, America, thanks, Merck. 1999 for 12. Hell yeah. Apparently. And as far as where the hell of the parents, that

crossed my mind as well, and it does seem to be a good question. So the details I gathered from the article was it wasn't like an event she was at. She wasn't like at a fireworks thing. And the mother was actually inside folding laundry as her kids were outside playing, and she had no idea they even had access to fireworks, at least that's what she said. And this happened the day after the July 4th celebration. And by the way, one of the documents I did link to where we talk about the injuries, it says on there that 74% of all firework injuries or accidents happen like the week of July 4th. Of course. Right before or right after.

And I've never even thought about after, you know, but if you think about it, July 5th and 6th, every now and then, you'll hear a loud boom or a pop. Somebody's like, oh, I found another thing. Let's go blow it up. Yeah. Oh, I was so drunk the other night. I didn't finish lighting them off. That's what was. That was what it was up north in Michigan.

It was like they were just so drunk. There was a bunch left. Or like all the garbage piles have some unopened. bags on top or if you're me you stashed a few bags while all the adults were passed out on the lawn and then the next day you go blow stuff up yeah i'm like sweet well i know what i'm doing tomorrow so basically that's what happened is a day after and it's unclear from the article if the mom knew about this but she also had a sparkler so the girl goes outside just to have a sparkler she's apparently playing with a sparkler and then this other kid comes up and hands her what he

calls a smoke bomb. And that's how she ended up lighting it with the actual spark. Sure. Yeah. And it blew up. Now, we'd all like to think, oh, that would never be us. My kids would never do that. My kids know better. But if you're a parent, you know, you can't watch them all the time. And you can teach them to be safe, you know, but you're not always going to be there to force them to be safe. So part of being a parent is teaching your kids the best and hope and they learn something the easy way instead of

the hard way. True, dude. And at 12, you get a lot of time away from mom and dad. So that's a really unfortunate incident that they're going to have to live with for the rest of their lives. I bet you can't wait to get one of your fingerless hands on one of these great deals from the fine products and services that support this show. We'll be right back. And now, back to the show. Do you know, can they find and reattach fingers? I feel like they can do that. Didn't they reattach what's his face is Wang, John Wayne Bobbitt? I mean, they must be able to reattach a finger. It seems like a simpler device. I'm assuming, though,

with something like the explosion caused by an M80, which is a military-grade explosive device, again, something I used to play with a lot as a kid, actually, even though they were federally illegal for civilian use. Speaking of negligent parenting, maybe they can't because the fingers are 100 yards away and in 100 pieces each.

A lot of times in these injuries, too, there is so much bone damage to the hand as well. Like, you just end up with just a mangled mess of bone and tissue. It's not even like, if a finger is completely severed, Yes, you can reattach that. But these explosions are just maiming the entire hand. That's true.

There's not much to attach it to. The ligaments are gone. The bones are gone. I mean, it's just completely destroyed. Right. It's not a band saw where you lop off a couple and they're in great condition with covered a little bit of sawdust and you've got two kind of stumps where fingers were and you just run to the emergency room.

You're right. Yeah, I didn't think about that. Yeah. Graphic. Yeah, maybe put a warning at the top of this one. I think so. No kids in the car for this one, folks. What? Am I too late?

So, yeah, all right. So if somebody says, okay, well, I use them safely, and that won't happen to me, why should I stop using fireworks because other people, dumb kids get hurt or the dumb adults get hurt? And a lot of people think that. About 15,600 people per year think that. Yeah, yeah. Like, it's not the same 15,000 people going to the emergency room every year. I mean, I'm sure there's a few repeat customers.

And I'd love to see the data on that. I guarantee you there's plenty of A bin diagram of been here before you know type of situation Yes If I blow off another finger I get a free

Yeah like a punch card I was just going to say a punch card One more finger and I got free Vesectomy Yeah So Honestly they're problematic for several reasons Look both commercial and consumer fireworks

Disrupt communities Right Veterans of War obviously suffer a lot of psychological damage with PTSD. That's a real issue. Sure. Fireworks torture pets and kill immeasurable numbers of wildlife animals and insects. The list goes on. Fireworks start fires, of course, and especially here on the West Coast in California, it's a big problem every summer. Fireworks actually emit metals into the air.

See, that I didn't know. That I never thought about it. Yeah. And then an often overlooked con, the packaging. Okay. It's actually steeped in racist stereotypes. racist plastic packaging. So I didn't even realize fireworks have been racist the whole time. Now, why am I just not surprised at all, though? It's bad. Like, it's so bad. And some of it's still out there.

Some of it was very recent. I mean, it's pretty easy to find things. At least within the last few years, there were things called Red Engine Fireworks. Oh, man. China Boy. There's one called Dixie Boys. It was wrapped in, like, Confederate paper.

Oh, got to see the packaging of the Chinese. I'm going to stop saying it, but you just got to go look. And it's not just the names, the images on it, trust me, they're offensive. And because I don't want to be caught on tape saying something any worse, it can be used against me out of context. I've included a link if people want to go see how problematic this is. It's KLAQ.com's full list. And I've got it in the show notes. So people will be able to see it for themselves.

Ironic because, again, I think most of these are made in China anyway. With all that, there are still fireworks going off somewhere in the United States. days every single night I would imagine, including my backyard because one of my neighbors is a drunk moron. But let's hear about the pros if they exist. I mean, they're fun. They really are. Okay. Okay. Pros, sure. Um, okay, fireworks momentarily distract that primitive part of our lizard brain with one or two seconds of shiny lights and big booms. End of list. That's a really lame way of saying super fun, but okay, when you're, when you're a kid and you have no sense, sense of consequences whatsoever, they're extra fun.

I think now as an adult, I'd be a little bit more wary. When I was younger, I was like, let's see how long I can hold on to this while the fuse goes as low as I'll let it before I drop it. I guess it's just another billion-dollar industry that's bad for the environment, offers no real benefits. This is probably a little bit more philosophical than we're used to on the show, but why do humans engage with this spectacle so often? Did we look into that at all?

Yeah, so there's some psychology-based reasons that make sense of human fascinations with explosives, especially explosives in the sky, actually. And I was a little surprised to learn how old fireworks are. The first ones are from 200 BC. Really? When people realize that like hollow bamboo would pop and explode when you throw it into a fire. Oh, wow. And apparently they got a real kick out of that, fireside entertainment.

And we haven't evolved much in that way. And still today, the fear that fireworks conjures actually fascinates us. Daniel Glazer, who's a neuroscientist in the UK, he says the reason we enjoy fireworks is because they frighten us, like lightning or the bright flashes or whatever. Like the bright flash of a lightning kind of warns us that something's coming. And then boom, you had this clap of the thunder or this hollow pop of a firework. Like it's about to happen.

Here it comes. This activates our amygdala, the little ball of nerves inside the brain that detects fear. And after the lights have stimulated that anticipation of a threat, the preceding boom of the fireworks. confirms this perception in our brains. And in response, our reward centers release a surge of dopamine, which is the chemical that regulates pleasure.

So we kind of torture ourselves on purpose. Huh. But why does something that we fear end up entertaining us? Well, if you think about it, like horror movies, right? Haunted houses, screaming at people when we jump out to scare them, these are things that are very popular. I mean, Glazer says that unlike the fear of the unknown,

fireworks-induced fear is controlled, and that's kind of the point. It's simply the predictability of the fireworks. The bang follows the flash, and it rewards us with a shot of dopamine and pretty colors in the sky. And he explains that people seem to be excited by the anticipation of a slightly scary experience. And fireworks repeatedly set up this expectation over and over. And each flash like generates this anticipation of a bang, and then that satisfaction seems to be. to be what's so exciting about the entire fireworks display. Is there anything wrong with humans continuing to create these manufactured feelings? I mean, this is a, again, I'm going down like a philosophical rabbit hole here, but...

Yeah, I mean, people like the tradition. What's the Fourth of July without that sound and even the smell and the bright lights flashing in the sky, right? And what's the end of a fun day at Disneyland without the magical explosions in the sky? What would Beyonce's concert in Dubai be like? Would it be as spectacular without her million-dollar fireworks display? I mean, you think Beyonce would be enough fireworks, not I mean? But I think, I mean, I'd buy a firecracker if she were on the label.

I'd start smoking cigarettes if she were on the label. What about all of these cons? Do they really add up to anything? Okay, look, so like many issues facing our society, we know the negatives, right? Smoking causes cancer. People still smoke. obesity and a shitty diet will kill you. People still eat shitty and don't exercise. Most of the cons surrounding fireworks, people have heard before. They're quite damning when you list

them all together, and maybe this podcast will make somebody shift gears and stop messing with this stuff. But there's no way you can take away tradition and habit just like that. I mean, fireworks are like flags. Every country has them and they're patriotic, depending on which borders they fly in. That's kind of how it's looked at in our culture. So you mentioned the effects on the environment. How bad is it? Okay, racist, plastic packaging, fine. What else? What about these metals? Yeah, the colors that you see in fireworks actually come from metallic compounds, such as barium, aluminum, things like that. Lithium salts actually produce pink fireworks. Sodium salts produce yellow fireworks and so forth. And when these metals explode in the air,

they can have negative effects on human health. Like, short-term exposure to these metals can exacerbate lung disease, for example, causing asthma and acute bronchitis, it can increase someone's susceptibility to respiratory infections. And in people with heart disease, short-term exposure to smoke from fireworks has actually been linked to heart attacks and arrhythmias. When fireworks explode, the metal salts and explosives like undergo this chemical reaction that release gases, including carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide and nitrogen, and nitrients, gas is that drive climate change. And I know some people are just like, bro, like it's fours of July.

It's one day. Yeah, no, it's not, though. It's not. It's like you mentioned, all these baseball games, all these football games. Sometimes there's explosions after every touchdown, something like that. During the explosion, these metals don't just burn up and disappear. Our senses might tell us that these things are gone, but they end up as aerosols that poison the air and then eventually some of them can fall back.

down to the earth and poison the water, poison the soil. And when inhaled or ingested, these metals can actually cause a variety of illnesses, including asthma attacks, kidney disease, and various cancers. And also, to produce the oxygen needed for the explosion, many fireworks contain oxidizers called perchlorates. Prochlorates, yeah. Yeah, perchlorates can dissolve in water, and then if they dissolve in the water, they're contaminating rivers and lakes, including drinking water. So that's how bad it gets.

And finally, you know, fireworks release this fine cloud of smoke in particulate matter. Of course, and that affects the local air quality. I think we can all agree on how fireworks shows change the air around us. We've all been there. Yeah, we kind of just touched on this, but I was going to take a jab at you and be like, okay, there's no way we use enough freaking fireworks to really move the needle on pollution or climate change. but I do remember hearing that L.A., surprise,

had its worst air quality in a decade after the 4th of July last year. And if you've been to L.A., that's really saying something, because L.A.'s air is disgusting. Absolutely. If that moved the needle on freaking 4th of July, that's a lot of pollution and smoke.

Exactly. And it's not just L.A. You're right. It's bad here, but it's not just L.A. There are over 14,000-plus fireworks displays in the U.S. alone. just over the Fourth of July weekend. That's just over that weekend. And a new study by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA, shows fireworks used to celebrate independence temporarily increase particulate pollution by an average of 42%.

Oh, wow. That's actually a lot more than I thought. And that's, again, quite gross because it's completely unnecessary, really. Yep, exactly. And that's not the only type of pollution. We've yet to even cover the effects of my least favorite pollution, noise pollution. Fireworks disrupt communities, but they particularly wreak havoc on our combat veterans. I mentioned this earlier, but people suffer from various elements like tinnitus or autism, and of course, our pets.

Yeah, let's start with the veterans, autistic pet-owning veterans. I mean, it's so bad. Could you imagine? If someone's in that situation, they're an autistic pet-owning veteran, how many? miserable they must be during the 4th of July weekend. And according to an article on VA.gov, the Veterans Administration website, the human brain is very good at pairing things, particularly threats, right? That's how we so quickly recognize threats sometimes.

Combat veterans can pair threats to things they experienced in combat zones. So when they hear loud noises, a veteran's brain can feel in real danger. And small things like that can trigger PTSD, like a car, backfiring or door slamming. So we can only imagine what explosives going off in the air for an entire evening might do to a veteran suffering from PTSD. Ironically, it's the vets we're celebrating by triggering their PTSD with his fireworks display. So that sucks.

Yeah, of course. And it's not just the veterans who are triggered or upset by the sheer volume of noise produced by these displays. PTSD affects over 12 million Americans every year. There are people who have been in gunfights and traumatic things as a child. or whatever. Many of these folks actually have to plan to get out of the range of fireworks shows. And when you've got over 14,000 per year, it's kind of hard to get away from them. And it's not only during the displays, fireworks can trigger different symptoms like nightmares

and flashbacks and panic attacks that can actually continue for weeks after being triggered. You're listening to The Jordan Harbinger Show. We'll be right back. Thank you so much for listening to and supporting the show. All of the deals and discount codes are at Jordan Harbinger.com slash deals. You can also search for any sponsor using the search box or the AI chat bot on the website as well, provided that you can still type after using

the fireworks that you got for this past Fourth of July. Please consider supporting those who support us. Now, for the rest of Skeptical Sunday. Right, so not a happy fourth for any of those folks. So that's the vets, and it sounds like we could do a whole podcast on vets and fireworks and other PTSD stuff,

but let's talk about the pets, actually. I think a lot of people can sympathize with how scared their pets are during the Fourth of July. I mean, I remember having a dog, and he would shake uncontrollably, and he'd be yelping every time. I did feel really bad for him. Yeah, and unfortunately, there's going to be a segment of the listening population that's going to look at their dog and go, I don't see a difference. My dog's fine. Whatever. Part of that's an issue because it's a little selfish thinking if my dog isn't affected, who cares about your dog, that's a problem.

The other part of it is, you know, they've done things where they've, like, up bears in the wild with these devices that can measure their heart rate, and they'll fly a drone near the bear, and the bear will not react in the slightest. It'll just be going on about its day. You think, oh, he can't hear it, he doesn't see it. The heart rate spikes on these bears while the drone is near, and there's a lot of anxiety. They're not going to turn around and bite their nails, right? They're not going to chew on their claws and look all nervous. So how we exhibit nervous behavior or anxiety isn't always the way animals exhibit that behavior. So even if your dog doesn't appear to be upset by this, they very well may be. And I have a dog. And she doesn't really seem to

react to it. She will just lay close to me a lot of the time. She doesn't shake or freak out. She doesn't bark out. She doesn't run around. She doesn't hide. But she does just come sit next to me when she hears it and she'll perk up and then sit back down and perk up. So I know she's bothered by it in some way. it's definitely not good for it. But I agree with you. It breaks my heart when anything frightens my dog. And every single year, the Fourth of July is the day that so many pet owners either have to get out of town or try to get to some community far away from fireworks celebrations or hunker down with their dogs. Or they even have these little vests, thunder vests or whatever that feels like a hug to the dog to make them feel better. And a lot of people leave their dog alone, right? They will go to a fireworks display and the houses around you are pop up.

fireworks and your dog's freaking out, you know, by themselves. And look, it's not every single animal that's affected, but come Fourth of July, plenty of pet owners, get out of town, or take care of their animals who are traumatized every year. It happens. I wonder if the residential neighborhoods near Disneyland have statistically low dog ownership or if people's pets just get used to it or if they go crazy the whole time. It seems like I'd be really traumatizing to live near there.

Yeah, maybe. Or living really close to, like, a big, stadium, like Dodger Stadium or something like that. Yeah. Every stadium, not just any stadium, like they all blow stuff up. Every professional sports game uses fireworks, usually multiple times per hour, especially

during the Super Bowl. But if you've ever been to the live event, you know what I'm talking about. If you've ever been to an actual football or basketball, not basketball, that would be very dangerous. Indoor fireworks, everyone. Yeah. Football or baseball game, you'll see the fireworks blowing

off. I mean, it's everywhere. Even if it doesn't make it on TV. And the fireworks deliver an excessive amount of trauma to humans and animals both, all for the enjoyment of others. So veterans with PTSD and children along with our pets, not to mention wildlife experience, fear and sleep disruptions,

nightmares, anxiety, every time fireworks blast off. And some animals become so frightened they run away. In fact, according to the American Kennel Club, more pets go missing on July 4th weekend than any other time of the year. Oh, that's super sad. Can you imagine

losing your dog on the 4th of July weekend. You're having fun, and all the kids are around. Your dog runs away while you're outside, and God knows what happens. Yeah, and your home is where your animal's supposed to feel safe. You know, and it's sad that they think, well, this is no longer a good place to be. There's explosions going off,

and then they end up running into more danger, not realizing it. And some animals suffer devastating health effects from stress, right? The bright flashes can cause some animals to run into roads and get hit. And an ironic twist, the celebration of America can cause our nation's iconic mascot, the bald eagle, to even abandon their nests. Wow.

I guess that makes sense. So happy birthday, America. Yeah, what better way to celebrate America than destroying some of it, right? That's kind of how we do it. Should we talk about the fires? Yeah, great. So we displace eagles and what?

Just burn a couple American flags while we're at it to boot? It's far worse than that. According to the National Fire Protection Association, fireworks account for approximately 19,500 fires per year. Oh my God. Leading to an estimated $105 million in property damage. In 2017, a 15-year-old boy lighting out fireworks started the Eagle Creek fire that burned nearly 50,000 acres throughout Oregon,

and it burned for three months. I did not know that was started by fireworks. Wow. Yep, and I've posted links to stuff, or I've included the links in the show notes, so people can go read the news stories about it. And these fires aren't confined to just around the 4th of July. Year-round, several forest fires as well as house fires. Start from kids and or adults.

We all know them. Yeah. Playing around with fireworks. And these often coincide with injuries to the people that are playing around. Like the girl in Torrance last year. Exactly. How can this keep happening year after year? You think that, and look, I'm not like, regulate everything,

but 50,000 acres is a lot. A hundred million dollars in property days. damage due to 19,500 fires. It's a lot. It seems a little bit like maybe somebody should do something about this, levels of fires and damage. So here's where it gets interesting. The political and monetary reasons for fireworks are just massive.

A lot of people believe fireworks are actually protected by the Second Amendment. The Second Amendment and fireworks. I know guns, okay, but fireworks? Gunpowder. Ah. So gunpowder, fuel. the fireworks and the American Pyrotechnics Association PAC, yes, there is a pack for everything, that's quite powerful,

was really upset with Obama for trying to regulate fireworks during his administration. Obama. Thanks, Obama. The APA, PAC, picked off at Obama. So Julie Heckman, she's the APA's executive director, who, by the way, I reached out to while doing this research, but she didn't respond. She said this when she was asked about Obama's new regulations on fireworks. she said, I've been working in the industry for a very long time, 26 years.

I've never seen as many rulemaking initiatives as I have with this administration. It's been completely insane. We've got to comply with ATF, CPSC, EPA, OSHA, multiple divisions of the Department of Transportation. It's really challenging. Look, I have some sympathy for overregulation. I think it's kind of a bummer in some ways. But I also have to say, first of all, ironic that a spokesperson, never replied to you. It's like, this is literally your job, but okay, just go ahead and be a quiet

spokesperson. It's just something about it being Obama too. Like, how dare Obama force you to be safe and accountable for manufacturing dangerous items that cause hundreds of millions of dollars and damage? This is literally one of the most important jobs of the government, or one of the only jobs the government really should have, in my opinion. And even if you're not a fan of Obama or the current administration, not letting other people burn your house down because of something that is basically just bad for the environment level of entertainment, seems like a generally good idea. I mean, and, you know, it's hard for them to list reasons why they shouldn't be regulated.

Sure. We have to comply with workers' health and safety, and we can't just run them through underground tunnels, trucks full of gunpowder. It's ridiculous. It's insane. So, yes, to answer your question, there are regulations, but it's so spread out and it's unmanaged, and it's hard to enforce. I mean, I know police dispatchers that are like, don't even bother.

they're calling, 911, especially if you're in a big city like LA, there are so many explosions and things popping off. And you're not, you're not going to call in a noise complaint, right, on a Saturday night at 9 p.m. on 4th of July or New Year's Eve. They're like, please hold your 1,074 in line. It's just incredible. And the cops can't run around to every boom or pop, right? So how do you manage this? How do you enforce it, right? Please hold Jim's on the other line and he's one finger away from a free vasecta. me we'll be right with you so so recently christie gnome the governor of south dakota was on fox news biching about how the bide administration actually blocked her request for fireworks at mount

rushmore for the third straight year it's a very second amendment mentality right it's people see regulations around fireworks as a don't take away my freedom type issue instead of we're trying to keep you safe and keep your neighbors safe look i get the gun debate i see many sides of the gun debate But to extend it to fireworks, it just seems like a reach that is created exclusively by lobbyists so that they can sell these things. And of course, there's got to be money involved. Nobody's planning on defending democracy and the rights of the people against the tyranny of government with bottle rockets and what were they called again, red Indian China babies.

That was Injun, which a little bit worse. Even worse. But yeah, you nailed it. I mean, billions and billions of dollars, as you said in the beginning. not to mention the black market created, the illegal guys on the road. You know, many self-proclaimed patriots are people that are basically annoyed

that the ATF regulates fireworks instead of the NRA. They think it should be the NRA. And there's some connection to the NRA, but it's murky. And I found some document from the 1930s showing an NRA affiliation with fireworks production, but I don't see them contributing publicly to the APA.

So, however, the APA PAC is on record contributing to. Republican candidates like the Missouri Republican Sam Graves 2020 campaign. So there we go with the lobbying efforts. It's definitely part of it. And I think you're onto something there. Fireworks feeling politicians, it just seems like strange bedfellows, but following the money always turns up surprises pretty much every time. Right. And following fireworks money leads to China. So China manufactures the most fireworks in the world. Wait, hold on a second. Continue. Every time I say China, is that going to be the response?

Sorry, I was a little late. I was taking a sip of my water. But yeah, I'm just going to do that every time. So that country manufactures the most fireworks in the world and the United States buys most of their fireworks from China. You can say from China. That's fine. I'm not going to do it every day. It's going to get old.

It's going to get old. It's already old. The soundboard is really, you've got to be careful with the soundboard. You can overuse that pretty easily. But sometimes you overuse it and it's not funny anymore and then you keep going and it gets funny again. I suppose. I'm not going. going to test the line of that. I'm not going to test my limits on that one. Why don't we make our

own fireworks? You would expect something that's supposed to be super American 4th of July to also maybe be made in the United States, but I guess, you know, why? So there is a company in California in Rialto, actually, which is the United States biggest manufacturer, but they do mostly big events, like the Super Bowl, the Olympics, Macy's, prades, things like that. We're not getting those from China. We buy everything from firecrackers to more powerful. fireworks from China. The kicker is that China invented fireworks and China has extensive bands of their use most cities across their country. You know, like TikTok. Like it's a great distraction. These are too dangerous. Ship them to the Americans. They don't care. Right. Or what they do with

TikTok, it's like it's a great distraction for you guys, but we know our limits. So we're going to have a different version here. So are there any solutions, good alternatives? I mean, fireworks, I'm sure we modernize them, but it seems like they haven't changed in a couple thousand years for the most part. basic recipe. Yeah, I mean, getting bigger, adding more pieces to it, the more impressive fireworks will be like, this firework sends this off to do this and this off to the, and now you've got three or four things coming out of one thing. It's getting more elaborate, which means more metals, more danger, you know, more chemicals. But yes, there's a solution, there's an alternative drones. Drones shows are incredible, and obviously they can do more with these drones than you

could ever do with fireworks. They're quieter, they're reusable, they don't spew, pollution, They don't cause fires. Plus, I don't know if you've seen one. They're incredible. There's no fumes. You've never seen a drone show? No. No, I got to YouTube this.

I've never seen it in person. I've only watched it online. I want to go to one. You're going to watch this being like, no, that's got to be an effect. There's no way that's real. It's real. What they do is get hundreds of them, and they're all controlled by computers, and they know right where to go and they avoid each other.

And it's just incredible. They write words in the sky. They make these 3D images and pictures. and things that appear to be moving or walking, it's incredible. Now, there are no fumes or unsettling noises. The only con really is the possibility is either basically a drone falling out of the sky

and hurting someone or damaging something. That's very rare. And I suppose you could make an argument about the plastics used to make drones and the mining involved and the batteries, the lithium and all of that. Sure, yeah. At which point I would just say,

okay, let's start pushing for regulations on making drones out of more sustainable materials or things that aren't going to be bad for the environment, things like that. But nothing's going to compare to the amount of damage and awfulness that we get with fireworks. So maybe we can look up something that doesn't require gunpowder

when we want to celebrate. Maybe. Thanks, David. Another Skeptical Sunday in the Bank. We might not get everything right, and if you hear something that's way, way off, definitely let us know. But more importantly, topic suggestions for future episodes of Skeptical Sunday

are always welcome. Email me, Jordan Harbinger.com. Give us your thoughts. A link to the show notes for the episode can be found at Jordan Harbinger.com. Transcripts are in the show notes. I'm at Jordan Harbinger on both Twitter and Instagram, and you can find David Smalley at David C. Smalley on all social media platforms at David C. Smalley.com. Or better yet, on his podcast, the David C. Smalley Show links to all that in the show notes as well.

Once again, a reminder that the Stitcher app will no longer work for any podcasts as of August 29th, 2023. So if you're using the Stitcher app, time to switch. If you're on Android, podcast addict is a good one, cast box. And if you're on iOS, I suggest Overcast or Apple Podcasts. The Stitcher app is going away, folks. This show is created in association with Podcast One. My team is Jen Harbinger, Jace Sanderson, Robert Fogart, Ian Baird,

Millio Campo, Josh Ballard, and of course, Gabriel Mizrahi. Our advice and opinions are our own. And yes, I'm a lawyer, but I'm not your lawyer, so do your own research before implementing anything you hear on the show. Remember, we rise by lifting others. share the show with those you love, and if you found this episode useful, please share it with somebody else who needs to hear it. In the meantime, do your best to apply what you hear on the show so you can live what you listen. In the meantime, light fuse and get away. And we'll see you next time.

Here's a sample of my interview with astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson. We talk about why an interest in science serves every field of expertise from law to art, what our education should ideally train us for. Here's a quick look inside. Walt Whitman, when I heard the learned astronomer, when the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me, when I was shown the charts and diagrams to add, divide, and measure them. When I, sitting, heard the astronomer where he lectured with much applause in the lecture room,

how soon, unaccountable, I became tired and sick, till rising and gliding out, I wandered off by myself into the mystical moist, night air and from time to time looked up in perfect silence at the stars. It's the same curiosity you have as a kid, but I just have it as an adult. I've had it since childhood. You don't have to maintain it. You just have to make sure nothing interferes with it. So the counterpart to this would be, oh, sir, literate one, why ruin what something looks like by describing it with words when I can see it fully with my eyes? Your words just get in the way. I'd rather my mind float freely as I gaze upon something of interest

and have the writer step in between me and it and interpose is her own interpretation. You don't know the thoughts that you're not having. What keeps me awake is wondering what questions I don't yet know to ask because they would only become available to me after we discover what dark matter and dark energy is. Oh, man. Because think about it.

The fact that we even know how to ask that question, that's almost half the way there. But I want to know the question that I can't know yet. What is the profound level of ignorance that will manifest after we answer the profound questions we've been smart enough to pose thus far? For more, including how science denial has gained a global foothold, what it'll take for the U.S. to get to Mars before China, and why it's dangerous for people to claim the Earth is flat, check out episode 327 of the Jordan Harbinger Show with Neil deGrasse Tyson.

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