Environmental impacts of perchlorate with special reference to fireworks—a review

Abstract

Perchlorate is an inorganic anion that is used in solid rocket propellants, fireworks, munitions, signal flares, etc. The use of fireworks is identified as one of the main contributors in the increasing environmental perchlorate contamination. Although fireworks are displayed for entertainment, its environmental costs are dire. Perchlorates are also emerging as potent thyroid disruptors, and they have an impact on the ecology too. Many studies have shown that perchlorate contaminates the groundwater and the surface water, especially in the vicinity of fireworks manufacturing sites and fireworks display sites. The health and ecological impacts of perchlorate released in fireworks are yet to be fully assessed. This paper reviews fireworks as a source of perchlorate contamination and its expected adverse impacts.

Perchlorate in dust fall and indoor dust in Malta: An effect of fireworks

“…The literature on the presence of perchlorate in the environment is substantial and constantly growing (Urbansky, 1998(Urbansky, , 2002Trumpolt et al, 2005;Gu and Coates, 2006;Sellers et al, 2007;Sijimol and Mohan, 2014): the concern over perchlorate relates to the chemical's known interference with thyroid function (Wolff, 1998;Greer et al, 2002) and the recent finding of this substance's apparent ubiquity especially in groundwater (Her et al, 2010;Sungur and Sangun, 2011;Jackson et al, 2005) and in foods (Sanchez et al, 2006;Lee et al, 2012;FDA, 2013). Most perchlorate is employed for the manufacture of solid rocket propellant and military explosives although it has various other manufacturing applications such as paints, tanning and rubber; it is also employed in pyrotechnic applications including highway flares, air bags and fireworks.…”

Review of Gasless Pyrotechnic Time Delays

“…Many commercial pyrotechnic compositions still contain compounds associated with significant health and environmental concerns [21]. This includes perchlorates [22] and heavy metals such as lead, barium, and chromium as in chromate-based compounds [23]. These chemical entities are deemed to be environmentally unfriendly and may pose a potential health hazard especially when they leach into soil and water sources [22].…”

“…This includes perchlorates [22] and heavy metals such as lead, barium, and chromium as in chromate-based compounds [23]. These chemical entities are deemed to be environmentally unfriendly and may pose a potential health hazard especially when they leach into soil and water sources [22]. As a result, there are increasing health and safety legislative requirements designed to eliminate them from delay compositions [21].…”

Review on Fate, Toxicity, and Remediation of Perchlorate

“…Environmental perchlorate contamination is associated with military installations, rocket propellant manufacture and testing facilities (Tikkanen, 2006), fireworks manufacturing and display (Sijimol and Mohan, 2014;Sugimoto et al, 2012), blasting agents, and military munitions, for example (Massachusetts State Department of Environmental Protection [MassDEP], 2005;Srinivasan and Viraraghavan, 2009;Urbansky, 2002;Gullick et al, 2001), where it is used as an oxidizing agent (Murray et al, 2008). Perchlorate is also formed as an oxidation product in sodium hypochlorite (Sanchez et al, 2009).…”