Erfurt and Jena: New Year's Eve without fireworks - citizens are challenged!

Erfurt and Jena: New Year's Eve without fireworks - citizens are challenged!

In the cities of Erfurt and Jena, a haunting appeal to the citizens is given to the citizens shortly before New Year's Eve. This initiative was initiated by the city administrations in order to counteract several pressing problems.

The main reasons for the call include the risk of fires, overloading the emergency rooms, high fine dust pollution and the development of tons of waste. In the past year, Erfurt recorded a total of 61 fire operations and 153 missions of the emergency services on New Year's Eve. In Jena it was found that around 33 cubic meters of garbage occurred on a New Year's Eve due to fireworks, which brought additional disposal costs of 15,000 euros. Security department Ricarda Schreeg also emphasized the strain on people and animals by the New Year's Eve fireworks.

prohibitions and legal regulations

in Erfurt, the firecracker in the old town is largely prohibited due to the sensitive half -timbered houses. In addition, there are other prohibition zones for fireworks in other parts of Thuringia, such as around Friedenstein Castle in Gotha. In general, the ignition of fireworks in the vicinity of half -timbering, churches, hospitals and old people's homes is legally prohibited in order to ensure the safety and protection of people and animals.

In addition to the calls in Thuringia, the health effects of fireworks are also an important topic. According to the Environmental Federal Office , around 2,050 tons of fine dust (pm10) are released every year, of which around 1,700 tons are omitted on pm2.5. This corresponds to about 1% of the total PM10 emissions in Germany. The air pollution with a health -hazard fine dust is particularly high on New Year's Day, especially in the hours after midnight.

The regular high PM10 values ​​on New Year's Eve and New Year illustrate the ecological and health problems associated with the use of fireworks. These developments are highlighting the need to consider alternative opportunities to celebrate the turn of the year.