Criticisms arising over Montreal fireworks display amid air quality concerns

The Dance of Fire team from Ukraine will present its fireworks display at the international competition in Montreal Thursday night, which will bring thousands to the streets to gaze toward La Ronde on St. Helen's Island.

Many are thrilled, but some are criticizing the city's decision to allow the fireworks display amid concerns over air quality.

"I've never seen the quality of the air so bad," said Paul Boivin. "The fact that it's so bad right now in Quebec and across Canada, it's just a respectable thing not to do it."

The city cancelled last week's fireworks display.

Some suggest, however, that the once-a-week displays will not dramatically affect the environment.

"The proportion of pollution is so small compared to the fires," said Montrealer Lyn Black. "It's not going to make a difference, so why take away something that's going to make us happy?"

Scott Weichenthal studies air pollution and said there is no doubt that fireworks negatively affect air quality.

"We know these metals and particles do have adverse health effects," said the McGill University department of epidemiology professor. "The kinds of pollutants that are present from fireworks, the colours come from metals, so were essentially were putting metals in the environment."

In some U.S. cities, July 4th fireworks celebrations lead to significantly higher air pollution levels. Some cities are now swapping fireworks displays for drone shows.

The Montreal company Drone Box is at the forefront of the technological trend.

"We are not concerned by this [environmental] issue because all our technology is electrical," said CEO Romain Brot. "We use batteries and electric systems, and we have zero carbon emissions and don't have the problem of pollution for all drone light shows."

Weichenthal sees the advantage of drones replacing fireworks.

"That's certainly better," he said. "You're not putting toxic metals into the atmosphere."

La Ronde will host fireworks displays every Thursday until mid-August.