Campaigners are calling on the UK government to protect the welfare of wild animals by cutting the maximum noise level of fireworks sold to the public from 120 to 90 decibels.<\/p>\n
The Center for Wild Animal Welfare (CWAW) has said lowering the limit to 90dB \u2013 which is about one-eighth of the loudness of 120dB \u2013 would help to protect millions of wild animals from acute stress by reducing the area over which a firework disturbs surrounding wildlife.<\/p>\n
This would help prevent incidents of harm, such as mass temporary displacement and fatal collisions among birds, that can occur during fireworks displays, it says.<\/p>\n
The government recently consulted<\/a> on proposals to lower the maximum noise level of fireworks sold to the public from 120dB to 110dB, which equate to their loudness being approximately halved.<\/p>\n But CWAW said the proposed limit did not go far enough and that cutting it to 90dB would leave the area disturbed by each firework about 100 times smaller than under the government\u2019s plan.<\/p>\n Richard Parr, the CWAW\u2019s director, said: \u201cSound travels, and a loud firework can penetrate surprisingly far \u2013 up to 10km. Because decibels work on a [logarithmic] scale, each 10-decibel cut to the limit reduces the area affected by the noise by 10 times.\u201d<\/p>\n Parr said that while many people were aware of the distress caused by fireworks to pets, there was not enough awareness of how such loud noises affected wild animals. \u201cThere\u2019s no reason to think that wild animals would be any less affected than pets,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt might even be worse because it\u2019s completely unnatural. It\u2019s surprising, stressing, and disturbing for their natural rhythms of life to be suddenly and very unexpectedly disrupted. Particularly for prey animals, who have evolved to be cautious and are naturally jumpy, these random, unannounced bangs are terrifying.\u201d<\/p>\n Rebecca Machin, a wildlife expert at the RSPCA, said she shared the CWAW\u2019s concerns about the impact of fireworks on wildlife. \u201cFireworks and their debris can disturb a range of wild animals, particularly birds, causing suffering and distress,\u201d she said. \u201cDepending on the distance from the explosive and the noise level, impacts include disrupted migration, elevated stress hormones, and hazards from leftover firework debris.\u201d<\/p>\n Research into the impact of fireworks on wild animals has found that birds experience particular harm during fireworks displays, including stress responses, mass temporary displacement and fatal collisions. On New Year\u2019s Day in 2025, more than 1,000 birds were found dead<\/a> near a hiking trail in Bulgaria, just over a kilometre from a site where fireworks had been set off, after panicked birds flew into trees and each other.<\/p>\n The government consultation came after concerns about the noise and availability of fireworks were aired in a parliamentary debate<\/a> in January, with two petitions gaining more than 180,000 signatures each. Alongside the noise limit, the consultation<\/a> looked at expanding the list of fireworks banned from general sale and reviewing the rules on lower-risk products, including scrapping the age limit on Christmas crackers.<\/p>\n New Zealand introduced a 90dB limit on consumer fireworks in 2008. It also reduced the number of days they could be sold and raised the minimum purchase age from 14 to 18, in line with the UK and most other countries.<\/p>\n The UK government consultation noted there had been concerns that the noise testing system could be gamed because a 90dB limit was difficult to define precisely in legislation.<\/p>\n In response to the calls for a 90dB limit, a spokesperson for the British Fireworks Association said: \u201cWe are aware of reports that sudden, unexpected noise from fireworks and other sources can disturb birds and other wildlife, and we take those concerns seriously. People should consider where and when they set off fireworks and take steps to minimise disturbance.<\/p>\n \u201cHowever, we do not believe the case has been made for reducing the noise limit to 90 decibels. Any change should be based on clear evidence of its likely benefits and take account of unintended consequences, including the risk of people turning to illegal fireworks. We favour better enforcement of existing laws, alongside a national campaign to encourage safe and considerate use of fireworks.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Campaigners are calling on the UK government to protect the welfare of wild animals by cutting the maximum…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":674927,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[61,60,82,263],"class_list":["post-674926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674926","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=674926"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674926\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/674927"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=674926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=674926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=674926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}