Fireworks provide a few minutes of joy, but the economic and environmental costs last much longer

This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Every Bonfire Night, people pay for a box of fireworks so their friends and family can enjoy the colorful display. Within a few minutes, it's all over.

But the price on the box doesn't reflect the hidden costs: the smoke inhaled by neighbors, the animals disturbed or the public services called out when things go wrong. It's not a question about whether fireworks celebrations are enjoyable, but whether the people enjoying them are aware of—or actually paying for—their full cost. Economists call this a "negative externality." A purchase benefits the buyer and seller, but some of its costs fall on people outside that transaction.

Fireworks offer a particularly visible example because the enjoyment is concentrated in time while the consequences are spread among households, public services and wildlife. As a finance researcher, I think this concept is overlooked in the fireworks debate. Figures show that there were 123 hospital admissions in England attributed to fireworks in 2024–25.

That is not a count of everyone injured: cases treated without hospital admission are excluded. Preventing such injuries may not cut the NHS budget, but it can free clinical time for other patients. In an overstretched health service, that is an economic benefit even if it never appears as a saving in the Treasury's accounts.

Pollution creates another unpriced cost. The U.K.'s official air-quality monitoring has recorded short-lived spikes in fine particles around Bonfire Night, although bonfires also contribute and weather affects how quickly smoke disperses. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs assigns a central estimated damage cost of £114,411 per tonne of fine particulate emissions (known as PM2.5), expressed in 2025 prices to account for inflation.

This is not a figure for fireworks: calculating that would require information about their emissions and who is exposed. It does show why a product can have an environmental cost that never appears on its receipt. The damage is not limited to human health.