The city administration announced this five days before the end of the year celebrations began with the celebration of Christmas Eve Ban on sonic pyrotechnics throughout the Buenos Aires area. The CABA board noted that the measure is intended to protect children, people with ASD and animals.
As the Buenos Aires government explains, the measure is implemented with a decree that instructs the Environmental Protection Agency (APRA) to declare the entire city a “quiet zone without pyrotechnics” and to ban devices of this type “with an audible effect.”
“Sonic pyrotechnics affect the health of the elderly, people with ASD and babies. In addition, it causes damage to animals and the ecosystem. This decision also responds to a request that we hear again and again at neighborhood meetings,” explained Jorge Macri, head of the Buenos Aires government.
In 2020, the city declared the areas within a 100 meter radius of nature reserves, such as Costanera Sur and Lake Lugano, to be “quiet zones”; the Buenos Aires Ecopark; and hospitals.
At that time, the use of explosive bombs with a diameter of more than two inches was also prohibited; Mortars with bombs with an audible impact and a caliber greater than two inches; and campfires with a launch tube larger than two inches in diameter.
Now, Article 4 of the decree also prohibits “the use of pyrotechnic and noise articles and devices in any event or show organized by the public sector of the City of Buenos Aires.”
It’s about “audible” and “noise” artifacts. Although they mention the possibility that there is “a fine line” in distinguishing which devices have this harmful effect, the initiative aims to raise awareness among neighbors and, in turn, address a common complaint. In recent years there have been complaints about the use of loud pyrotechnics at concerts held in stadiums such as Ferro in Caballito or River in Belgrano.
Excluded from the measure are pyrotechnic devices that are used to send emergency signals for the use of security forces and civil defense, as well as “those activities that absolutely require their use for security reasons,” according to the authorities.
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