Not from the spectacular Pioneer Day fireworks, but from the fireworks' thick smoke.

Shortness of breath, wheezing, coughing and even emergency room visits are expected for Utahns who are vulnerable to sooty air. They include 250,000 people with asthma and other heart and lung ailments that make them sensitive to soot from exploded pyrotechnics.

Scientists and health officials don't have a good understanding of the phenomenon. Little research has been done specifically on fireworks.

One study in western Washington state traced microscopic particles of a dozen metals in fireworks smoke, including lead, strontium, vanadium and zinc. It also found that the smoke could be detected in the air for more than a week.

What the study did not try to explain was what kinds of chemical compounds the smoke formed and why those compounds make some people sick.

At Utah State University, a chemistry professor and a student hope to help answer those questions. They are experimenting with a familiar chemistry tool, a gas spectrometer, in hopes of learning more about the chemical constituents of fireworks smoke.

This weekend, a student of Phil Silva will take measurements from a Pioneer Day pyrotechnics show in Logan. They already have gathered data from July Fourth fireworks in Ogden.

"Certainly, some of the metals in there can be hazardous," said Silva. But he added that the research is only intended to identify as many fireworks byproducts as possible, not to explain their health impacts.

"I'm leery to say it's harmful."

The concern about fireworks smoke in Utah swelled a few years ago when state environmental officials saw alarming spikes in small-particle pollution after big fireworks holidays.

Pollution monitors zero in on two kinds of microscopic soot. PM10 is made up of particles a tenth the width of a human hair. PM2.5 is about one-fortieth a hair's width. Both cause trouble by lodging deep in the lungs.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency calls PM10 unhealthful at concentrations of 150 micrograms per cubic meter of air and PM 2.5 at 65 micrograms per cubic meter of air.

Air monitors throughout northern Utah detected high levels of this microscopic soot last Independence Day.

In Salt Lake City, PM10 reached a level more than double the unhealthful concentration. In Lindon, PM10 was a little worse, and PM2.5 was three times above healthful levels,

Ogden was worst. PM10 got as high as 985 - six times the unhealthful level - and PM 2.5 was 844, more than 13 times above the unhealthful level.

Andrew Ghio, an EPA research physician based in North Carolina, said he did not know of any studies on the link between fireworks smoke and health.

"We know that use of fireworks can be associated with elevated levels of particles, and we know that elevated levels of particles are associated with increased disease among" people with lung disease, he said. "In addition, you can have symptoms among healthy individuals."

C. Arden Pope of Brigham Young University is an expert on particle pollution whose work helped set the EPA limits for particle pollution. Like Ghio, he did not know of specific studies on the health impacts of fireworks but said enough is known about all kinds of fine particles to make some connections.

"We know that particles from all sorts of different sources - cigarettes, coal, exhaust - all these particles from combustion sources have health effects," he said.

"We assume particles from fireworks will have similar effects."

Pope's team of researchers has shown that tens of thousands of U.S. deaths from lung and heart disease each year can be blamed on long-term exposure to PM 2.5.

Nina Dougherty, an air-quality expert for the Utah Chapter of the Sierra Club, said regardless of any scientific gaps, the public needs to be warned about the potential hazards.

"It's an unhealthy place" around fireworks, she said. "And parents need to be aware of it before taking their children to such an unhealthy place."

Outside Utah, activists have mobilized against fireworks because of the air pollution.

In California, authorities have been working with Disneyland to look for new, low-smoke fireworks. Neighbors of the theme park, famed for its near-nightly pyrotechnic displays, had complained to environmental officials for years.

An international community has organized on the Internet to get fireworks banned (http://www.stop-fireworks.org). The Web page includes petitions, article links and comprehensive scientific listings from around the world.

Fireworks pollution also has been a hot-button issue in Hawaii.

Bertrand Kobayashi, of the American Lung Association's Hawaii office, said his organization developed the "Safe Haven" program in response. On New Year's Eve, the big fireworks holiday in his state, people can find respite from the smoke in hotels and mountain retreats coordinated by Safe Haven.

Kobayashi realizes fireworks are "a show of patriotism."

"But it is still a health hazard," he said. "People who do not have asthma do not understand how sensitive people who have asthma can be."

He suggested that it is generally illegal in the United States to hurt someone else. But fireworks appear to be an exception to that principle.

"One thing we say here at the American Lung Association is, if you can't breathe, nothing else matters," he said. "And one of our missions here is to defend everyone's right to breathe."

fahys@sltrib.com