According to today’s Dear Abby column, “thousands” of people are seriously injured every year due to fireworks mishaps while celebrating the Fourth of July. That seems like a bit of an exaggeration and my quick online search didn’t find any fact-based statistics. Can anyone shed light on this?
Thanks, GorillaMan. I’m truly stunned that so many people manage to seriously injure themselves with these things. I’m going to give the evil eye to the fireworks tent down the road. Thousands over one weekend. The mind reels…
Somehow I suspect alcohol is a major factor as well.
Alcohol, and general stupidity. I wish they’d outlaw public sales of them here. BTW, I found that article easily via Google News 
Yeah, GorillaManI should have looked harder. It just seemed like this was one of those scare-story news tidbits that was more anecdotal than factual. I mean, where are the lawsuits? Where is the outrage?
The Consumer Product Safety Commission has similar reports, for instance, 1999:
and even worse:
So why are these things still legal …and how do fireworks companies protect themselves from the lawsuits that must certainly follow these injuries?
If somebody followed all the instructions printed on the firework, and the safety guidelines (which nobody ever truly follows), and was injured, there’d be one hell of a lawsuit. However, I’d guess that virtually all injuries occur because somebody ignores one of the above. So they’re liable for their own stupidity.
Facts & figures*
In 1999, an estimated 24,200 fires in the U.S. were started by fireworks. These resulted in 12 deaths and 55 injuries.
In 2002, 8,800 people were treated at hospital emergency rooms for fireworks-related injuries. Burns were the leading type of fireworks injury (63.2%). Contusions and lacerations were second (21.1%), and were the leading type of injury when the injury was to any part of the head or face, including the eye. Hands or fingers were the part of the body injured in 31.6% of the incidents. In 21.1% of the cases, the eye was involved, and other parts of the face or head accounted for 17.5% of the injuries.
Pre-teens and teenagers face the highest risk of fireworks injuries. In 2002, 62.1% of people injured by fireworks were under the age of 20, with 34.5% of the injuries incurred by those between 10 and 19. Twenty-five- to 44-year-olds accounted for 22.4% of fireworks injuries.
Males accounted for nearly three-fourths (71%) of fireworks injuries. The female injury rate was higher than the male rate for adults 45 and older.
From 1995 to 1999, an annual average of nine people were killed in fires started by fireworks. An annual average of seven people were killed directly by fireworks.
In 1999, fires started by fireworks caused $17.2 million in direct property damage. Fireworks-related fires have caused at least $15 to $20 million in property loss each year in the past decade.
Based on the amount of time and quantities in use, fireworks pose a higher risk of fire death than any other consumer product. Although cigarettes are the leading cause of fire death, the risk that someone will die from fire when fireworks are being used is three times the corresponding risk when cigarettes are burning.
On the Independence Day holiday in 1999, fireworks caused more outdoor fires in the United States than all other causes of outdoor fire combined.
Seven states ban the use of fireworks by consumers (AZ, DE, GA, MA, NJ, NY, and RI). The other 43 states permit some or all consumer fireworks. The American Pyrotechnics Association has compiled a helpful map and directory of state-by-state fireworks control laws.
*NFPA’s Fireworks-Related Injuries, Deaths, and Fires, April 2004
(All data courtesy of National Fire Protection Association)
There are more than four to six deaths a year in the US from automobiles. Why are those legal?
These things can be seriously dangerous. There are rockets (or other fireworks) containing a large quantity of explosive material, which will most certainly kill you if they explode in your hands. Here in France (don’t know how it might work in the US), the more powerful fireworks can only be sold and used by licensed people (there are two categories of such licenses) who had to take a training and pass an exam. However, in doesn’t prevent some people from getting their hands on them and using them without, of course, taking the necessary precautions. Of course it may result in fatal accident. Even smaller fireworks are likely to cause serious burns.
A common cause of accident is the rocket misfiring and people handling it to check it or fire it again (the normal procedure would be to cover it with sand), and then the rocket explodes. There are people (and in particular children) finding a large firework or cracker and playing with it, resulting in loss of fingers, hand, or worse.There are also fireworks improperly used and shot at the attendance, by the way.
Since I’ve some interest in fireworks, I’ve visited a website dedicaced to their dangers. It included a picture section which was really, really gross. There was not much left of some people (I’ve lost the adress and anyway, it wouldn’t be proper to link to such pictures here) . Certainly gives you a second thought about using casually these things.
Finally, there are people killed or burned not directly by the fireworks, but in a fire caused by them. Some won’t hesitate to use these things in a wooded area during a drought, for instance. Apart the physical harm, it can also causes important material damages.
To sum up, people shouldn’t try to shoot their own fireworks without paying close attention to the safety procedures and strictly respecting them, especially when using larger rockets, and should never try to do anything with a found of misfired firework.
As for the question asked by a poster : “why aren’t they forbidden, then?”. Well…cars kill a lot of people too, skiing is dangerous, and home fireplaces occasionnally cause fires and fatalities. None of these is forbidden. Like with most other things, it’s our job to be careful, not the government’s job to forbid anything which could possibly cause harm. Though since we’re talking about explosives, here (some people tend to forget that fireworks are nothing else than explosives, and often made by the same companies producing military-grade explosives), it’s probably the government’s job to regulate their use (quantity of explosive material allowed, procedure for stockpiling, transport and use, restrictions on the times and places they can be used, etc…).
Just to add to this, Arthur’s Seat in Edinburgh is regularly set alight by fireworks every bonfire night. Last bonfire night there were at least 5 seperate fires there, with most of the undergrowth still not grown back.
Yeah, it seems to me a better comparison to equate fireworks with recreational drugs than with automobiles or skis. Cars serve several useful purposes and skis don’t cause the problem in themselves. But fireworks exist for the mere thrill of the pop, the light, and the loud blow up…oftentimes popping, lighting, and loudly blowing up the users if the statistics are accurate. It seems to me, especially since we all seem to agree that children are often the victims, that the government does have a place in regulating these things.
I’ve seen some stupid things happen with fireworks such as roman candles shot from places the sun doesn’t shine, large “cannonball” type fireworks, the type you see at professional firework displays thrown into a crowd (that one bounced off of my back.
I’m glad we’re not shooting any this year.
Hmmm… and we shake our heads and wonder when other cultures shoot guns in the air during weddings.
This thread has sure put me in with the “ban the damn things” faction.
They are legal just up the road from here – as in a mile or so – and while they are technically illegal right here in the neighborhood, lots of people get them and shoot them anyway. Including the cops up the street. Every year, around New Year’s and the Fourth, on the news they warn people about how they’re illegal except in a few small areas, and invariably everybody completely ignores that and sets them off everywhere.
I strongly suspect most of the people who get hurt are doing stupid things with them. On the few occasions I’ve set them off, I’ve been very careful, and not even been slightly concerned that I’d get hurt. Fireworks + alcohol is bad. Fireworks + kids who don’t know that they can get hurt is bad. Fireworks + careful people are fine in my experience. The catch is that you can’t trust people.
Making them illegal isn’t going to stop people is my real point, unless they’re illegal EVERYWHERE. And even then, I gotta wonder if it’d work.
Even the legal ones got some problems.
I got a REALLY nasty burn one watching the fourth of July down on the Capital Mall one year when a piece of an exploded rocket came down and landed on my ankle.
Man, did that hurt.
Are you sure it was a rocket? They’re rarely, if ever used in professional displays.
Wikkit,
Pyrotechnics Guild International certified lead shooter
When I was much younger apart from some officially organised functions, fireworks were mainly bought for Guy Fawkes Night… This is still the case but gradually their use has increased so that now well before and well after G F night we have fireworks being let off. Add to that Chinese New Year (in some areas) New Years Eve and people’s birthdays and they are becoming more intrusive. Of course alcohol is often involved in the latter instances causing more accidents. Thinking back how much I used to look forward to G F night I never thought I would be in favour of unlicensed use of fireworks being banned but I don’t think I would object too much if they were.
I can remember many “incidents” caused by fireworks (including my daughter’s coat being set on fire) through carelessness rather than maliciousness and if you multiply that throughout the country it’s not surprising that so many accidents happen. My dog used to hate Bonfire Night and I’ve read of many accidents to pets.
It may be my imagination but I am convinced that fireworks are becoming more powerful too
And it’s up to you to determine the righteousness of a particular form of entertainment? You are enlightened enough to ascend as the Arbiter of Safe Toys?
Stupidity kills. Fireworks don’t cause a problem in and of themselves. Say it with me again: Stupidity kills.
Life is fragile. You are going to die. There are probably a million ways for you to die within 10 feet of you. Stop trying to take away my fun because a few reckless dolts can’t help but kill themselves.
Yeah, think of the children, save the whales, and the walrus was Paul. :rolleyes: