Keep hands off all fireworks, coalition urges

By Marc Kovac | July 3, 2009 at 12:01a.m.

Pyrotechnics, including sparklers, killed seven people and injured 7,000 last year.

State health advocates have made their annual plea for Ohioans to refrain from using fireworks over the Fourth of July holiday.

That includes sparklers, smoke bombs and other novelties legal to use in Ohio.

“There is no safe way to use backyard fireworks,” said Gary Smith, director of the Center for Injury Research and Policy and Nationwide Children’s Hospital. He has worked for more than 20 years in pediatric emergency rooms.

“Every legally available type of firework has been associated with serious injury or death,” he said.

Smith joined representatives of Prevent Blindness Ohio, the state fire marshal and the Ohio Eye Care Coalition for a Statehouse press conference prior to the holiday weekend — the time of year when the majority of fireworks-related injuries occur.

According to a new study by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Council, fireworks caused an estimated 7,000 injuries nationwide in 2008, including seven deaths. Of those, almost half affected children younger than 15. About 800 were caused by sparklers.

In Ohio, it is legal to use trick or novelty items, including sparklers, snakes and snaps.

So-called consumer-class fireworks, such as bottle rockets and roman candles, can be purchased by anyone older than 18, but they cannot be used in Ohio and must be taken out of state within a couple of days.

The illegal possession or discharge of fireworks can result in a $1,000 fine and up to six months in jail.

Smith said Ohioans should refrain from using any fireworks, and he said parental supervision is not enough to prevent injuries.

“More than half of the time, a parent was right there at the moment of injury,” he said. “And as an emergency medicine physician, I can tell you the words I hear practically every time a child comes into the emergency department for one of these injuries. The parent will say, ‘Doctor, I was standing right there; it happened so quickly, there was nothing I could do to stop it.’”