Despite looser laws, safer products, fireworks still can pose serious dangers

Boom times in America are here again – in full force. Yes, throughout this Independence Day weekend, scenes of sizzling sparklers, blazing bottle rockets and crackling fireworks will color the night sky.

To be sure, fireworks displays are traditions as American and as old as The Declaration of Independence itself. In a letter to Abigail Adams on July 3, 1776, future president John Adams wrote that America’s break from England should be marked “with Pomp and Parade, Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one end of this Continent to the other from this time forward forever more.”

Flash forward 240 years, and Adams’ colorful vision of Independence Day remains even more clear and popular. This year, the U.S. consumer fireworks industry is forecast to earn a record $800 million in revenue from selling more than 260 million pounds of fireworks, according to the American Pyrotechnics Association.

That surge is fueled in part by a growing trend of liberalized fireworks laws in states across the nation. This year, for example, our neighbors in West Virginia for the first time in decades will be legally allowed to purchase all types of consumer fireworks.

Meanwhile in Ohio, the state Legislature has ended a decades-long farce that had required buyers of fireworks other than the low-grade novelty variety to sign an affidavit promising to take the contraband out of the state within 48 hours. Though purchasers will still be breaking state law, at least they no longer will become documented liars.

Such looser regulations across the country come as fireworks manufacturers profess to making and marketing safer products. That trend has been visible in the reduction of fireworks-related injuries in recent years.

According to the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, an arm of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, Americans were 10 times more likely in 2015 to be injured from baseball equipment than by fireworks.

SAFETY IS WATCHWORD FOR FIREWORKS USE

But despite the growing body of evidence pointing to soaring use of fireworks and fewer restrictions in doing so, one truism clearly remains: Fireworks in the wrong hands and in the absence of critical safety precautions can still produce more gloom than boom.

According to Prevent Blindness, a group that annually urges Ohioans to forgo using any category of pyrotechnics, about 10,500 people went to emergency rooms across the United States in 2014 seeking treatment for fireworks related injuries and about 75 percent of those occurred during Independence Day holiday period. Further, the National Council on Fire Safety reports about 20,000 fires sparked by fireworks nationally in a given year.

Clearly, fireworks are not child’s play. And children should never be given access to them. For maximum enjoyment and minimum safety risks, children and adults are best advised to attend grand professional displays to fill their fireworks fix.

We cannot responsibly urge adult Ohioans to continue to nonchalantly break the law. But recognizing that thousands in the Mahoning Valley will continue to do so with few or no legal repercussions, some key reminders about fireworks safety are in order. The CPSC offers these potentially injury-sparing recommendations:

Avoid buying fireworks that are packaged in brown paper because this is often a sign that the fireworks were made for professional displays and that they could pose a danger to consumers.

Always have an adult supervise fireworks activities. Parents don’t realize that young children suffer injuries from sparklers. Sparklers burn at temperatures of about 2,000 degrees – hot enough to melt some metals.

Never place any part of your body directly over a fireworks device when lighting the fuse. Back up to a safe distance immediately after lighting fireworks.

Never try to re-light or pick up fireworks that have not ignited fully.

Never point or throw fireworks at another person.

Keep a bucket of water or a garden hose handy in case of fire or other mishap.

Light fireworks one at a time, then move back quickly.