Fireworks Safety News Release

• In 2015, 11,900 people were treated in emergency departments for firework-related injuries.
• There were eleven fireworks-related deaths.
• 8,000 of the injuries (67 percent) occurred during a one-month period around the Fourth of July Holiday.
• In 2015, fireworks caused 19 structure fires, resulting in an estimated $338,000 in property loss and content loss in Ohio. These numbers are as reported to the State Fire Marshal’s Fire Prevention Bureau by Ohio’s fire departments.
• The size of the fireworks product is no indication of the amount of the explosive material inside it.
• The major causes of injuries are due to delayed or early fireworks explosions, errant flight paths of rockets, debris from aerial fireworks, and mishandling of sparklers.

Based on the 7,000 injuries around the one-month period:

• Firecrackers (1,200), sparklers (1,900), and bottle rockets 800 accounted for the most injuries last year.

• The parts of the body most injured were hands and fingers (estimated 2600 injuries), head, face, and ears (2,000 injuries), legs (1,200 injuries), eyes (1,300 injuries) and arms (300 injuries).

• Sparklers, often given to young children, burn at 1200 degrees or even hotter—hot enough to melt copper.

• For children under the age of 5 there were 700 injuries altogether, with sparklers (24 percent) accounted for 65 percent of the estimated injuries for that age group.

• Sparklers caused 1,900 injuries altogether.

• Children younger than 15 years of age accounted for approximately 26 percent of the estimated 2015 injuries. More than half of the estimated emergency department-treated, fireworks-related injuries were to individuals younger than 20 years of age.

• Of the fireworks-related injuries sustained, 61 percent were to males, and 39 percent were to females.

• Do not purchase, use or store fireworks of any type.

• Be aware that even sparklers are dangerous and caused 65 percent of fireworks injuries in children five years old and younger last year.

• Protect yourself, your family and your friends by avoiding fireworks.

• Attend only authorized public fireworks displays conducted by licensed operators, but be aware that even professional displays can be dangerous

• Support policies that ban the importation, general sale and indiscriminate usage of fireworks by children and adults.

• Do not delay medical attention, even for seemingly mild injuries. “Mild” injuries can worsen and end in vision loss or even blindness that might not have occurred had a doctor provided treatment early on.

• Do not rub the eye nor attempt to rinse out the eye.

• Avoid giving aspirin or ibuprofen to try to reduce the pain. Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs thin the blood and might increase bleeding. Acetaminophen is the over-the-counter drug of choice.

• Do not apply ointment or any medication. It is probably not sterile. Also, ointments make the eye area slippery, which could slow the doctor’s examination at a time when every second counts.