As families across the United States get ready for the holiday celebrations, it is important to take appropriate precautions.
While July 4th is easily one of the best American holidays for entertaining and celebrating with friends and family, taking a little bit of time to review the best fireworks safety procedures and practices can help to ensure that your pyrotechnics display will be memorable for all of the right reasons.
Unfortunately, the trend at the moment is leading to a growing number of serious hospital visits for children.
It doesn’t take too much to be certain that your celebrations will be safe and fun for everyone, but that doesn’t mean that you don’t need to place any focus on fireworks safety. This small extra step will help you to know that the only people who will need to be at your party are the ones who were invited, and not emergency responders who have been dispatched to help to rescue someone who has been hurt in a preventable accident.
Fire marshals, government officials, and the insurance industry are reminding people to take care with fireworks safety.
The statistics from 2011 to 2013 have shown that there have been a total of 9.600 emergency room visits in the United States that have resulted from injuries caused by accidents associated with fireworks. Among those E.R. visits, 26 percent of them involved children who were 15 years old or younger.
It is important to remember that these statistics are not just figures. Everyone of the 9,600 individuals are real people who were injured to the point that they had to stop their celebrations and immediately seek help at a hospital. These are friends, family, neighbors and children.
Injuries from fireworks can be extensive, particularly when they involve the eyes, which can lead to consequences that can last a lifetime. According to pediatric ophthalmologist, Dr. Dean Fiergang, “We’re talking about bad injuries and a large percentage of them cause permanent loss of vision”.
Fireworks safety starts with choosing the right products – avoiding those that are illegal, including M80s and M100s, which can not only cause injury and property damage, but also lead to legal problems – and to know exactly how to safely use the products that are purchased. This will allow for the safest and cleanest display, aside from attending a public event.
