Celebrating July 4th with fireworks? Read this first

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Friday, June 28, 2024

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Celebrating July 4th with fireworks? Read this first

STHS Communication Department, CommDept@stph.org

The Fourth of July is just around the corner, which means so is fun, food, family, fireworks – and, for many, trips to the emergency room for fireworks-related injuries.

To help reduce such incidents, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission recently shared a tip sheet to help prevent these types of injuries and deaths over the holiday. Find it below. (You can also find a printable version here.)

An accompanying report by the CPSC shows fireworks-related injuries are on the rise overall, with 9,700 injuries and eight deaths reported in 2023. Of the eight deaths, five were associated with firework misuse, two with a device malfunction, and one involves unknown circumstances.

Other findings of the report:

  • Teenagers ages 15 to 19 years of age had the highest estimated rate of emergency department-treated, fireworks-related injuries, with children ages 5 to 9 years old having the second highest rate.
  • There were an estimated 800 emergency department-treated injuries associated with firecrackers and 700 with sparklers.
  • The parts of the body most often injured by fireworks were hands and fingers (an estimated 35% of injuries) along with head, face, and ears (an estimated 22%).
  • About 42% of the emergency department-treated fireworks-related injuries were for burns.
  • In fiscal year 2023, approximately 18% of selected and tested fireworks products were found to contain noncompliant components, including fuse violations, the presence of prohibited chemicals and pyrotechnic materials overload.

CPSC urges consumers to celebrate safely this holiday by following these safety tips:

 

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