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Fireworks pose an underestimated danger to public health and require stronger regulations and sustained public education campaigns to help prevent devastating yet entirely avoidable injuries, warn U.S. experts in The BMJ.
Fireworks-related injuries are a major cause of vision and limb loss globally, largely affecting already marginalized communities, explain Indu Subramanian and colleagues.
In the U.K., for example, almost 4,500 people in England attended emergency departments with firework injuries in 2017, double the number in 2009–10, while a Los Angeles trauma center study found that firework injuries rose 147% from 0.19 per 100,000 in 2015 to 0.47 in 2022, mostly in young men aged 15–34. Typical injuries included burns, eye trauma and finger amputations, with 79% requiring surgery.
And according to research published in the Indian Journal of Ophthalmology, during Diwali in India, fireworks account for nearly 20% of eye trauma, and firework-related eye injuries result in complete blindness in 15% of patients, mainly affecting young boys in rural communities.
Other negative effects of fireworks include fires, substantial air and noise pollution, and risk of heavy metal poisoning, skin burns, inhalation injuries and death among workers producing fireworks, mostly in low- and middle-income countries, they add.
K. , there remains a critical need for education and regulation.
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