With cases of fireworks-related injuries on the rise, family and friends gathered to celebrate July 4 this weekend should make sure to stay safe when handling their sparklers, bottle rockets and roman candles.
According to the 2020 fireworks annual report from the Consumer Products Safety Commission, there was an increase in fireworks related injuries from approximately 3.1 per 100,000 individuals in the U.S. two years ago to 4.7 per 100,000 people last year.
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So far, the commission estimates 15,600 injuries related to fireworks occurred in 2020, along with 18 deaths. Of these injuries, an estimated 10,300 – 66 percent of the total – were treated in U.S. hospital emergency rooms from June 21 to July 21.
A breakdown of the peak firework injury period from late June to late July shows that 71 percent of those injured were male and that young adults age 20 to 24 sustained most of the injuries, followed by teens aged 15 to 19. Adults aged 25 to 44 sustained 35 percent of the injuries and children aged 15 and younger sustained 18 percent of the injuries.
“This number is approximately three times the rate of injury for the same group in 2019, and is driven by an increase in injuries among females,” said the report of the 20 to 24 age group.
An estimated 1,600 injuries were related to firecrackers and another 900 were related to sparklers. Hands and fingers were the most frequently injured body parts, followed by the head, face and ears, then eyes, legs and arms.
While large-scale fireworks display for the Independence Day holiday are back this year after a COVID-19 pandemic related hiatus in 2020, demand for personal-use fireworks may be fading.
In Denver, CO, and complaint calls to police departments are back to typical numbers this year after a spike last summer and In Des Moines, IA, the demand for consumer fireworks also decreased. Last year, when many places were still under pandemic-related restrictions, fireworks-related complaints shot up in multiple cities, including Chicago, San Francisco and Detroit.
According to Forbes, the U.S. is currently experiencing a firework shortage due to constricted supply chains (caused by the pandemic) so this year’s supply is most likely going to be limited and expensive and the industry expects a 30 percent drop in consumer firework sales compared to last year.
“It will be interesting to see whether that leads to a reduction in emergency department admissions in 2021,” said Forbes.
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