The Fourth of July holiday weekend is just upon us. That means it's time for local doctors to remind us about the dangers of fireworks, especially for kids.
Last year, twelve thousand people ended up in an emergency room in the United States with fireworks injuries. Dr. Jamie Kondis, a Wash U pediatric emergency medicine physician at St. Louis Children's Hospital, said fireworks-related injuries always spike around the 4th of July.
"We get about ten to 15 serious fireworks injuries every year around this time," Kondis said. "Mainly what we see is burns to the skin; hand injuries, including fractures and skin injuries; face injuries and eye injuries. And sometimes they really are quite severe."
Kondis said there's a pretty easy way to keep kids safe around fireworks, and that's just to keep an eye on them.
"The key thing about fireworks is that children using them always need to be supervised by an adult," she said. "The injuries we see in the emergency department could've been prevented if there was adult supervision."
She said kids are particularly susceptible to firework injuries because they do things like holding fireworks too close to themselves.
"Even the sparklers can cause really severe injuries because they can get up to 2,000 degrees farenheit at their little tips," Kondis said. "That's hot enough to melt metal, so it's definitely gonna burn a child."
Kondis said it's best to leave the fireworks to the professionals.
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