Prevent Blindness America wants all
Americans to know the dangers of consumer
fireworks. The U.S. Consumer Product
Safety Commission reports the following
fireworks injury statistics:
• Fireworks devices were involved in an
estimated 9,200 injuries treated in U.S.
hospital emergency rooms in 2006 (the
latest year for which data is available).
• An estimated 6,400 injuries were treated
in hospital emergency rooms during the
one-month period (June 16-July 16)
surrounding the Fourth of July.
• Eyes were the second most commonly
injured part of the body, with an estimated
1,500 fireworks-related eye injuries treated
in the same one-month period of 2006.
• Firecrackers accounted for 20% of all
injuries followed by rockets (13%), and
sparklers (16%).
Sparklers caused the greatest number of
injuries in children 14 and younger,
followed by firecrackers and rockets.
• Of the 1,000 estimated sparkler injuries,
200 were to children age 5 and younger.
• 2,300 of the injuries were to children
under age 15.
• Data from the U.S. Eye Injury Registry
shows that bystanders are more often
injured by fireworks than operators
themselves.
• Contusions, lacerations and foreign bodies
were the most common injuries to eyes.
for more information go to www.preventblindness.org
taken from Prevent Blindness website.
