For New Year’s Eve, it is traditional to celebrate the passage of the new year with firecrackers and fireworks. This practice is now very supervised because it is very dangerous for the hands and eyes of young children.
Saint Sylvester was the 33rd pope and is known for converting Emperor Constantine to Christianity. But that has nothing to do with the firecrackers and fireworks which, at that time, only existed in China. It was much later that his name was associated with the last day of the year because he died on December 31, 335.
However, in the eastern regions of France, it is a well-established tradition to celebrate the transition to the New Year with detonating devices of all kinds, in a joyful anarchy that can turn into tragedy. In 2016, in Bas-Rhin, 42 people were injured by a firecracker. Nearly half were under 16 and the lesions mainly affected the eyes or hands.
An imperative: above all, no big firecrackers, no “tinkered” firecrackers or put in bottles… and it is better to use professional pyrotechnicians to handle the equipment necessary for a firework. There are ready-made cases, but you should never forget that these are explosives. Finally, it is better not to try to relight a firecracker that has not exploded.
A party but a danger
Of course, an exploding firecracker is festive. Everyone has at least one or two childhood memories about it. The problem is that it is also much more dangerous than it seems… especially for children and little brothers who are generally overexcited by these detonations and who are poorly supervised because of the ‘alcohol.
Accidents due to firecrackers affect 9 times out of 10 boys, between 10 and 14 years old in 50% of cases. These are mainly burns, but also serious injuries to the hands, eyes, as well as trauma to the ears. The blast of the explosion projects at high speed incandescent particles, fragments of stones, glass or wood, causing serious damage to parts of the body which are difficult to repair, even for a very experienced surgeon.
Reconstructive surgery is on the warpath
Each year, specialists in hand and eye surgery see too many small victims of the most powerful explosive devices. They are faced with serious consequences of permanent disability for these young victims, with several cases of complete and permanent loss of a finger or the vision of an eye, even enucleations, that is to say the need to complete removal of the eyeball.
Very often, it’s not the firecracker that is directly involved, but the context, the alcohol, the party, the fact that a young “fireworker” puts the firecracker in another object, such as a glass bottle. These serious injuries are also found in children from 1 to 4 years old who “assist” their big brother. It’s estimated that more than half the time firecracker injuries require hospital treatment, which means this type of accident is serious…and a bad place to spend July 14th.
Prevention therefore also involves distancing spectators in general, especially if they are drunk, and young children in particular.
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