DOH organizes first fireworks summit

Barely a month after New Year, the Department of Health (DOH) organized yesterday the first fireworks summit to draw up a plan of action on how to “ensure safe and harmless” celebration of the Yuletide season.

Health Secretary Enrique Ona said they also want to find ways to reduce the number of firecracker victims.

He added that while firecracker-related injuries went down by 1.4 percent this year, “the impact of our campaign ‘Kontra Paputok’ appears to have fallen short of what we really would like to do.”

“This is very minimal and certainly I won’t call it a success. We should pay more attention to it way, way before the coming new year.”

Ona explained that campaigning against firecrackers one month before the New Year revelry is not enough. “It should be a regular, constant and aggressive effort. We have to go to the root cause.”

Despite calls against the use of fireworks in welcoming 2011, the DOH registered last year 972 firecracker-related injuries and burns and 11 poisoning cases from pyrotechnic ingestions.

Ona said they hope the summit “will provide a bird’s eye view of the previous and current trends of firecrackers and fireworks-related injuries.”

He added the DOH had invited the Philippine Pyrotechnics Manufacturers and Dealers Association to the summit “to find solutions that are mutually beneficial to us and their industry.”

“Prevention of injuries and disability, especially among children, is our goal. We want our limited government resources to be used for more important health undertakings rather than treating otherwise avoidable injuries,” Ona said.