EDITORIAL - Bigger, louder, deadlier

Every year, the fireworks in this country can compete in the Olympics: they become bigger, brighter, louder. The manufacturers also have marketing savvy. Last year the most powerful firecrackers, developed in the mom-and-pop laboratories of Bulacan, were called “Goodbye Philippines” and “Osama bin Laden.” This year, aware of current events, manufacturers are reportedly calling their monster ’crackers “Yolanda” after the super typhoon, and “Napoles” after the alleged mastermind of the pork barrel scam.

Police said last year’s Goodbye Philippines and Osama bin Laden might have simply been renamed for the upcoming New Year’s Eve revelry. Every product with a new name, however, tends to be truly bigger and more powerful than its predecessors.

The firecrackers have become so large and powerful they set off car alarms, knock out Christmas lights and create small craters in the pavement when they explode. The industry is regulated, with the law specifying safety measures in the manufacture and distribution of firecrackers and pyrotechnics. Limits are also imposed on the size and explosive power of firecrackers, with certain items prohibited.

Banned items, however, keep surfacing every year, sold openly under the noses of police and barangay officials who are supposed to enforce the law. And the nation continues to greet the New Year with the biggest, loudest bang possible, despite reports each year of hundreds of injuries from firecrackers.

Long-term health risks are also overlooked as manufacturers ignore safety requirements. Workers, a number of them teenagers, expose themselves to health hazards, allowing their faces and bodies to be covered with toxic materials that they also inhale.

Illegal firecrackers are not only dangerously powerful but may also be defective, which can make them explode prematurely. The New Year’s Eve revelry in this country has to be the world’s deadliest. This doesn’t have to be the case in the approaching celebration. The law is there, waiting to be enforced.