Last year a health official danced in public schools to the tune of South Korean rapper Psy’s “Gangnam Style” while advertisements featured menacing-looking surgical saws and other instruments used to amputate fingers and limbs mangled by firecrackers.
The measures were undertaken to warn Filipinos about the dangers of handling firecrackers. Separate moves were implemented to discourage indiscriminate firing of guns to welcome the New Year.
Last year’s revelry and the run-up to the celebration, however, still resulted in 413 confirmed injuries, with one of the victims a seven-year-old girl who was hit in the head with a stray bullet. The figure represented a 17 percent drop in injuries related to the New Year revelry, according to health officials, but it was still too high.
This year the public is again reminded of the risks posed by firecrackers following an accident in Bayombong, Nueva Vizcaya last Wednesday night that injured four persons attending the wake of their grandmother. Investigators said 16 types of firecrackers stored for over four years in an adjacent house exploded. The blast tore off the roofs and walls of the two houses and damaged the coffin of the deceased.
Almost every year similar accidents, a number of them resulting in deaths, have been reported around the country as Filipinos prepare to greet the New Year with a bang. Efforts to promote common fireworks displays have not taken off as most Filipinos continue to observe the tradition of setting off fireworks in individual households.
Amid campaigns to discourage the use of firecrackers, members of the local pyrotechnics industry have argued that they are coming up with safer products that can compete with imports. But there are still too many unsafe products, mostly made in unregulated backyard operations, that pack enough explosive power to knock out a small house.
Enforcers of the law regulating the pyrotechnics business must strike a balance between public safety and the needs of the industry – one of the biggest revenue earners in Bulacan. There are detailed specifications for the types of firecrackers allowed in the market. Prohibited products are easy to spot; what’s needed is effective enforcement. Injuries and even death need not be part of a holiday tradition of merriment.