Safety experts: Amateur fireworks, even sparklers, not worth the risk, and even inflame PTSD
Year after year, health and public safety officials deliver a consistent message in early July - both legal and illegal fireworks are dangerous and not worth the risk of life-altering consequences.
Ye> the amateur use of fireworks last year led to 9,100 injuries and five deaths nationwide, a group of experts said Tuesday outside Amita Alexian Brothers Women & Children's Hospital in Hoffman Estates.
While the number of injuries treated at Illinois hospitals last July dipped from 2017, a large percentage of them were severe, said Margaret Vaughn, government affairs director of the Illinois Fire Safety Alliance. And two of last year's deaths occurred in neighboring Indiana and Iowa, where the sale of consumer fireworks is legal, she said.
"Any attempt to make them easier to get increases the risk," Vaughn said.
Efforts to increase the accessibility and legality of consumer fireworks in Illinois are constant, said retired Bartlett assistant fire chief Mike Figolah, who works with the Illinois Fire Safety Alliance.
Figolah demonstrated on a wooden dummy how quickly a moment's contact between a sparkler and a child's T-shirt can lead to flames spreading to the upper torso and face.
"Running will make this happen faster," he said after the dummy's T-shirt and baseball cap were incinerated within seconds.
Sparklers account for 12% of all fireworks injuries, and children under 15 are the victims of 31% of accidents involving fireworks, Figolah said.
The Illinois Fire Safety Alliance is trying to fight the dangers of sparklers with education rather than an effort to ban them statewide, as several area communities have done individually, Figolah said. Lobbying from the opposite camp in Springfield to legalize fireworks is strong, he said.
But the cost to treat additional injuries from the legalization of fireworks would offset any additional revenue the state could see, Figolah said, and the money isn't worth seeing more kids hurt.
"Choosing to accept the risks and play the odds as an adult is one thing," he said. "Our mission is to reduce or eliminate burns to children. The best thing to do is abstain from fireworks with kids around."
Others Tuesday addressed reasons beyond children's safety to leave fireworks to the professionals.
Though often regarded as a demonstration of patriotism, fireworks can trigger post-traumatic stress for veterans, said Dr. Patrick McGrath, Amita Health clinical director of the Center for Anxiety and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorders Program.
McGrath has one veteran client who drives to a deserted dirt road in central Illinois and sleeps in his vehicle to avoid Independence Day fireworks.
Dr. Joe Lupo of Dundee Animal Hospital and Chicago Veterinary Medical Association President Priya Bhatt said fireworks create physical dangers and stress for pets. July 5 is the busiest day of the year for animal shelters due to the number of pets that bolt the night before.
Pet owners who believe their animal could benefit from sedation during Independence Day should consult their veterinarian about a solution rather than trying something on their own, particularly Benadryl, experts say.