Jun 30, 2009 6:50 pm US/Eastern
Fireworks Can Ruin 4th Of July Festivities
7,000 Americans Reportedly Injured In 2008
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
Many New Yorkers throw caution to the winds and break out the fireworks each year on the Fourth of July.
But Dr. Lewis Goldfrank, of NYU's Bellevue Hospital, believes the explosives often add a devastating conclusion onto an otherwise festive holiday.
"It used to be one of the worst days of the year," Goldfrank said. "You saw young kids that lost an eye, or kids (that) lost fingers or adolescents who lost a hand."
Goldfrank claimed doctors could not keep up with the injured people that poured into Bellevue's emergency room on July 4, 2008.
But the problem is a national one as well.
In 2008, 7,000 Americans were treated for firework-related injuries, with 400 losing their eyesight and seven dying.
Cuts, bruises and loss of limbs can result from all types of fireworks – whether it be small sparklers that burn at 2,000 degrees or illegal M-1000 explosives.
Goldfrank recalls that most patients who check into the ER claim their injuries came from firework "accidents."
"You see a child without a finger,you see someone without an eye, or with an injured nose, tremendous disfiguring or debilitating. It's always someone that said it was just an accident," Goldfrank said.
The doctor added that everything could have been prevented had the fireworks not been bought in the first place.
Nearly half of all fireworks bought in the U.S. are illegal, with most generically wrapped in plain paper and meant to be used only by professionals.
But Tony West, of the Department of Justice, thinks amateurs get their hands on fireworks quite often.
"It is all too often that illegal fireworks can maim bodies, shatter lives, often much too young, and all too often even kill, users," West said.
Fireworks are illegal in five states, including both New York and New Jersey, where consumers can buy legal, less-intense fireworks. These should still be kept away from children and handled with care to help prevent injuries, and a bucket of water should be used to douse spent or failed fireworks.
Use of fireworks, and even possession of them, can carry a 5- to 10-year jail sentence in states where they have been made illegal.
(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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