Legal fireworks caused more injuries in New Year revelry: DOH
Legal fireworks caused higher number of injuries, said the Department of Health (DOH) on Wednesday.
Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, in a press conference, announced that firework-related injuries decreased by 35 percent this year.
"From December 31 to January 1, 2020, 164 firework-related injuries were reported. This is 87 percent lower than the 251 cases in 2018," he said.
"The number of cases was 71 percent lower than the five year average covering 2014 to 2018 of 403 cases," he added.
From the 164 cases, 59 were attributed to legal fireworks while 32 cases were due to illegal fireworks or firecrackers and 10 reported cases are still caused by unknown sources.
Among the top causes of firework-related injuries were kwitis with a total of 33 cases, luces 19, fountain 18, and picollo 13.
"Out of the (top) causes, 80 percent are actually legal fireworks. Only piccolo is illegal," said Duque.
This year, the DOH reported no cases of fireworks ingestion, stray bullet injury and death.
Majority of the firework-related injuries were recorded in the National Capital Region (NCR) with 84 cases followed by Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Rizal, Quezon) with 13, Ilocos with 12, Central Luzon with 11, and Cagayan Valley and Western Visayas with 10 cases each.
For NCR, the cases went down by 16 percent compared to last year's data. Most or 55 percent occurred in the streets while 43 percent happened at home.
Duque also said most victims of firework-related injuries were among the age group of below 15 years old and 75 percent of it were male.
He also explained that 71 percent of the cases were blast burn injuries without amputation, cases of injuries in the eyes were 26 percent, and four percent were blast burn requiring amputation.
Most injured body parts were hands composing of 32 cases, eyes with 26 cases, head 13 cases, leg 11 cases and arms with nine cases.
DOH will record firework-related injuries until January 6, 2020.
Duque urged everyone to remain vigilant to prevent further cases of firework-related injuries.
"Safely cleanup firework debris and discharge them properly. Refrain from picking and lighting undischarged fireworks. Let us stay vigilant these coming days," he added.
The DOH will intensify campaign against the use of illegal and legal fireworks to achieve a no injury record in the coming years.
"'Whether legal or not, there is always the chance of an accident. That is the tagline that we thought of introducing today with the end in mind that we will achieve zero injuries," Duque said.
He added that the campaign will push on banning even legal fireworks in the future. Cristina Eloisa Baclig/DMS
