BUT HERE is my response from the Consumer Product Safety Commission:
As July 4th celebrations near, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) is urging the public to prioritize fireworks safety. Mishandling fireworks can turn celebration into tragedy.
In 2024, there were 11 reported fireworks-related deaths, most involving misuse and device misfire/malfunctions. An estimated 14,700 people were injured by fireworks last year – a sharp increase of about 38% in deaths and about 52% in injuries respectively compared to 2023. There were an estimated 1,700 emergency room treated injuries in 2024 involving sparklers.
Adults ages 25 to 44 accounted for the largest share of reported injuries (32%), followed by people ages 15 to 24 (24%). The most frequently injured body parts were hands and fingers (36%) and head, face, and ears (22%). Burns were the most common injury, making up 37% of all emergency room visits.
In 2025, you can add those who died and were injured when that fireworks warehouse facility in Esparto California blew up the other day the fire spreading to surrounding areas, not to count those in other countries, such as China, where the things are made. Of course, if you care nothing about workers' lives, others killed in such disasters, the lives of children injured when their parents or others are irresponsible*, like any low-brow pop-kulcha guy who has never had kids might be expected to, then none of this will bother you as you groove out to what is an even stupider form of entertainment than American football or Broadway musicals in todays' slacker-low-brow style are.
My brother calls setting off fireworks "burning money." I say you've seen one fireworks display you've seen them all. If there's a stupider form of entertainment, I'd like to know what it is. Given the death toll, the maiming, the environmental damage from them, it's something that should be banned by law.
* That guy who died while he set off a firework from his head while drunk was among those who died in the U.S last year. I wonder if he'd seen something like that on TV or in a movie or online.
“My brother calls setting off fireworks "burning money." “ I noticed last night a sharp decline in gunpowder (“fireworks “) explosions in the neighborhood. Either a lot of those people moved (likely, given ICE and my neighborhood), or they didn’t want to waste their money. Also likely, I think. Because compared to Mo years ago, it was dead quiet.
ReplyDeleteI had the impression that they stopped earlier this year, though there were lots of them, there's a store selling them the next town over. Way too many of them. It was like when he told me how much it costs to get a tattoo, I couldn't believe how many People pay that kind of money for those things.
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