By Leilani S. Junio
MANILA, Jan. 6 (PNA) — The Department of Health (DOH) said on Tuesday the total number of firework-related injuries (FWRI) nationwide significantly dropped by 16 percent in 2014 in comparison with the previous year’s figure.
In a press briefing held at the DOH Media Relations Unit at the San Lazaro Compound in Sta. Cruz, Manila, Acting Health Secretary Janette L. Garin said that from 1,018 cases recorded in 2013, the total number of injuries last year went down to 860 based on figures collated by the National Epidemiology Center (NEC) from the 50 sentinel private and public hospitals where most of the victims of the firecracker-related incidents during the 2014 year-end revelries were brought.
The results were based on the monitoring conducted since Dec. 21, 2014 until Jan. 5, 2015.
Dr. Garin said that of the 2014 total number of cases, 840 injuries were due to fireworks, seven due to fireworks ingestion, and 13 from stray bullets.
The DOH-NEC registry classifies “firework-related injuries” into direct firework injuries, firework ingestion, and stray bullet injuries.
Garin said that while there was a drop in stray bullet and eye injuries, there was an increase in number of amputations due to injuries caused by firecracker explosions.
She noted that from a total of 25 injuries that required amputations in 2013, there were 41 cases recorded for 2014, indicating an increase of 64 percent.
The health official said that while they were happy with the decrease, still they were saddened with the shift of trend that many minors were among those injured.
Garin said it is still unacceptable to see that about 64 children who are 0 to 5 years old, 214 children 6 to 10 years old, and a total of 192 children belonging to the 11 to 15 years old were included in the list of the injured despite the intensified campaign launched by the DOH and its partner agencies.
Of the 840 firework-related injuries, 681 of the users were males while 159 were females. Of the total, 503 were recorded to be active users while 337 were just passive users or those who did not use firecrackers but were hurt by those thrown by bystanders.
By causes of injuries, piccolo, a banned firecracker brand, was on top with 272, followed by kwitis, 125; unknown, 89; luces, 62; fountain, 40; 5-Star, 29; pla-pla, 26; whistle bomb, 20; boga, 18; triangle and mixture of firecracker powder, both 15; Judas belt, 14; camara, 13; dragon firecracker, 10; and others, 92.
The National Capital Region (NCR) was the topnotcher among the list of areas in terms of the highest number of injuries.
Because of this, DOH officials said they are supporting the proposal for a total ban on firecrackers and encouraging responsible fireworks display in partnership with local government units and private entities to ensure that future Christmas and New Year celebrations will eventually lead to zero casualties.
Garin said that under such partnership, only pyrotechnics experts will handle the fireworks display while the public will just be watching from a safe place.
She likewise thanked all the DOH partner agencies for supporting the 2014 “Iwas Paputok” (anti-firecrackers) campaign. (PNA)