Fireworks Injuries

Traditionally associated with America's Fourth of July celebrations, fireworks cause serious injuries to thousands of people each year. Fireworks are so potentially hazardous to life and limb that the federal government classifies them as hazardous substances under a special law, the Federal Hazardous Substances Act.

Types of Injuries

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission estimates that 7,000 people were treated in hospital emergency rooms for fireworks-related injuries in 2008. The majority of these injuries involved hands, eyes, ears, and legs.

Fireworks can also kill people who light them, as well as bystanders.

Serious injuries that people can get from fireworks include:

• Burns (3rd, 2nd, and 1st Degree);
• Loss of limbs (hands, forearms, feet) and digits (fingers, toes)
• Broken bones and torn ligaments
• Permanent blindness or impaired vision
• Permanent scarring

Fireworks Dangers

Gunpowder, an explosive, is the basic ingredient in most fireworks. This explosive generally makes the injuries suffered by fireworks victims burn-related.

Explosive fireworks, however, are not the only type that can injure. Sparklers, a Fourth of July purchase that many parents consider safe for young children, have a track record of injuring children younger than five years-old. One extensive study of fireworks injuries found that sparklers were responsible for 7% of all injuries, and that roughly two-thirds of all sparkler injuries hurt children five years-old and younger.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) found that in 2006, roughly 1,000 children were reported injured solely by sparklers in a four-week period before and after July 4th. Many people are not aware that the heat generated by sparklers can be as much as 1,800 degrees F, an incredibly hot temperature that can cause serious burns and easily ignite clothing.

Teenagers are injured by fireworks in greater numbers more than any other age group.

In 2008, the CPSC estimates that about 7,000 people reported fireworks related injuries. More than half of the injuries were burns, and most of the injuries involved the hands, eyes, and legs. Teens in the 15 -- 19 age group had the highest per capita injury rate among all age groups.

Medical Treatment and Recovery from Fireworks Injuries

Treatment for burns, including plastic and reconstructive surgery, may be an important aspect of recovering from fireworks injuries. Fireworks victims can experience severe scarring and disfigurement.

Dealing with amputation of a limb, hearing or vision loss, or loss of fingers or toes may also be part of treatment for injured fireworks victims.

Physical injury is not the only one aspect of fireworks-related trauma. The mental traumas that fireworks victims experience may be just as great, if not greater, than any physical harm they suffer. A 2005 Dutch study concluded that fireworks explosion victims experience significant mental health-related troubles, including medically unexplained ("somatic") symptoms, such as trouble sleeping, anxiety, depression and feelings of insufficiency that hampered their ability to function in life.

Fireworks Injuries and Your Legal Rights

The sale and use of fireworks are regulated by state and federal law.

If you or a loved one experienced fireworks-related injuries, you may be entitled to compensation for current and future expenses, in addition to special legal damages.

Some of the legal factors that an attorney can review with you include:

• Whether you and your loved ones may be entitled to compensation for current and future medical and treatment expenses;
• If you and your loved ones can recover lost wages from work, and other out-of-pocket expenses stemming from a fireworks blast; and
• Whether fireworks injuries may entitle you and your loved ones to recover damages for pain and suffering.

Safety Tips

Because they are explosives and combustible devices, fireworks must be used with extreme caution. Older children should be closely supervised, and it is wise to prohibit younger children from playing with fireworks, including sparklers.