Dear Residents,
With the July 4th holiday approaching it is important to remember that while celebrating with friends and family we encourage you to be safe and to allow the professionals to provide the fireworks displays. The possession or use of individual fireworks is illegal in New Jersey.
According to the Division of Fire Safety, fireworks related injuries show that regardless of the type of firework there is a serious risk associated with their individual use:
• Children under 15 years old accounted for 40 percent of the estimated injuries.
• Children and young adults under 20 years old had 53 percent of the estimated injuries.
• An estimated 900 injuries were associated with firecrackers. Of these, an estimated 30 percent were associated with small firecrackers, 17 percent with illegal firecrackers, and 53 percent where the type of firecracker was not specified.
• An estimated 1,200 injuries were associated with sparklers and 400 with bottle rockets.
• The parts of the body most often injured were hands and fingers (30 percent), legs (22 percent), eyes (21 percent), and head, face, and ears (16 percent).
• More than half of the injuries were burns. Burns were the most common injury to all parts of the body except the eyes, where contusions, lacerations, and foreign bodies in the eye occurred more frequently.
• Most patients were treated at the emergency department and then released. An estimated 7 percent of patients were treated and transferred to another hospital or admitted to the hospital
• 65 percent of the injured were males and 35 percent were females.
Howell Township will be having a firework display, Saturday, July 6, 2013. For details and information please visit www.twp.howell.nj.us.
Please stay safe and enjoy the holiday.
Sincerely,
Helene Schlegel
OEM Coordinator