THE increased awareness of the danger of fireworks has led to fewer injuries, but a number of those are still severe, according to a plastic surgeon who has carried out a survey.
Mr Seamus O Riain, a plastic surgeon at the Children's Hospital, Temple Street, Dublin, conducted a survey which showed that 35 people were treated for injuries from firecrackers in the latter part of October 1994, compared with 20 people in the same period last year.
"Despite this significant decrease in incidence of injuries, however, some of the injuries were quite severe, including as before a number of quite significant hand injuries..." Some of these were combined with burns to the trunk, injuries to the eyes and damage to the hearing, including a perforated ear drum, he explained in an article in the Irish Medical Journal.
The majority of injuries in 1993 occurred in younger age groups. The serious nature of the injuries was partly because they affected the thumb, index and middle finger of the dominant hand in six patients and the thumb and index finger of the dominant hand in three patients.
"These were blast injuries which had been caused by explosions," he explained. The injuries included charring of skin, which in some cases required amputation of part of the finger and skin grafting. All the injuries healed rapidly.
A separate study found more than 12 eye injuries were reported by the seven main ophthalmic centres in the Republic during Hallowe'en in 1994. More than half of the victims who required specialist treatment will suffer some permanent loss of vision. All the injuries were caused by illegal fireworks with no instructions or precautions printed on them.
These firecrackers or bangers are not toys but "potent explosives" , said Mr O Riain.
The British Standard classification specifies what information should be carried on packets of fireworks and on each firework. For bangers it also specifies what type of explosive should be used.
A banger is defined as a tube containing gunpowder. "Two of the bangers examined, however, contained potassium chlorate and potassium perchlorate; these substances are much more explosive than gunpowder," said Mr O Riain.