Doctors who have had to treat children and adults injured by fireworks at Hallowe'en have said public awareness campaigns highlighting fireworks dangers have failed.
Plastic surgeons based at St James's Hospital and Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children, Dublin, say an awareness campaign aimed at children in the classroom would "surely have more influence than a feature on the evening news" in any attempt to curb injuries.
The surgeons, who include Ms Patricia Eadie and Ms Margaret O'Donnell, have complained that the traders who sell fireworks are "seldom" charged. They have called for the law to be enforced to make illegal traders responsible for the harm they do.
They have highlighted their concerns after looking at the numbers of patients who presented with fireworks injuries at both hospitals over a three week period in the run up to Hallowe'en 2001.
A total of 19 patients, 10 of whom were children, presented over the three-week period and of the 13 who had to be admitted, seven were children. Injuries sustained included burns to the hands and other parts of the body.
Those injured ranged in age from five to 46 years and none was willing to identify where they got their fireworks. Most of the fireworks originated in the North, where they are not illegal.
Their study is published in the latest edition of the Irish Medical Journal and its authors point out that, despite the fact that fireworks are illegal in the Republic, many fireworks are readily available on the black market.
"This small review highlights an ongoing problem in Ireland: fireworks are illegal, yet they are easily and cheaply available without quality or safety controls. Our public awareness campaign has failed to reach its target audience, and the illegal traders who sell these often inferior products are seldom charged. Children and adults will continue to sustain serious injuries as a result," they state.
The publication of the study in the run up to Hallowe'en will again draw attention to the dangers posed by fireworks. Three of the children and two of the adults in this study required surgery. One of the adults in the study lost a finger tip.
"One of our patients, a 19-year-old man, was drunk and asleep at a bonfire when his companions placed a firecracker down the front of his trousers, causing him to sustain 3 per cent full thickness burns to his penis, perineum, abdomen and hands," the study said.
A spokeswoman at the Garda press office said there had been several consignments of fireworks seized over the years.
Furthermore, she said, street traders who sold fireworks were often prosecuted for trading without a licence.