Health secretary Francisco Duque lll during the press briefing on the issue of Fireworks-Related injury on Wednesday, January 1, 2020 at East Avenue Medical Center. Noy Morcoso/INQUIRER.net
MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health (DOH) wants a total ban on fireworks to have zero injuries in the future.
Health Secretary Francisco Duque stressed that all firecrackers and fireworks, including legal ones, can cause injuries.
“‘Legal o ilegal man, sa paputok, may disgrasya, ito and ebidensya.’ That is a tagline that we thought of introducing today and in mind that we will achieve zero casualty. But what is the instrument of achieving that? It’s banning it just like all other countries have banned the use of fireworks,” Duque said Wednesday in a press conference.
Duque also noted that more injuries were caused by legal fireworks than prohibited ones.
“Because if you look at the data, the statistics, it will show that you more legal fireworks causing injuries rather than the illegal,” he said.
DOH’s data showed kwitis (33 cases), luces (19), fountain (18), piccolo (13) and baby rocket (9) are the top five causes of injuries.
Only piccolo is prohibited in the mentioned firecrackers.
“It’s oxymoronic that it is legal but it is injurious. Those two things are not in congruence. They are conflicting,” Duque said.
“In fact, it can contribute to higher injuries of the understanding of the common person, of our people, ‘O legal pala yan e… di naman tayo huhulihin,'” he added.
The DOH recorded 164 fireworks-related injuries from December 21, 2019 to January 1, 2020, or 35 percent lower from the same period last year.