DOH will not revert back to ‘scare tactics’ to lessen firework-related injuries

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health (DOH) will not revert back to “scare tactics” in their efforts to reduce the number of injuries during New Year revelries but will expand its new campaign and instead propose a ban on the individual use of fireworks in order to significantly reduce injuries and deaths, something the department was not able to achieve this year.

Speaking to reporters at a press conference Friday, Health Secretary Enrique Ona admitted that he had hoped for lower number of injuries this year but added that this prompted them to think of sitting down with stakeholders on the fireworks industry and the feasibility of imposing a ban on the individual use of fireworks.

He made the statement after revealing that data the department culled from its 50 sentinel hospitals nationwide showed that there were 1021 cases of injuries monitored during the New Year, lower but just by a lone case from last year’s 1022.

Illegal fireworks caused 446 of the injuries or 45.2 percent with piccolo in the lead injuring 244 persons.

The effect of the DOH’s Aksyon: Paputok Injury Reduction (APIR) may not be deemed significant but Ona said that it was “satisfactory” given that the country’s population increased by 1.7 million. “Statistically speaking, bumaba rin… it was somewhat successful,” he defended, saying that looking at the overall picture showed that there was “some success with the APIR program.”

Such results were useful to the health department in studying what could be done to significantly lower the number of New Year’s revelry victims.

According to the report presented by the DOH to the press, 987 of the injuries were firework-related (two percent higher than last year’s 972), 29 were due to stray bullets (lower by 26 percent to 2010’s 39), while five were due to firecracker ingestion (55 percent lower from 2010’s 11 cases). They also documented four deaths, one of them was due to a stray bullet.

It further stated that National Capital Region still shared the bulk of the injuries claiming 612 cases or 60 percent with majority of the victims (23 percent) children aged 10 years old and below although the number of minors who were hurt was down 28 percent from last year.

Many of those injured were also active users (520 cases, 53 percent) but passive victims or those who were not lighting fireworks but were hit just the same (47 percent), jokingly called “usisero” by the health secretary, were also documented by the DOH.

More than half of the injuries (55 percent) were caused by “accepted or legal fireworks” such as kwitis, luces, fountain, and 5star, another reason to the DOH’s mulling of the ban on individual use of fireworks, said Ona. “It is important that we analyze these figures, review them with partner agencies and the public,” he said.

Disparities in terms of quality of legal fireworks was one of Ona’s guesses when asked for possible reasons why supposedly acceptable and safe legal fireworks proved even more dangerous this year. He said that part of their proposal would be to impose control on the businesses producing fireworks.

But Ona reiterated that the data they could compare to the past New Year revelries were only from 50 sentinel hospitals selected because they admitted the most patients during the holiday. But starting this New Year, he said that they have expanded their monitoring to 114 hospitals which were not part of their usual 50 in the previous years. These non-sentinel hospitals, a mix of public and private, indicated that there were 569 more injuries out there, 23 of the said cases were due to stray bullets, two due to ingestion while 544 were firework-related.

These data cannot be compared with the past years’ documentation but was a sign of the health department’s move to improve its capability in collecting data for their documentation.

The ban on individual use of fireworks was “most sensible,” according to Ona, but it would “not be a total ban” he clarified. He explained that they only sought to prevent families and individuals from falling prey to injuries when they handle firecrackers. He said that if approved, only local government units and other private organizations will be allowed to purchase fireworks.

He said that they would also push for the public viewing of fireworks displays led by LGUs and other organizations. Through such a proposal, the DOH can ensure that only adults and experts will handle fireworks.

It would not be easy to impose the ban since the use of fireworks has been ingrained in Filipino tradition when it comes to welcoming the New Year but Ona said that they would try in order to achieve significant results in their campaigns against fireworks. Another issue he brought up was that though Filipinos have long used fireworks during the New Year, the new kinds of firecrackers being concocted these days were bigger and bolder.

“Nung araw kasi maliliit lang e. Ngayon para nang bomba (Back in the day, there were only small fireworks. Nowadays, they are like bombs), those things need to be controlled no question about it.”

He said that they would also limit the volume of fireworks which groups and communities may use for celebrations, owing to this year’s pollution which lasted two days, wrought by so much use of pyrotechnics. The smog was not only and issue with flights which had to be diverted due to poor visibility at airports but also viewed as detrimental to individuals who are in risk of suffering respiratory problems.

By the first week of February, the DOH will hold a stakeholders’ summit “to analyze in more detail” the said proposal, said the health secretary. He said that they sought to “get a feel of how the public looks at the continuing number of injuries every time we celebrate the New Year” and to study the fireworks industry.

He said that such a dialogue would be important in answering their many questions on how their proposed ban will affect businesses and provinces dependent on the fireworks industry as well as how enforcement would be rolled out if and when the ban has been approved.

If a ban was not feasible, then they would lobby for stricter quality control, said Ona.

But if the community cooperates with their proposal of identifying common areas for viewing fireworks, (combined) with concerts and partying, Ona asked “di kaya mas Masaya (ang New Year)?”

Meanwhile, Assistant Secretary of Health Eric Tayag urged those injured during the New Year celebrations to avail of the free tetanus shots at government hospitals. He said that there have been no cases of tetanus from hospitals so far.

To persistent questions on whether APIR would be replaced with the usual scare tactic campaign, he quipped “we are satisfied (with the results). Ba’t pa babalik e pwede naman palang hindi na, di ba?”