Every year, Sidharth Puri, MD, a resident physician with the University of Louisville Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, sees people in the hospital around the July 4^th holiday with eye injuries.

“Every year, fireworks-related injuries cause people to go to the operating room due to injury to the globe of the eye or eyeball,” Puri said.

“Fireworks are fun, but parents need to keep kids away from them. For adults, it’s important to wear eye protection and remember to hold fireworks away from your face and body. We really want everyone to always keep fireworks safety in mind.”

In 2016, the reported 11,100 injuries from fireworks were treated in hospital emergency rooms in the United States. While hands and fingers are the most frequently affected parts of the body, about 1,000 of these were eye injuries. Fireworks can cause eye damage through chemical or thermal burns and injuries to the eyeball, resulting in permanent vision loss.

Fireworks safety goes beyond Independence Day. Nearly 32 percent of injuries occur outside of the month surrounding the holiday.

“Even other times of year, remember to store fireworks out of reach or where kids cannot find them,” Puri said.

For safety, follow these rules:

• Do NOT let young children play with fireworks of any type, even sparklers.
• Always wear protective eyewear when handling fireworks and ensure that all bystanders are also wearing eye protection.
• Leave the lighting of professional-grade fireworks to trained pyrotechnicians.

“If something does happen, don’t be a hero,” Puri said. “Don’t just wash the eye and take aspirin. It is best to seek care immediately. These injuries are urgent and time is vision.”

In case of an eye injury from fireworks:

• Seek medical attention immediately
• Do not rub your eyes
• Do not rinse your eyes
• Do not apply pressure
• Do not remove any objects that are stuck in the eye
• Do not apply ointments or take any blood-thinning pain medications such as aspirin or ibuprofen

Download, print and share the safety guide .

Sidharth Puri, MD, a resident physician with UofL’s Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, was alarmed by the number of fireworks-related injuries he witnessed during his first weekend in the emergency room. He hopes to prevent injuries this year by making Louisville residents aware of the dangers posed by fireworks.

“These are not benign, safe, colorful toys. They are miniaturized explosions and they have to be treated with care. These injuries are preventable,” Puri said. “If we can reach one child or one family member and prevent a firework from going off too near their face and blinding them, that is our goal – to save at least one person’s vision.”

Puri offers the following safety tips:

• Do NOT let young children play with fireworks of any type, even sparklers.
• Always wear protective eyewear when handling fireworks and ensure that all bystanders are also wearing eye protection.
• Leave the lighting of professional-grade fireworks to trained pyrotechnicians.

If an eye injury from fireworks occurs:

• Seek medical attention immediately
• Do not rub your eyes
• Do not rinse your eyes
• Do not apply pressure
• Do not remove any objects that are stuck in the eye
• Do not apply ointments or take any blood-thinning pain medications such as aspirin or ibuprofen

Download a printable PDF file of the eye safety guide .

An abstract of the study, “Effect of Fireworks Laws on Pediatric Fireworks Related Burn Injuries,” will be presented at the PAS meeting in Baltimore on May 3. Researchers looked at federal and state data from the National Inpatient Sample, with data on 8 million hospital stays each year, and the Nationwide Emergency Department Sample, which annually compiles information on 30 million discharges from emergency medicine facilities.

They determined the number of patients under age 21 treated and released by emergency departments between 2006 and 2012 rose modestly. Significantly larger increases were seen in injuries requiring inpatient hospital admission, which skyrocketed from 29 percent of cases in 2006 to 50 percent in 2012.

“The increase in fireworks-related injuries and the severity of these injuries in children since 2006 are very concerning,” said Charles Woods Jr., MD, one of the study’s authors and associate chair of pediatrics at the University of Louisville. “Although our findings do not prove a direct link to relaxations in state laws governing fireworks sales, it may be time for lawmakers to reassess this issue. Parents and caregivers of children also should be aware of these increasingly serious injuries and the potential dangers involved in allowing young children to handle and play with fireworks.”

Lead author John Myers, PhD, a researcher in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Louisville, will present the abstract, “Effect of Fireworks Laws on Pediatric Fireworks Related Burn Injuries,” at 7:30 a.m. on Tuesday, May 3 in Exhibit Hall F at the Baltimore Convention Center. The .

“Pediatric fireworks-related burn injuries have increased in incidence, apparent severity of injury, the proportion requiring hospitalization and length-of-stay in the hospital in a time period of relaxed fireworks laws in the United States,” Myers said. “These findings suggest that policy-makers should revisit current fireworks laws for the safety of children.”