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BY GLENDA SOLOGASTOA
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Thursday, December 29, 2016
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ILOILO City – The Department of Health (DOH) Region 6 has recorded 19 firecracker-related injuries as of Tuesday.
Five of the cases were from Capiz, three from Iloilo, two from this city, and nine from Negros Occidental, said Dr. May Ann Sta. Lucia, regional coordinator for violence and injury prevention program.
Among the injured, the youngest was 6 years old while the oldest was 22 years old; only one was female; and 17 had “active involvement” in lighting firecrackers, according to the DOH official.
Seventeen were outpatients, while two were confined in hospitals, she said.
Nine of the cases were eye injuries, the rest were blast burns.
They were caused by boga, piccolo, legal Roman candle, kwitis, and one unknown firecracker, said the DOH.
The Health department hopes to significantly reduce the number of injuries due to firecrackers this year.
It encourages the staging of “community fireworks displays,” which it believes are safer than the setting of firecrackers by individuals.
Sta. Lucia said they are also banking on the Department of Labor and Employment’s work stoppage order against establishments manufacturing or selling firecrackers and pyrotechnic devices.
The work stoppage order may be lifted once the makers and vendors comply with labor and occupational safety and health standards.
DOH Region 6 data showed there were 164 firecracker-related injuries from Dec. 21, 2015 to Jan. 2, 2016 (34-percent lower than the 249 cases in 2014).
Sta. Lucia said their sentinel sites, or where they get data on injuries and deaths, remain at the Western Visayas Medical Center in Mandurriao district and the Corazon Locsin Memorial Regional Hospital in Bacolod City./PN
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