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Parents go above and beyond to keep their children safe, especially from burns or fire hazards. They’ll put locks and guards on ovens, check the temperature of bath water, push hot drinks to the center of the table so they cannot be tipped over and blow on hot food to cool it down. However, even the most protecting of parents might be unwittingly putting kids at risk during the summer holidays, when children often play with sparklers.
Most people think that sparklers are the safest fireworks around. After all, they aren’t propelled into the sky at high speeds. Sparklers do, however, burn at temperatures between 1,100 F and 1,500 F. That’s three to five times hotter than the oven temperature required to cook many meals.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security states that sparklers are third only to bottle rockets and firecrackers as the firework most likely to cause injury to children ages 5 to 14. The American Academy of Pediatrics states that 45 percent of all firework-related injuries occurs to children under age 15, while estimates suggest that 57 percent of the firework-related injuries suffered by children under the age of 5 are caused by sparklers.
Due to safety concerns, Arizona, Delaware, Georgia, New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island banned all fireworks as of 2005. That ban includes sparklers.
If sparklers are legal where you live and you plan to include them in festivities, there are certain precautions to take.
• Always supervise children with sparklers.
• Don’t give sparklers to very young children. Substitute much safer glow sticks instead.
• Have a water bucket handy or a pail of sand where extinguished sparkler sticks can be placed.
• Make sure any sparkler users are aware that wood and metal sparkler sticks can remain hot for some time, even after the burning has ceased.
A New Threat
As if the dangers of individual sparklers were not enough, some people are taking even bigger risks. Spurred on by online videos and step-by-step building instructions, individuals are turning ordinary sparklers into sparkler bombs. These homemade explosives are created by binding 300 sparklers together with electrical tape and using one sparkler as a fuse.
Sparkler bombs are being used to blow up everything from garbage cans to mailboxes.
Sparklers are made from a pyrotechnic material and iron fillings pasted on a stick. When lit individually, the sparkler simply burns for a few seconds and fizzles out. However, when bound together, multiple sparklers produce a lot of heat and energy that has no free place to go. As a result the energy produces an explosion.
Fireworks are relatively inexpensive and, as a result, they’re easily accessible to teenagers. Sparkler bombs can use more than 50 milligrams of flash powder, which is illegal under regulations established by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. The ATF also warns that sparkler bombs can ignite simply through friction or excessive heat.
As of May 2012, there were about 2,630 video search results on YouTube.com for “sparkler bombs.” Some towns across the country have found the problem to be an epidemic. In July 2009, a 15-year-old South Carolina boy lost his right hand and experienced extensive injuries to both his legs when trying to extinguish a sparkler bomb a friend had made. Police on the scene said the sparkler bomb also created a 3-foot by 3-foot by 1-foot crater in the ground.
Manipulating fireworks of any kind is a felony in most areas. Not only does a person risk serious injury, he or she also risks a fine or jail time.
Sparklers may seem to be relatively safe, but as with any incendiary device, they can cause serious injuries.
Courtesy of Metro Editorial
