• 9200: Number of injuries treated in Emergency Rooms in USA in 2006 caused by People using fireworks improperly
  
• 10-14: Age range of children with the highest numbers of fireworks related injuries in 2006
• 90:  Percentage of emergency room fireworks injuries involving fireworks that Federal regulations permit consumers to use--legal fireworks
• 83: Combined percentages of injuries in 2006 that involved hands or fingers (37%), eyes (24%) or other parts of the head or face (22%)
  
• 1200+:  Temperature in degrees Fahrenheit generated by consumer fireworks and sparklers
• 1000: Number of structure fires caused by fireworks in 2005
  

The CPSC is on record as saying that about a third of those injuries are from illegal or home-made fireworks and that those injuries tend to be more severe and require more medical care than those caused by legal fireworks.  (There’s that faulty human behavior!)  And of those injuries caused by legal fireworks, the vast of those injuries majority are not caused by a bad product or product malfunction: misuse by the human was to blame. (Ditto!)

The Alliance to Stop Consumer Fireworks, a 22-member coalition led by the National Fire Protection Association, points out that roughly $20 million in property loss also happens each year from the improper use of consumer fireworks, particularly from bottle rockets and other airborne fireworks.  Those types of fireworks also exact a human toll.  Three-year-old Michael Shannon of Raleigh, North Carolina was killed when he was struck in the head by a legal consumer firework.

I urge you to take steps this 4th of July to protect your family from this danger.  I encourage you to forego consumer fireworks and instead attend a public display in your community.  The professionals will do a better job—the booms will be louder and the flashes brighter!—and your family will be safer.  You might even get to know some new friends!