National Campaign for Firework Safety
Annual Report 2000

The National Campaign for Firework Safety reports in the year 2000 that we are still living under Victorian Firework Legislation, we refer to "The 1875 Explosives Act".  This situation existed in most parts of the United Kingdom, except Northern Ireland, where a ban on all explosives, including fireworks, was introduced in 1970.  This has been lifted for fireworks in recent years, but is already causing trouble.  The fact is both mainstream Political Parties, whilst in Government, have failed to act to protect children from devastating injuries which lead to permanent disabilities.  Every MP for the time we have been around has had a huge mailbag on this subject.  But sadly, very few MPs have taken up the issue.


PARLIAMENT
Only 2 bills have been introduced in the last 25 years.  One raised the age for buying fireworks from 13 to 16 in 1975.  In 1997, when this Government came in, they raised the age further to 18.  They wanted to do more and got wide support from consumer safety organisations, families, and from the Conservative Party.  A party which had blocked legislation for 18 years.  Support also came from the official firework industry.  But the industry are always split on the issue of safety, and some members were briefing against the Bill with Mr Eric Forth MP and Mr Edward Leigh MP and other Tories, despite instructions from Mr William Hague.  The Bill would have defined the sales period for fireworks, a National training Scheme for Firework Display Operatives would have been introduced, and the Health and Safety Executive would have dealt with particularly dangerous fireworks in BS7114 Category 4, which causes fatalities and serious injuries.  Most importantly licensing would have been introduced to cover firework displays and firework display operatives.  It is important that the Fire Service is aware of and gives their approval to these Firework Displays.

Similar legislation has been introduced in many countries of Europe, Canada, the United States where they have a very powerful consumer safety body, Australia and Japan. The Government should have acted to deal with out of date Victorian Firework Legislation through Primary legislation.  It was acknowledged, by both Houses, that something needed to be done.  Tony Blair said it was a pity the Bill had been lost because we needed it.


WHY DO THEY HAVE TO BE LIKE 'BOMBS'
Noise pollution has now become a big issue regarding fireworks.  By mail and telephone we get many calls about the physical and psychological damage to animals especially cats and dogs.  We have made representations on behalf of Animal Sanctuaries with Local Authorities and organisers of Pop Concerts where a particularly noisy firework display was planned.  The Campaign has been the only voice to speak on their behalf.

Animals are not the only ones to be affected by the noise of fireworks.  Many people who went to the quiet of the country at last year's New Years Eve, gave the noise of fireworks as their reason.  Politicians claim they are listening, but their actions are few.


FIREWORK INJURY STATISTICS
Last October/November for the Guy Fawkes period firework injuries treated at hospitals rose by 21% to 1056.  Another 327 injuries took place for the Millennium making a grand total of 1383.  Of the total injured 610 children were hurt by fireworks.  The first time they have gone over the 1000 mark since 1996.  It is widely accepted that these figures are flawed because injuries occurring before, and after, the 'official' sales period are not included.   Hundreds more are treated by GP's, or at home by parents.  Animals in their tens of thousands have been injured and killed during the 30 year lifetime of this Campaign. 

Government Departments are cagey about giving out actual figures on serious injuries, so from the figures that 169 people were kept in hospital, and 342 who had continuous treatment at outpatients, a total of 511.  (The DTI gave us a costing of £6,000 per treatment 3 years ago).  This cost to the NHS is in excess of £3m; costs would be more for prolonged treatments.  With fire damage we estimate the real cost of the Guy Fawkes 3-week season to be about £25m.


NEW YEAR'S EVE
The Millennium Year is nearly over but the firework industry greedy as ever for the last buck, insist they get a second bite of the cherry in December.  The stupid and weak DTI have given them another 4 weeks sales period in December, to add to the 4 week sales period in October/November.  Our Campaign has been calling for fireworks to be moved away from the DTI, which is a business lobby, and not in the interests of consumers and families
with children and Pets.


FIREWORK STORAGE
Every Year hundreds of tonnes of illegal fireworks are impounded by Customs and Excise, but more go to different venues from private homes to garages and warehouses.  At a conference of the firework industry last year, "Black Cat", said they delivered 4 tonnes of fireworks, to a person's home, in Essex. Their representative said that he could have had 20 tonnes if he had so desired.  This left the conference reeling.  This highlighted the anomaly of what an individual can store but only up to 14 days. We made the point with fire officers that a 14 day storage period became an unlimited period,  because no one knew, or approved where these fireworks were stored. 

We took this point up with the Minister for Consumer Affairs, Dr Kim Howells, who admitted that there was an anomaly in the regulations. He passed it to the Health and Safety Executive, who were conducting a Review of the 1875 Explosives Act including Section 23 and 31, which deal with fireworks.  But they are not due to make recommendations for legislation until early in 2001.



ENSCHEDE DISASTER
Last May there was an explosion in a Warehouse holding 100 tonnes of fireworks in Enschede in the Netherlands.  Twenty people were killed and many were injured.  Houses in a wide radius were wrecked.  A majority of the people of the town did not know there was a warehouse storing huge quantities of fireworks at street and town level.  Others, who knew of the danger, had approached the owner and asked him to move his high powered fireworks somewhere else.  His reply was he was legally entitled to do so.


The politicians here said it could not happen here, but there is no register kept by the Local Authorities of the amount of fireworks sold by companies or where they are delivered.  This is a frequent complaint from the Fire Brigade who don't know what potential disasters they could be heading for.


EUROPE
In response to a letter to the President of the European Commission, Mr Romano Prodi.  We had a reply from the Director of Enterprise, Mr Patrick Hennessy.  He said, "As you know the General Product Safety Directive (92/59/EEC) applies to fireworks, as well as to many other products.  This Directive requires manufacturers to ensure that the product they place on the market meet acceptable safety standards.  It also requires the Member State to monitor products and to inform the Member State of any problems of any problem product, which can be withdrawn from the market if necessary.

"In addition CEN, the European Committee for Standardisation, is developing standards on fireworks.  And while there is no specific Community Directive on fireworks, and this work is independent of any mandate given by the Commission, we are supportive of the efforts being made in this directive.

"As regards the Enschede incident the Commission regrets the loss of life involved, and awaits with interest the findings of the Netherlands authorities, which are currently carrying out an investigation.

"As regards the storage of fireworks, I would point out that Council Directive 96/82/EC establishes control on major hazards involving dangerous substances (so called Seveso 11 Directive) Among the changes introduced with the second version of the Directive is that the manufacture and the storage of pyrotechnic substances falls within the directive, when certain threshold limits are exceeded.

"However according to information received from the Netherlands Authorities, the fireworks stored in Enschede were not covered by the Directive because they were below the thresholds.  I understand that in the light of the finding of the investigation, the Commission proposes to review the threshold quantities assigned to pyrotechnics and to propose amendments to this Directive, if appropriate.  The process will be carried out in close co-operation with the Member States, the European Parliament, and other interested parties.

NCFS welcomes this move and we have made our views known to the EC that we need to expedite any legislation in view of the huge dangers that people face from high explosive fireworks coming in from the Far East and regulations should apply to all Member States so that dangerous firework cannot come in the back door from one Member State to others.


CONCLUSION
It is a National Disgrace, that one year on, glaring anomalies such as the storage of fireworks in peoples houses and garages has not been dealt with.  We have managed to raise the age of purchase of fireworks to 18.  But you could drive a coach and horses through the other regulations especially relating to the most dangerous fireworks in category 4.  Any retailer who had previously sold fireworks irresponsibly one year can retail fireworks the next year, against the wishes of police and fire officers, who often have to deal directly with the consequences.

The National Campaign for Firework Safety is not looking for any bans on fireworks.  We were set up 30 years ago because children and people's pets were being injured and killed by fireworks.  We fought then for, training schemes, licensing, and proper controls.  We looked at other legislation in Canada, the US and parts of Europe.  We have even persuaded part of the industry that there is merit in what we seek.  On every opinion poll taken people have asked for stronger and effective legislation on the lines that we have sought.

Firework injuries continue year after year and they are not going to go away until the Government shows leadership.  The Health and Safety Executive have the initiative, at the moment.  What is needed is a common sense solution, untainted by the greed and opportunism of the firework industry.

NOEL TOBIN - DIRECTOR