Firecrackers: dangers, what to do in the event of an accident?

Synonym of party, the July 14th can also turn into a disaster for lack of caution. Every year, many accidents occur, especially in the hands. With sometimes very heavy consequences similar to war wounds. What are the most common? What to do for burns ? Torn limbs? What preventive precautions? Interview with Dr Olivier Menouillard, hand surgeon at the SOS Mains Center of the Pays de Savoie Private Hospital.

Dr Olivier Menouillard : Often these are fairly limited lesions. This ranges from burns of degree 1, 2, 3 or even more and then after we arrive on larger wounds. A firecracker is like a grenade, the explosion produces damage. She will be able to remove a fingertip or completely a finger or part of the hand or completely the hand. The blast can also cause fractures. The lesion may not appear too serious from the outside with the swollen hand for example and on the X-ray it is more serious than expected. Firecrackers can also damage the eyes.

Dr Olivier Menouillard : It is rather young people, teenagers. They put 3-4 firecrackers together, want to light everything at once and hold it in their hands. Sometimes, too, they tinker with explosives found in agriculture, for example, and that can do a lot of damage. We also have the case of the firecracker that does not explode while there is still the end of the fuse inside, when the person catches it to throw it again, it explodes.

Dr Olivier Menouillard : It depends on the intensity of the wound. If it is a hand with an amputated finger or a half-torn off hand, it must put on as clean a cloth as possible right around, wrap and put your hand in the air, above your head. There, in general, the bleeding stops. Then you have to go to the nearest emergency room, which can then refer you to SOS Mains or go there directly if SOS Mains is not very far away. If there is something to recover, we put it in a plastic bag, always as clean as possible, and we place the limb in a cool place but not in direct contact with the ice because the ice will burn. A cold burn alters the tissues and can make reimplantation complicated. In the event of a simple burn, you put it under cold water for a quarter of an hour. It may seem long but when you have a burn, it doesn’t happen immediately, it will continue to destroy tissue for almost a quarter of an hour. We don’t put ice on a burn either, but only cold water until it cools and then we go to the Emergency Department if necessary.

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Dr Olivier Menouillard : Already, we are content with firecrackers authorized in France and we follow the safety instructions written on the packaging. Firecrackers remain explosive devices, we must not forget that. You don’t have to mess around with it.

The regulations distinguish four categories of items classified according to their level of danger and noise pollution: F1, F2, F3 and F4. An age is required for the sale of firecrackers according to these levels:

• F1 category: 12 years old* (possible use in confined spaces, including inside apartment buildings).
• category F2: 18 years old (open air use in confined areas) .
• category F3: 18 years old (use outdoors in large open spaces).
• category F4: 18 years old (reserved for people with special knowledge).

*municipal or prefectural decrees may prohibit the sale of fireworks to unaccompanied minors or limit their sale.

On his sitethe police headquarters recalls that:

• The use of fireworks is prohibited at nightin urbanized areas, from 7:00 p.m. until daybreak.
• The use of fireworks, all categories combined, is prohibited on the public highway or in the direction of the public highway, in all places where people gather and in residential buildings or in the direction of the latter. .
• The acquisition of fireworks designed to be launched from a mortar is allowed only to professionals.