Stay safe this Fourth of July
Minnesota eye organizations encourage caution around fireworks

ST. PAUL, Minn. - For the first time in 61 years, Minnesotans will be able to legally buy and light certain fireworks this Fourth of July. Two eye organizations, the Sight & Hearing Association and Phillips Eye Institute, want to remind revelers that explosive, aerial consumer fireworks are still illegal and dangerous.

Of the approximately 8,000 fireworks-related injuries each year in the United States, approximately 2,000 are eye injuries caused by consumer fireworks. One-third of those eye injuries result in permanent blindness.

Permanent blindness is something Jody Eder-Zdechlik of Lakeland, Minn. knows all about. Thirty-six years ago, at the age of 2, she was blinded in her right eye when a bottle rocket struck her. "I was in the wrong place at the wrong time," she said. "Just an innocent bystander, but in the direct path of the bottle rocket."

Like Eder-Zdechlik, not all victims happen to be the person setting them off. In fact, 40 percent of fireworks injuries are to innocent bystanders. Bottle rockets, which can move as fast as 200 mph, account for nearly 75 percent of injuries.

"One of the reasons fireworks injuries continue to occur is because people don't know how dangerous these devices can be," said Robert Mittra, M.D., an ophthalmologist and medical director of the Minnesota Eye Injury Registry of the Sight & Hearing Association. "I've seen several people injured from fireworks over the years. The risk of losing an eye is not worth the excitement of watching fireworks explode."

The two organizations say the safest way to view fireworks is through professionally conducted, community-sponsored fireworks displays.

A fireworks safety quiz card, sponsored by Sight & Hearing Association and Phillips Eye Institute, is available by calling Medformation, (24-hours-a-day), at 651-697-3333 or 800-877-7878.

A bill signed into law this year makes it legal for Minnesotans to buy and use nonexplosive, nonaerial fireworks, such as sparklers, glow worms, party-poppers, snappers and fountains.

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The Minnesota-based Sight & Hearing Association (SHA), founded in 1939, is dedicated to preventing the needless loss of vision and hearing in all Minnesotans through education, screening and research. SHA coordinates the Minnesota Eye Injury Registry, a statistical database of eye injuries that is part of the United States Eye Injury Registry.

The Phillips Eye Institute is a specialty hospital of Allina Hospitals and Clinics dedicated to the diagnosis and treatment of eye diseases and disorders. Medformation is Allina's health information and referral line.