This Summer we are getting ready to celebrate the 250^th anniversary of our country. With every 4^th of July celebration, we see the sky come to light with brilliant flashes of light —While most of us look up in awe, eye doctors and emergency room staff are bracing for their busiest days of the year.

Every year, thousands of people rush to the emergency room with firework-related injuries. What people don’t often realize is that 16% of those injuries affect the eyes, many of which lead to permanent blindness. Source

If you or a loved one plan to use fireworks, understanding the risks and taking some simple precautions can mean the difference between a lifetime of memories and a lifetime of vision loss.

How do fireworks cause blindness? 

An explosion from fireworks isn’t just noisy, it delivers a devastating mix of forces that our eyes simply aren’t built to withstand. When a firework misfires or explodes near the face, it inflicts a combination of three types of severe trauma:

• Blunt Force Trauma: Just the kinetic force of a flying projectile can cause a globe rupture (literally the bursting of the eyeball!), a detached retina, or orbital fractures (bone breaks around the eye).
• Thermal Burns: Fireworks burn at extremely high temperatures! The intense heat can “cook” the delicate clear surface of your eye (the cornea), or even melt your eyelids, causing irreversible scarring.
• Chemical Exposure: Fireworks are loaded with sulfur, gunpowder, and heavy metals. Those chemicals all help create those beautiful colors, but when they embed themselves into the eye, they can cause severe chemical burns that continue to destroy tissue even after the initial explosion.

Myth v. Reality: What do you really need to know?

Many of us think we are safe because we only use “small” fireworks, or because we’re just standing back and enjoying the show. Data tells a completely different story:

• “Sparklers are safe!” Don’t let a sparkler’s small size trick you. A sparkler burns at over 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s hot enough to melt glass! Data from the American Academy of Ophthalmology says that sparklers aloneaccount for roughly 1,400 eye injuries a year! Handing someone a sparkler (especially a child) is like handing them a live welding torch. Source
• “I’m just a bystander, I won’t get hurt.” You do not have to be the one lighting the fuse to lose your vision. Of all firework-related eye injuries, 65% happen to bystanders! These injuries include people just watching from the driveway or the yard when a bottle rocket strays off course or an aerial shell explodes sideways.
• “If a firework doesn’t go off, it’s a dud.” Never count on a firework being a “dud”, a dud is just a ticking time bomb. Fuses on fireworks that don’t go off can slowly smolder on the inside, and the moment someone walks over to inspect a failed firework is usually the time it finally detonates, leading to explosions in the face.

Safety checklist:

There’s only one item to check off your list to protect your eyes from fireworks, and that’s to leave it to the professionals and attend a public, licensed display. Fireworks are illegal in the city of Bellingham, but if you happen to live somewhere that consumer fireworks are legal and choose to use them, treat them like the explosives that they are.

What to do (and what NOT to do) in an emergency: If someone experiences a firework eye injury, it is a medical emergency. Call 911 or get to an ER immediately, and follow the protocol below while waiting for help: Source

• Do NOT rub the eye. Rubbing can push any shrapnel or sharp debris deeper into the eye and worsen bleeding.
• Do NOT rinse the eye. If the eyeball is ruptured, rinsing can wash out vital internal fluids of the eye.
• Do NOT apply pressure. Do not press the eye or tightly bind it. Instead, tape the bottom of a clean paper cup over the eye to protect it from being touched.
• Do NOT use ointments or medication. Do not use any eye drops or apply any creams or ointments. Do not take blood-thinning pain relievers like aspirin or ibuprofen, which could increase bleeding.

Celebrate safely! Enjoy the lights in the sky and protect the eyes you use to see them! Our office will be closed for observance of the holiday on Friday, July 3^rd.