Safe at Home Basic Principles of Healthful Hous- ing National Health and the Medical Profession - 45 131 U. S. PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE I am a man, hence nothing human is foreign to me.--Terence When, in July 1937, "the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air" had faded amid the cheers of millions, 310 persons had suffered injuries to their eyes, including 16 who had lost an eye as the result of Independence Day celebrations. Today, nearly 500 American children are in schools for the blind, sightless because of accidents. An extraordinary proportion of these accidents were the result of our American "independence" which permits the indiscriminate use of explosive fireworks. This needless blinding is not the only result of our heedless use of fireworks. The American Medical Association reports 20 deaths and a total of 7,205 injuries caused by setting off crackers, torpedoes, sparklers, rockets, roman candles, display fireworks, cannon and firearms in 1937. This, it is believed, is only a partial list of "Fourth of July" casualties, since only 2,463 out of 4,292 hospitals reported. Many more injuries were probably treated in physicians' offices and temporary first aid stations. From 1903 to 1916, the American Medical Association published annual summaries of injuries resulting from the celebration of the "Fourth." Primary objective of this activity was then to prevent tetanus, although the total problem of injury and death was not neglected. When 1916 proved to be the first year without a reported case of tetanus, the summaries were discontinued. True, the intervening years have seen an increase in the number of State and city laws prohibiting the sale of fireworks and a decrease in the number of spectacular Fourth of July catastrophes. But the widespread use of the automobile has increased the opportunities for ignorance and foolhardiness to expose children and others to the dangers of explosives. This is why the American Medical Association resumed the publication of the annual summary of Fourth of July injuries in November 1937.* The Association, together with the National Society for the Prevention of Blindness and other agencies, has consistently worked for the First Annual Summary of Fourth of July Injuries, Second Series, The Journal of the American Medical Association, 100: 1806-1808 (November 27, 1937). |