Just another statistic for this outdated "custom" Its time for organised firework displays ..And stop selling these dangerous fireworks to the public.

so come on who is going to argue againd banning all fire works with immediate effct now?
well i suppose the cash hungry mob will be at a loss

YOU REALLY THINK FIREWORKS ARE FUN?
Today we know that the major problem of fireworks are not the burns, explosion injuries to the eyesight and hearing etc.: Fireworks are mainly a fine dust problem! Therefore, not only a minority of the population is affected, but each and every one of us.

Health problems because of short-term high levels of fine dust are still highly underestimated, but a rise of the PM10-concentration (fine dust) in the air by 10 µg/m3 “only” (ten micro gram per cubic meter of air) can cause symptoms in the respiratory tracts, bronchitis, asthma, arrhythmia, emergency visits to doctors and emergency rooms at hospitals, hospitalisation because of pneumonia, asthma attacks, cardiac disorder and other respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, job absences with economic implications and in the worst case, fatalities as a result of these diseases.

E.g. A new study from France “Analysis of short term links between urban air pollution and mortality in nine French cities” (Programme de surveillance air et santé. Analyse des liens à court terme entre pollution atmosphérique urbaine et mortalité dans neuf villes françaises), 2008, by Blanchard M et al. confirms the existence of significant relationships between the levels of air pollution observed in nine French cities and mortality, especially for cardiovascular causes. (You find the study for free download under http://www.journaldelenvironnement.net/fr/login.asp?page=%2Ffr%2Fdocument%2Fdetail%2Easp%3Fid%3D20258%26idThema%3D3%26idSousThema%3D15%26type%3DJDE%26ctx%3D259.)

Fine dust finds its way through each and every crack of our buildings. As long as our houses cannot be 100% sealed, it is not sufficient for those concerned just to stay indoors as a protection shield against this hazard.

When igniting fireworks, a mixture of chemical substances are released, very similar to that of an explosion.

During the burn-off process, the different materials blend and cause chemical reactions; a multitude of new substances of unknown composition and toxicity accrues. – There are enough new scientific studies about this part of the fireworks-problem; e.g. “Ambient air quality of Lucknow City (India) during use of fireworks on Diwali festival”, 2008, by Barman SC et al.; “Emissions and accumulation of metals in the atmosphere due to crackers and sparkles during Diwali festival in India”, 2004, by Kulshrestha UC et al.; “Recreational atmospheric pollution episodes: Inhalable metalliferous particles from firework displays”, 2007, by Moreno T et al.; “Short-term variation in air quality associated with fireworks events: a case study”, 2003, by Ravindra K et al.; “The impact of fireworks on airborne particles”, 2008, by Vecchi R et al. and so on. (You find a lot more article under the scientific/medical articles under http://www.stop-fireworks.org/articles.htm)

Whether fireworks are burned down "correctly" or "incorrectly", by amateurs in their own garden or by skilled and specially trained professionals on public events makes no difference: in the end, the emissions remain the same.

The lights and colours, the sounds and sights of exploding fireworks whilst beautiful fade away in seconds. The pollution of the air remains for a lot longer, and the deposit of heavy metals in soil and waters remains for decades. It can take several weeks for people that are sensitive to fine dust, for example asthmatics, to recover!

Environmental protection and international campaigns to reduce fine dust become a farce and untrustworthy when not including the banning of fireworks.

Fireworks are nothing but a “chemical fallout” and have to be banned.

Ban all fireworks by making them illegal. I cannot see the logic in celebrating the fact that some headcase attempted to blow up the Houses of Parliment.

There are several petitions on line to get these things banned. Go to e-petitions.

There are several petitions on line to get these things banned. Go to e-petitions.

Until these fireworks are banned accidents like this will happen. There should only be organised public events that are properly controlled. What can we expect if people are allowed to buy explosives?

Treat them as lethal weapons and ban them completly.But there again there are too many do gooders.

Why is it that every year, youngsters have to go through life with horrific injuries caused by fireworks? Ban them, ban them all. No matter how much education is pumped into peoples heads, incidents like this will repeat every year until they are totally banned.

This was a Cat4 professional aerial display shell which should NEVER have got into public hands;someone is getting hold of them illegally and flogging them to members of the public,a domestic garden or display firework under BS7114 would have burned him but the injuries not have been quite as serious as this. We need to clampdown on the illegal markets in unknown origin import fireworks and tighten up on the supply of Cat4 professional display fireworks rather than ban legal BS7114 garden and display fireworks to the public and penalise the sensible majority who use and set off fireworks responsibly safely and properly with a kneejerk killjoy sales/use ban on Cat1 indoor/Cat2 garden/Cat3 display consumer fireworks because of this unfortunate incident.

Yeah ace and if we ban fireworks just think of the consequences of the illegal blackmarkets in dangerous substandard lethally dangerous fireworks that would take over from legal shopsales of safer BS7114 manufacturer regulated items, and the risk that idiots could attempt to make their own fireworks risking injury and death from explosion or malfunction.

Why not just give children hand grenades - same result.

Treat them as lethal weapons and ban them completly.But there again there are too many do gooders.
midway, West Germany


I thought it was the do gooders who wanted rid of them?

Careless Whisper,
'I cannot see the logic in celebrating the fact that some headcase attempted to blow up the Houses of Parliment'

Was he really a headcase?
Or, was he just somebody who did'nt like what the government had done to the country - just like today.

You can't buy these onion bomb aerial shell fireworks generally;they're classed as Cat4 professional display fireworks which shouldn't be getting into the hands of the public-somebody is illegally importing/acquiring them and flogging them onto members of the public for cheap prices, this will only just increase if a sales ban/private use ban on legal shop sales of UK importer regulated safer imports of BS7114 fireworks is implemented causing more fatalities and injuries-if this happened THEN how would you regulate and stop it? Give me some answers if you can.

This happened not far from me. The kids around here have been setting off occasional fireworks for weeks, throwing them about and generally being a pain in the neck. I'll grant you, it's been quieter than last year, but this goes to show that it's still a major problem. Why the police can't stop these kids I just don't know, but I suspect that they don't care - they have more exciting crimes to investigate, after all.

I fully support a ban, with fireworks only made available to properly licenced professionals for specified licenced displays. Anything less wouldn't be effective.

When will this weak willed government start doing something about things that matter. Organised displays only ban the sale to public completely. Another child scarred for life but to the Government just a statistic. Brown start doing something that matters.

Organised displays are boring-the ticketprices are expensive/the food and drink and fairground rides are often overpriced/you only get 10mins of fireworks(or 15 if you're really lucky)/you get snootily controlled by overzealous crowd control stewards and there's bad overcrowding. A private properly organised display with a good choice of fireworks and sensible adults NOT kids controlling the show is more better;you can throw out who you like/you can invite whoever you like/you DON'T get scroats attending and you can organise food and drink at a much cheaper price than the overpriced food/drink at displays-as long as fireworks are allowed to be sold I WILL CONTINUE THIS WAY AND GIVE ORGANISED DISPLAYS THE THUMBS DOWN AND COLD SHOULDER!!!

Anthony , Accrington,Lancashire
People like you come up with all sorts of Excuses each year why this outdated event should continue to damage and hurt people .Will these terrorists of the terrible twin towers be revelled in future by people celebrating the killing of people in america? Surely celebrating guy fawkes trying to blow up the house of commons should be seen as just that "A terrorist trying to kill people " Innocent as well as the guilty..not a very good story or custom is it?

I for one would love to have these things banned. Even in the hands of parents they are dangerous, I have seen so many near misses and would not ever buy them. I am even wary of sparklers in the hands of a child that is too young to treat them with respect - but still you see parents thrust them into the hands of little kiddies who know no better.

i think we celebrate him being stopped from blowing up parliament, rather than the attempt?

would banning fireworks help? after all guns are banned, but it dosn't seem to stop people getting hold of them easy enough

Someone placed a lit firework through my letterbox at 3 in the morning and the damage this caused was to walls and and burned carpet.
The police crimed it as arson with intent to endanger life, for which you can get life in prison.
There were fingerprints recovered and not matched to anyone on the police fingerprint database.

One day someone is going to get a shock.

Bonfire celebrations should be banned on account of their origins being offensive to Roman Catholics. If Guy Fawkes had been a muslim do you think we'd still be Remembering the 5th?

Why are explosives still available over the counter? Poor lad

Ban ban ban,that's all the killjoys think about;punish the sensible majority and stop them enjoying retail BS7114 fireworks sensibly safely and properly because of the idiotic minority who misuse fireworks,that isn't fair! Well when people get injured by substandard lethally dangerous fireworks sold to them by blackmarketeers,whitevan men and criminal gangs and idiots attempt to make their own fireworks in the face of a ban in defiance and get hurt by them or killed by them because a sales ban on legal BS7114 retail fireworks has caused this dangerous shift would you still insist that a ban CAN work? I bet you would!