Summary
A BMJ opinion by four clinicians urges stronger fireworks regulation, public education and systematic injury data collection. It points to injuries including burns, eye damage and amputations, and highlights risks to bystanders.
Four clinicians writing in The BMJ have called for stronger consumer-fireworks regulations, sustained public education and better collection of injury data. Their article, published on 4 November 2026, is an opinion piece rather than a new epidemiological study. It argues that fireworks can cause serious injuries to people lighting them and to bystanders, and that prevention should be a public-health priority.
Injuries can involve eyes, hands and hearing
The authors describe burns and blast injuries as recurring harms. A firework’s detonation can produce pressure strong enough to rupture an eardrum; being close to the blast also raises the risk of traumatic injury to the brain and eyes. Some consequences may not be apparent immediately, the clinicians write, which is especially concerning for young people.
The injury figures they cite span different settings. In a Los Angeles-area trauma centre, the reported incidence of firework injuries rose from 0.19 per 100,000 in 2015 to a peak of 0.66 per 100,000 in 2021, a 142% increase. Most of the injured people in that group were men aged 15–34; burns, eye injuries and finger injuries requiring amputation were common, and 79% of injuries required surgery. The article also reports that almost 4,500 people in England attended emergency departments with firework injuries in 2017, twice the number in 2009–10.
The authors highlight the risk to people who are not handling fireworks. For India, they cite findings that during Diwali nearly 20% of ocular trauma is attributable to fireworks and that 60% of those injured are bystanders. They say firework-related eye injuries can result in complete blindness, with young boys in rural communities disproportionately affected.
The clinicians’ proposed response
The article recommends stronger regulation and sustained public messaging, including encouraging attendance at public displays rather than fireworks use at home. The authors also propose school-based harm-reduction campaigns, warning labels that show injuries, and systematic data collection to measure the scale and effects of injuries. In the United States, they say, publicly available injury data are not being collected systematically across the country.
The authors also point to harms beyond direct injuries: they cite fires and air and noise pollution, and describe risks to workers involved in fireworks production. Their central argument is that the consequences extend across communities, including to children and bystanders, and that prevention requires more than advice aimed only at the person lighting a firework.