What's Going Around: Fireworks safety - 13abc.com Toledo (OH) News, Weather and Sports

As you plan your family's Fourth of July activities we have an important safety reminder. In this week's "What's Going Around?" segment we look at what emergency rooms expect will likely be going around in the next few days: injuries. 

Safety experts say the way to celebrate Independence Day is to watch a professional fireworks display, not put on your own show in the back yard. 

"About 3,000 children visit the ER each year because of firework injuries," says Erin Whitton of Safe Kids Greater Toledo at ProMedica Toledo Children's Hospital. "We don't want to ruin your celebration on the Fourth of July and spend the night in the emergency room." 

It's Erin's mission as Injury Prevention and Community Outreach Manager to keep kids safe on the Fourth of July and all year round. She says about a third of those 3,000 injuries come from something many people think are safe enough for kids: sparklers, which she says heat up to about 12-hundred degrees.

"Kids are picking them up at the wrong ends, they're just burning, they're touching they're playing, they're running with them. Those burns can be very dangerous and very painful to a child."

"The other thing we wanna keep in mind is bottle rockets," says Erin. "They're fun to shoot off but, that's a projectile and so many eye injuries you know, to not only children, but also to adults."

Safe Kids says if friends or family refuse to stop using fireworks keep these safety tips in mind: 

-Make sure they're legal.

-Never light fireworks inside or near dry grass.

-Always have a bucket of water and a fire extinguisher nearby.

-Don't wear loose clothing.

-Stand several feet away from lit fireworks.

-If a device doesn't go off, don't stand over it. Put it out with water and throw it out.

-Closely supervise children around fireworks.

-Don't give children fireworks of any kind. 

Erin Whitton says another very real danger on the Fourth of July is the combination of alcohol and fireworks. Your judgement can get clouded and you or someone else could be seriously hurt. 

"Also driving. Make that designated driver when you take the kids down to the fireworks, for your safety and for theirs, and the other people on the road," she says.