Horrifying. All, if you know young ppl who will use fireworks these next few weeks, please do what you can to either discourage them entirely or make sure they use them safely. Hundreds of young ppl will be in the ER with firework injuries this month. Many of these injuries will be life altering.
My dad never let us shoot fireworks because he knew a kid who got a bottle rocket to the face, and while I resented it at the time, I'm now very glad he made that rule and that mom wouldn't let us ride in anyone's pickup bed because she'd seen a horrible accident involving a pickup bed full of kids.
every time i rode in a pickup bed as a kid i was convinced they were gonna hit a speedbump and just launch everyone out onto the road
it only almost happened once
Firework warning labels are something to behold. Do not light indoors or in a confined space. Do not light while holding. Do not aim at another person. Do not aim at any structures. Etc. Every warning is a story but unfortunately the people who need to hear them aren't reading warning labels
Here's some new ones too: "Cannot use fireworks on or near state forest land, wildlands. Cannot shoot fireworks from a motor vehicle or throw into a vehicle. Cannot be discharged within 150 feet of a fireworks retail sales location"
I worked at CPSC in law school for a year (part of why I always enjoyed your creative messaging so much) and you really do come away with an appreciation for the dangers of fireworks!
That's awesome. Hope it was a positive experience! Yeah, I feel like it only took me a few months of working at the agency to never see products the same way again, haha.
Oh yeah it was a great job! And they were really great about giving students tours of testing facilities, etc, so I got a broad look at the work. My boss was Mary Boyle and I was really glad to see Biden appoint her as a commissioner.
One of the parents at church when I was little (who named his daughter after my mom) only had three partially functional fingers on one hand, because he messed around with a firecracker in the library when he was a kid and it went badly. All the warning I ever needed.
I think he included that detail because he wanted to emphasize exactly how stupid he was being. He wasn't supposed to have the firecracker at all, IIRC, so messing with it in the open was out. He also didn't intend for it to explode right then.
The net lesson was that the things are volatile and unpredictable in addition to being dangerous - like how Captain America says that there shouldn't be ammunition storage that close to the barracks. Nobody actually intends to set off an explosion in the middle of camp, but accidents happen.
