With both children and adults suffering horrendous injuries from fireworks and other fun explosive devices, an activist is calling on authorities to ban its use by ordinary citizens during the Christmas season.
Josephine Ache, who started a petition to lobby Government to implement legislation on the use of fireworks earlier this year, said the use fireworks was not the problem, but its use in the public domain.
She said they should only be used in organised events, and handled by professionals.
For Christmas and New Year celebrations, there is expected to be greater use of fireworks, which increases the possibility of more injuries.
Ache said explosions had devastating psychological effects on children, the elderly, people who suffered with anxiety and heart ailments, as well as pets.
The petition shared on the Facebook group page, titled Regulating the use of fireworks in T&T, has resurfaced and has passed 2,800 signatures with the hope of reaching the desk of Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi.
Ache said while all celebrations in T&T involved noise from blaring music to fireworks, there was a non-stop barrage of unnecessary noise by the explosion of scratch bombs, rocket launchers, screamers and firecrackers.
While admitting to the visual splendour of fireworks, she said families could view the amazing displays for a limited period of time in safe venues.
However, the norm is that fireworks are set off for hours during the holiday season and sometimes weeks before an actual event.
“Divali and New Year’s Eve are probably the worst nights to be a child, an elderly person, a sick or dying citizen or a four-legged pet in sweet T&T.
But there are other times as well when not even ear-plugs do the job.
“The indiscriminate use of fireworks is hurting people and it seems as if our government, both present and past, are waiting for someone to be killed before passing legislation and enforcing it,” Ache said.
Last November, Talparo grandmother Sally-Ann Cuffie, a diabetic patient, suffered severe damage to her hands while saving her six-month-old granddaughter Christa.
Cuffie and the Christa were in the backseat of a car when someone threw a scratch bomb which landed near the child.
She quickly grabbed it in an attempt to throw it out, but it exploded in her hands.
Recently Public Administration Minister Maxie Cuffie launched a national campaign to stop the sale and use of scratch bombs and illegal fireworks in &T with an appeal to citizens to develop a culture of care for their neighbours and elderly.
To access the online petition visit—http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/242/291/009/