Given that they involve explosions, high temperatures, jollity and darkness, fireworks are pretty safe. Last year they caused no fatalities and only 1,136 injuries, mostly minor. Faulty electric blankets, by contrast, claim 20 lives a year. Fireworks used to do a lot more damage. In the 1960s, says John Woodhead, of the British Fireworks Association, they typically caused 1,000 overnight hospital stays around November 5th, and ten times as many serious injuries. Fireworks are safer now, and used more sensibly. New laws both make it harder for hooligans to buy fireworks and penalise their misuse.
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