The president of the Federal Medical Association, Klaus Reinhardt, called on policymakers to ban the “unregulated fireworks.” “The unregulated popping of fireworks repeatedly leads to serious injuries even among bystanders, it frightens many people, is bad for the climate and generates enormous amounts of waste,” he told Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland (RND). The injuries resulting from the fireworks lead to “crowded emergency departments in hospitals and cost the statutory health insurance millions.” Interior ministers of the federal government and the states must protect the population, Reinhardt added.
The German Environmental Aid (DUH) endorsed the president’s demand and explicitly addressed Federal Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt (CSU): Above all, Dobrindt bears “the responsibility for the serious injuries, the attacks on emergency personnel, the millions of animals suffering, and the extreme spikes in fine particulate matter” caused by fireworks on New Year’s Eve, said DUH managing director Jürgen Resch.
The DUH warned “of an unprecedented escalation on New Year’s Eve night.” It referred to figures from the Federal Statistical Office, according to which in the first nine months of the year 42,400 tons of fireworks had already been imported into Germany, more than 60 percent higher than in the previous year’s period.
Fireworks Association Calls for Focus on Alcohol
The president of the Federal Association for Pyrotechnics and Artistic Fireworks rejected the calls for banning private fireworks. Serious accidents with pyrotechnics occur “practically exclusively through illegal fireworks,” said federal managing director Christoph Kröpl in response to AFP. It is not possible to destroy a hand or even sever a limb with a legal New Year’s Eve firecracker.
Emergency rooms are not full on New Year’s Eve because of fireworks, Kröpl continued, but rather, at the turn of the year, especially due to nationwide high alcohol consumption.
While interior ministers of the federal states did not reach a common position on a fireworks ban, many cities have prohibited private fireworks in parts of the municipality. Lüneburg, Göttingen and Braunschweig, for example, have established firework ban zones in the city center. (with AFP, DPA)
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