LGUs urged to ban firecrackers, fireworks to help prevent COVID-19 spread
MANILA, Philippines — An environmental group called on local government units to prohibit the use of firecrackers and fireworks during New Year festivities to prevent not only environmental pollution but also the transmission of the new coronavirus.
In a statement Tuesday, EcoWaste Coalition urged city and municipal officials to welcome 2021 with pollution-free and physically distanced celebrations by enacting ordinances banning firecrackers, fireworks and other pyrotechnic devices.
The group said that staging fireworks displays or lighting firecrackers would make physical distancing “extremely difficult” to enforce, especially on New Year’s eve.
“The ban on firecrackers and other pyrotechnic devices that provide a few minutes of merriment with toxic consequences for humans, animals and the environment will discourage people from social crowding and avoid COVID-19 from further spreading,” Thony Dizon, EcoWaste Coalition chemical safety campaigner, said.
EcoWaste Coalition also stressed the need to put an end to incidents of people burning their skins, losing their fingers and having parts of their bodies amputated due to firecracker injuries.
“The adoption and implementation of such ordinances, we believe, will prevent a repeat of the bloody and dirty tradition of heralding the New Year with explosive and noxious fumes,” Dizon said.
EcoWaste renewed its push for total ban on firecrackers and other pyrotechnic devices after monitoring the unlawful sale of “piccolo” and “trompito luminoso de fuego.”
It earlier asked the Inter-Agency Task Force on Infectious Diseases to ban the use of firecrackers and fireworks.
Duterte mulls ‘total ban’ on firecrackers
President Rodrigo Duterte said he is considering imposing a total ban on firecrackers next year. Duterte, who enforced the ban in Davao City, said firecrackers pose risk to public safety and health.
“It is really a dangerous thing and for reasons of public safety and health,” Duterte said in a speech Monday evening.
In 2017, he signed an executive order limiting the use of firecrackers only to community fireworks displays authorized by local governments. — Gaea Katreena Cabico
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