PAGADIAN
CITY: The Department of Health is putting its warning to reduce
firecracker-related injuries this Christmas and New Year celebrations.
DOH-CHD-9
information officer Tess Dela Cruz said the health agency campaign for now is “Aksyon
Paputok Injury Reduction” or APIR.
Dela
Cruz wants the media to sound the same in disseminating timely their campaign to
the public to fully stop the use of firecrackers traditionally among Filipinos.
For
the surveillance period from Dec. 21, 2013 to Jan. 5, 2014, DOH recorded a
total of 1,018 firecracker injuries. Nine came from this region.
The
2013 figures is an increase of 931 compared to the previous year, added Dela
Cruz.
This
year’s APIR campaign is a positive approach in educating people to reduce incidence
of firecracker injuries, she said.
A
DOH release last November 24 forwarded to The Philippine Preview officially
launched APIR’s firework-injury reduction campaign.
APIR’s
focus is the complete set of fingers, reminding everybody to prevent injury and
suggest one to be safe while celebrating the holidays, DOH said.
The
five reminders are: to know that fireworks cause injuries and endanger health,
avoid the use of any fireworks, keep away from exploding fireworks, never pick
used fireworks and seek immediate medical treatment for all firework injuries.
DOH
reminded the public that most cases of fireworks-related injuries come from the
one to ten-years age group, with 330 cases or 34 percent of all injuries.