…roughly 2000 tons of fireworks are being let-off each year in Switzerland?

…of those approximately 650 tons consist of shells, parts and wrappings (cardboard, wood and plastics) and 1350 tons of pyrotechnical ingredients?

…property damages of fires caused by fireworks amount to 0.6% of the yearly fire insurance sum? 

…the ear drum injuries estimated for Germany for the short period around New Year’s Eve and caused by fireworks are as high as the cases of hearing falls (Hörsturz) experienced in one year in countries of the Western world?

…President Alejandro Toledo of Peru immediately prohibited the production, import and the sales of fireworks as a result of a fire catastrophy in the old town of Lima in December 2001 during which fireworks exploded in a shop selling fireworks articles, injuring approximately 200 persons and killing at least 240 people?

…fireworks rockets result in a rising ozone charge?

…in Austria 200 children enter hospital emergencies at New Year’s Eve? Hands are the parts mostly hit by crackers. Children hold them so long in their hands until the crackers explode. Injuries caused by the crackers go from simple burns to fracture of fingers. Auditory injuries are besides burns the major damages caused by crackers. Ten percent of the injured persons have not only a damaged ear cavity caused by a cracker, but in addition fissures in the ear drum – around the smaller ear bones – which on occasions can end in a lifelong hearing deficiency.

...the amount of particles stemming from fireworks which fell on Stockholm in the first hours of the new millenium was twenty times the amount falling on roads with heavy traffic? And this despite the fact that the wind was then not blowing in the direction of the measuring station.

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