Use care to ensure happy New Year celebration

The law also holds parents liable if their children spark a fire, another reason -- besides safety -- for adults to keep an eye on kids and teenagers.

Hawaii's New Year's Eve traditions have long included blasting off strings of firecrackers, igniting sparklers and setting off other noisemakers. It is dangerous; every year people suffer burns and other injuries, and the smoke causes life-threatening breathing difficulties for those with respiratory ailments.

Every year, as the holiday approaches, debates are renewed about allowing the custom to continue. Those who don't like fireworks point out the hazards to health and safety while those in favor contend it is a tradition that many still enjoy. For years, the Star-Bulletin has favored a fireworks ban, especially on heavily populated Oahu where the dangers are magnified.

If permits are an indication, however, it appears fewer people are playing with fireworks, or if they are, they are doing so illegally. As of Thursday, 9,232 permits had been issued, a drop from the 13,981 total issued last year.

We hope the decrease in permits indicates that the tradition might be fading, but it's disturbing that apparently there is still a market for outlawed fireworks. Police earlier in the week arrested a Wahiawa man and confiscated 140 pounds of aerial fireworks that have been banned for decades in Hawaii. In addition, the state remains a traffic point for the explosive products, with 26 out of 77 incidents in which fireworks were brought on airplanes in the Pacific region originating from the islands.

At one time, aerial displays were common around the state, but because they started fires that destroyed homes, churches and other structures, they were banned. As the population, particularly on Oahu, began growing, more and more people demanded bans, and as safety problems multiplied, restrictions have been put in place.

It has become an annual tradition, too, for fire officials to warn people about fireworks. The list of cautionary advice includes watching children, keeping water hoses handy and not setting off fireworks in glass or metal containers, all of which are common sense. Illegal uses include firing them off near hospitals, care homes and hotels and tampering with explosive contents, again reasonable restrictions.

Police officials also reiterate advice on drinking and driving, drinking and playing with fireworks and drinking among minors, but in the celebratory atmosphere, advice is easily ignored.

New Year's should be a festive occasion. A little care and good judgment will ensure that it will be.