Following a noisy and injurious New Year's Eve celebration, state legislators are poised to approve a statewide ban on consumer fireworks. The legislation would allow counties to opt out of such a ban but Honolulu's City Council should welcome such a prohibition and allow only organized pyrotechnics on special occasions.

A Senate committee has given its backing to a bill that would allow only religious or cultural fireworks displays. The proposal is supported by the Lingle administration, county police and and fire departments, the American Lung Association and numerous citizens who have had enough of deafening noise and suffocating atmosphere on celebration evenings.

State law now restricts the kinds of fireworks allowed in the islands but it is widely ignored. Police have said they must rely on statements from witnesses of violations if not personally seen by officers, but witnesses predictably are reluctant to squeal on neighbors. Honolulu police responded to 1,860 complaints in nights surrounding the beginning of this year and doctors reported a sharp rise in fireworks-related injuries.

“;It'll just get worse and worse until somebody dies,”; said Dr. Randy Wong, director of the Hawaii Burn Care Team and Burn Unit at Straub Clinic & Hospital. “;The injuries are bad enough.”; Actually, an 80-year-old Palolo woman died in a house fire ignited by fireworks on New Year's Eve in 2001.

Ben Cayetano described a New Year's Eve celebration as “;utter madness”; when he was governor but legislators have shunned attempts to bring the madness to an end. Explosion of homemade bombs and illegal aerials resulted this year in what has been called a “;war zone”; on Oahu.

The Senate's Public Safety Committee accepted a request by Sen. J. Kalani English of Maui to allow counties to opt out of the ban. English said the fireworks problem is not as bad on Maui County as in Honolulu, and neighbor islands should not be forced to accept an “;Oahu-centric point of view.”;

Still, the most serious recent fireworks accident that comes to mind occurred just last month on Maui, when two Wailuku children were badly burned by fireworks on New Year's Day. Both were listed in critical condition and airlifted to Kapiolani Medical Center for Women and Children in Honolulu.

Such incidents underscore the danger level. The push to opt out — or not — of a statewide fireworks ban will rest on each county's tolerance or outcry level.

Some legislators are concerned that a single county continuing to allow fireworks could result in a black market of fireworks. Illegal fireworks already are being shipped into the state but an all-encompassing ban should increase detection of such shipments, since authorities would not have to determine which are legal and which are banned.

The five states that now ban use of consumer fireworks and six others that allow sparklers and similar devices have difficulty enforcing their laws because people living in other states can cross a state border to buy them. That scofflaw activity obviously should be more difficult in Hawaii and easier for police to prevent, even if one or more Hawaii counties opt out of the prohibition.