Early warning
against 'crackers

Published by the Visayan Daily Star Publications, Inc.

NINFA R. LEONARDIA Editor-in-Chief & President

CARLA P. GOMEZ Managing Editor ANTONIETA B. LOPEZ Business Editor ODETTE MONTELIBANO Desk Editor MARY ANN BARCELONA Advertising Coordinator RENE GENOVE Bureau Chief, Dumaguete

ANDRES R. LEONARDIA Managing Director

In North Cotabato, a first grader will be blind in her right eye for life. During playtime at school, a schoolmate tossed a lighted firecracker at her. A spark hit her eye, and no efforts of doctors at local hospital could save it. This is another stark reminder, one of the many that will probably be ignored when New Year's eve comes, and celebrating people tend to forget caution as they compete with each other in firing off the noisemakers. Unfortunately, the more powerful and colorful they are, the more dangerous, and deadlier they can also be.

That is why, the hours immediately after midnight show hospital emergency rooms crowded with people who have blasted off fingers, arms, feet, and other parts of their bodies, leaving scars or permanent loss of limbs and other functions. In the DAILY STAR, we have made it a yearly practice to check the emergency rooms of local hospitals soon after midnight and, always, we are appalled at the harm that the objects meant to enhance the welcoming of a new year have wrought.

This has gone on, year after year, although, thankfully, there seemed to be a reduction in the number of incidences last year. We hope this will go down further this year.

Our warnings now are directed especially to parents or guardians of young children who may not be aware that what they believe to be playthings could cause them severe injury or trauma whose effects they will bear for life.

Let's tell them about the seven-year-old girl, Ghesia Princess Pinol, from M'lang town in North Cotabato, who will go through the rest of her schooldays, and maybe for the rest of her life, seeing the wonders of the world from only one eye. The little girl, by the way, is the niece of the Provincial Governor there, Emmanuel Pinol. Make sure the New Year really starts as a happy one for all, especially for our families.*