It was a busy night for the emergency services during the New Year celebrations. 10 people were treated for eye injuries in hospitals in Norway after fireworks were set off. Two of them used safety glasses. Three of them are seriously injured, while the other seven have eye injuries that are moderately serious. Nils Bull tells it. He is a senior physician at the eye department at Haukeland University Hospital. Bull refers to New Year’s Eve as the day when “drunk people will handle explosives in large crowds”. Every year he collects national accident figures after the New Year’s celebration. Fireworks tonight. Photo: Josef Benoni Ness Tveit / Josef Benoni Ness Tveit The injured are three men, two women, four boys and a girl. – Four of the injured were bystanders, and one of them suffered serious eye damage, says Bull. Seven of the injuries were caused by the use of a power battery, while the girl was injured by a shooting star. For two of the injuries, it is not stated what type of fireworks were used. Definitions of the types of eye damage Serious eye damage: Is expected to cause a significant reduction in vision. Moderately serious eye damage: Severe acute damage, but is not expected to cause a significant reduction in vision. Light eye injuries: are treated at the emergency room and are not included in this overview. Source: Haukeland University Hospital Bull emphasizes that the two who used safety glasses would have had worse injuries if they had not used them. More unreasonable use Nils Bull calls all the eye departments in the country and talks to the doctor on duty. In this way, he can map the injuries, who was injured and how the injuries occurred. In recent years, he has registered increasingly unreasonable use of fireworks among young boys. – I am afraid that this is a new trend, which could have a contagion effect, he said last year. A lot of unreasonable use was also registered last night. At Haugerud, fireworks were fired at people, buildings, the police and vehicles. Several subway stations in Oslo were closed after fireworks were set off inside the stations. And in Kristiansand someone shot fireworks through a window. No one was injured. But in Stord, a man in his 30s was sent to hospital in Bergen after lighting up a battery. Only half left. – The man then went away to check, and then it all went away, says operations manager Brit Randulff in the Sørvest police district to NTB. Soft fireworks Despite high inflation and high electricity prices, Norwegians have avoided fireworks. Private fireworks brought in a turnover of NOK 500 million in 2021, and in the last two years turnover has increased by over 30 percent, writes the Norwegian Fireworks Association in a press release. On 25 December, the association announced that 2022 looked set to be a new record year for the fireworks industry.
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10 people to hospital with eye injuries after New Year’s celebrations – news Vestland
