(News from fireworkstown)US Independence Day fireworks mishaps injured two dozen Americans and drew fresh attention to the safety of imports from China, but experts said the world's dominant fireworks supplier has sharply increased its safety standards in recent years.
Accidents in Tennessee, Florida and the Virginia suburbs of the US capital involved commercial fireworks shows. In Vienna, Virginia, misfired mortar shells sent an adult and a child to hospital with serious burns, local media said.
The source of the commercial fireworks - the type sold only to licensed display companies - involved in the July 4 accidents is under investigation.
Seventy-five percent of commercial display fireworks used in the United States are imported from China, said Julie Heckman, head of the American Pyrotechnics Association. She said the companies involved in the Virginia accidents were not members of her industry group.
US domestic production accounted for only 2.7 million kilograms of the 126 million kg of fireworks that Americans consumed in 2006, according to APA data.
Chinese products from pet food to car tyres to toothpaste have come under scrutiny in the United States and other countries in the wake of tainted food scares and product recalls.
But Chinese fireworks are a different story, say safety experts who work closely with factories in China. Fireworks are made by hand and China's low wages make it the centre of the world industry.
The non-profit American Fireworks Standards Laboratory was set up in 1989 to address the high percentage of fireworks from China that were failing to meet quality and safety standards.
"Of fireworks being imported into the United States, 75% of them did not meet the minimum government standards, so the government pressured consumer fireworks importers to take steps address that high level of non-compliance," said John Rogers, executive director of the AFSL.
The Maryland-based AFSL monitors consumer fireworks - firecrackers, bottle rockets and other products that make up 91 percent of the $900 million US fireworks market - and inspects factories in China to certify that they meet US standards in areas such as fuse length and gunpowder weight.
"Our experience in the early years of going to China was that they just absolutely had no clue in many cases what standards they were trying to meet," said Rogers, whose team of some 50 experts inspect and advise Chinese factories.
"The factories, industry and even the government, they've stepped up to the plate in recent years," he said. "They've gone from a 75% failure rate to a now 95% pass rate," he said of Chinese factories.
US government statistics show that from 1976 to 2006, the volume of consumer fireworks used in America rose 960%, while the number of accidents per fireworks used fell more than 91% to 3.3 last year from 38.3% in 1976.
"You can argue about how to properly measure what the injury rate is," said David Baker, general counsel for the National Council on Fireworks Safety.
"But any way you measure it ... the injury rate has gone way, way down and the volume has gone way, way up," he said.
Baker said the programme of the AFSL, which he formerly represented as an attorney, "is probably a good model for other industries that are importing goods from China."
Accidents in Tennessee, Florida and the Virginia suburbs of the US capital involved commercial fireworks shows. In Vienna, Virginia, misfired mortar shells sent an adult and a child to hospital with serious burns, local media said.
The source of the commercial fireworks - the type sold only to licensed display companies - involved in the July 4 accidents is under investigation.
Seventy-five percent of commercial display fireworks used in the United States are imported from China, said Julie Heckman, head of the American Pyrotechnics Association. She said the companies involved in the Virginia accidents were not members of her industry group.
US domestic production accounted for only 2.7 million kilograms of the 126 million kg of fireworks that Americans consumed in 2006, according to APA data.
Chinese products from pet food to car tyres to toothpaste have come under scrutiny in the United States and other countries in the wake of tainted food scares and product recalls.
But Chinese fireworks are a different story, say safety experts who work closely with factories in China. Fireworks are made by hand and China's low wages make it the centre of the world industry.
The non-profit American Fireworks Standards Laboratory was set up in 1989 to address the high percentage of fireworks from China that were failing to meet quality and safety standards.
"Of fireworks being imported into the United States, 75% of them did not meet the minimum government standards, so the government pressured consumer fireworks importers to take steps address that high level of non-compliance," said John Rogers, executive director of the AFSL.
The Maryland-based AFSL monitors consumer fireworks - firecrackers, bottle rockets and other products that make up 91 percent of the $900 million US fireworks market - and inspects factories in China to certify that they meet US standards in areas such as fuse length and gunpowder weight.
"Our experience in the early years of going to China was that they just absolutely had no clue in many cases what standards they were trying to meet," said Rogers, whose team of some 50 experts inspect and advise Chinese factories.
"The factories, industry and even the government, they've stepped up to the plate in recent years," he said. "They've gone from a 75% failure rate to a now 95% pass rate," he said of Chinese factories.
US government statistics show that from 1976 to 2006, the volume of consumer fireworks used in America rose 960%, while the number of accidents per fireworks used fell more than 91% to 3.3 last year from 38.3% in 1976.
"You can argue about how to properly measure what the injury rate is," said David Baker, general counsel for the National Council on Fireworks Safety.
"But any way you measure it ... the injury rate has gone way, way down and the volume has gone way, way up," he said.
Baker said the programme of the AFSL, which he formerly represented as an attorney, "is probably a good model for other industries that are importing goods from China."
