Dáil Éireann - Volume 608 - 25 October, 2005 - Written Answers.


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Dáil Éireann - Volume 608 - 25 October, 2005

Written Answers. - Accident and Emergency Services.

Mr. J. O’Keeffe Mr. J. O’Keeffe

291. Mr. J. O’Keeffe asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Health and Children the number of persons who have been treated for injuries as a result of fireworks during the nine years since 1996; the breakdown of the figures in terms of age profile; the county origins of the persons injured and the types of injuries sustained. [30617/05]

Ms Harney Ms Harney

Ms Harney:The information requested by the Deputy is set out in the following tables. Data are derived from the hospital inpatient enquiry, HIPE, system which records information on each episode of hospitalisation in publicly funded acute hospitals. The primary aim of HIPE is to provide measures of hospital activity for specific diagnostic and procedure categories. There is provision in HIPE for coding of underlying external causes of types of injuries, such as fireworks, but this information may not always be available to the coder and significant under-reporting is therefore possible. National statistics are not available on injuries from fireworks which do not result in hospitalisation.

866

Table 1 provides figures for each year from 1996 to 2004 and separately for Dublin residents and the rest of the country. Numbers of cases are too small to provide a breakdown by individual county of residence. Table 2 shows an age and gender breakdown for all years combined. Nearly 70% of injuries are to males under the age of 20. Table 3, again for all years combined, indicates the principal types of injuries sustained. More [866] than 40% of all principal diagnoses are burn injuries.

Table 1 Hospitalisations due to Accidents involving Fireworks.
Year	Area of Residence
	Dublin	Rest of Ireland	Total
1996	16	11	27
1997	1	5	6
1998	4	6	10
1999	1	2	3
2000	4	7	11
2001	13	9	22
2002	6	3	9
2003	14	12	26
2004	12	11	23
Total Cases 1996-2004	71	66	137

Table 2
All Hospitalisations due to Accidents involving Fireworks 1996-2004 by Age Group & Gender.
Age Group	Males	Females	Total
0-9 Years	21	3	24
10-19 Years	74	10	84
20-29 Years	11	3	14
30+ Years	13	2	15
All Ages	119	18	137

Table 3
Types of Injuries from Fireworks, 1996 to 2004
Injury	Number
Burns of Face / Neck / Head	23
Burns of Wrist / Hand	21
Burns of Eye & Adnexa	8
All Other Burns	8
Open Wound of Upper Limb	24
Open Wound of Head, Neck & Trunk	11
Fractures	8
Contusion with Intact Skin Surface	13
Other Injuries	21
Total	137
Source:Hospital inpatient enquiry, HIPE, 1996-2004
Notes:Data refer to patients with a diagnosis of ICD-9-CM E923.0 — accidents caused by fireworks). Types of injuries refer to the principal diagnosis only.

Dáil Éireann 608 Written Answers. Accident and Emergency Services.

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