Chicago To Ban Sparklers as Dangerous Fireworks?

By Rachelle Bowden in News on Jun 21, 2005 11:33AM

Once when Chicagoist was a little kid we stepped on a just extinguished sparkler and had a line burned in the bottom of our foot. The mark lasted for weeks, at least. And we remember it hurting a lot. Then again, we were little kids. Anyway, we were injured by a sparkler. So, does this mean we support the proposed Chicago city-wide sparkler ban? Hell no! Because playing with sparklers is just too fun.

Yesterday 2 city aldermen voted to advance a measure that would add sparklers to the list of banned fireworks. If the full council approves the prohibition at its June 29 meeting, the ban would become effective a few weeks later, skipping this year's Fourth of July holiday. But next year? S.O.L. on the sparklers.

Now.. Chicagoist knows that sparklers aren't "harmless," schmovs since we burned our foot on them.. but with adult supervision they can be loads of fun. One of the aldermen said that sparklers must be safe because they're "available on the shelves of supermarkets," which we think is kind of a bullshit reason. Like.. not everything in the supermarket is safe to kids without adult supervision.. uh.. lighters? Matches? Curling irons?

Still, we know they CAN be dangerous.. which is why we stress.. ADULT SUPERVISION. Do we really need the government to come in and ban the fun for all of us?

For more sparkler safety tips, besides not putting them in your mouth, make sure to check out this sparkler safety tip sheet before this 4th of July holiday!

Drawing by Natalie Dee. We love all of her art, check it out!