JAY JOSHI
With Diwali right around the corner, many of us will be making plans to mark the festival of lights with grand display of fireworks. When we bring fireworks into the picture, we hear lots of warnings about how the sound and the pollutions caused by them can harm us, but the threats posed by fireworks do not just end with sound and smoke. Ophthalmologists say that fireworks can also harm our eyes in a number of ways, and the warning has more to do with onlookers than those lighting the crackers.
“Those who light the firecrackers are always careful, but it is the onlookers who are more in danger.” says Panaji-based pediatric ophthalmologist and squint specialist Dr Kuheli Bhattacharya. “When we set off firecrackers in places like streets or grounds where there is dust and rocks, the energy released upon explosion of crackers can propel projectiles into our eyes.” Fireworks can fly into nearby houses, or many a times people light rockets in glass bottles. When the rocket explodes in bottle itself, we have cases of glass fragments entering the eyes, informs Dr Kuheli.
Eye- injuries caused due to firecrackers can be quite complex, says the doctor, because chemicals in firecrackers can affect the eyes in a number of ways. “There can be acid injuries or alkali injuries to the eye depending on chemical composition of the fireworks.” informs Dr Kuheli “Acids react with the proteins inside the eyes. They denature the protein and make it completely white. That is why you see people with white eyes after firecracker injuries.” On the other hand, alkali cause burns inside the eyes, and are worse than acids.
“Alkalis melt the proteins and thus, keep going further and further inside the eyes until at one point the entire eye is melted away,” says the ophthalmologist. There is no coming back from such injuries, and applying water on eyes in such cases is not the wise thing to do. “When your eye is punctured in such a manner, even with things such as projectiles, water may enter inside the eye through the wound,” she avers.
Such injuries mostly occur after Diwali when people, especially kids, try to dispose of the leftover fireworks by piling everything up and setting it afire. Thus, not just those who light the fireworks, but those who watch it too must be careful.
To avoid eye injuries from fireworks, make it a point to stay safe distance away from fireworks, and do not return to lit fireworks as it may explode or fly off any time. Secondly, you could also wear a pair of protective glasses to guard your eyes from possible injuries, suggests Dr Kuheli.
