Irish Examiner View: Some responsibility can avoid disaster at Halloween

hospitals are dealing not just with the effects of bonfires getting out of control, but with an increasing number of injuries caused by fireworks.

Nobody wants to be the killjoy, especially when it comes to beloved cultural traditions, and we may like to console ourselves at this time of year about bonfires and fireworks with the platitudes that it’s only a bit of fun and kids will be kids. We could do that yet again this year only to hear more news that some unfortunate child or teenager has been burnt or maimed.

We would do well to heed the warning from Ann McKenna, consultant plastic, reconstructive, and aesthetic surgeon at the Bon Secours Hospital in Cork, who spoke to the Irish Examiner’s Sarah Horgan about her encounters with the cruel realities of this hallowed time. Many people tripping the light fantastic at bonfires and fireworks will not suffer a scratch. But time after time, there are those who are not so lucky. The consultant instances first-hand experiences she has had of young people suffering life-altering injuries.

One 14-year-old boy sitting with friends, at what he thought was a safe distance from a bonfire, never imagined that he was in danger until an exploding aerosol landed on his lap, causing him catastrophic injuries. And she says: “We have also had children who have brought out jerry cans from the shed and poured petrol on a bonfire that doesn’t look like it’s lighting.”

Burn injuries may be unspeakably awful. However, Ann McKenna is doing a public service when she speaks out about just how awful they are. Even burn injuries that are confined to the hands can be traumatising, not least for young people, acutely conscious of their appearance and not wanting to stand out for any adverse reason.

Quite simply, an aerosol tossed on a fire has the potential to be a life-altering missile.

In more recent years, the consultant has found that hospitals are dealing not just with the effects of bonfires getting out of control, but with an increasing number of injuries caused by fireworks. What can be a thing of beauty exploding in the night sky can be a thing of immense danger exploding in someone’s hand.

Medical staff who are on the frontline when things go wrong at Halloween report that young people seem to be able to get fireworks of different varieties which they trade or share with each other. They might leave home with nothing that would alert the suspicions of parents, but through friends they can get their hands on all sorts of pyrotechnics that have been sourced through websites — doubtless promising harmless fun, when the opposite can be devastatingly true.

We can close our minds to the dangers posed at this time of year, or we can behave responsibly so that everyone enjoys themselves and nobody ends up remembering the night that their life has just changed forever.

Temu and the EU — Forced to play by the same rules

Online shopping lures us with the temptation that in a couple of clicks we can pick up more than we ever imagined. Like a lot of things that sound too good to be true, it often is. Many keyboard shoppers have found that when the clicking is long over, what looked great on the screen is often a pale imitation when they see it in their hands.

The European Commission hit Temu with a €200m fine in May, citing the company for what it described as the sale of illegal products by third-party sellers on its platform, including unsafe baby toys containing chemicals above legal safety limits and items posing suffocation risks.

The European Commission said this week that it had accepted a plan of action from Temu, which includes analysis of how its systems “potentially amplify the dissemination of illegal content on its marketplace”. Temu has been given four months to implement its action plan.

The imposition of one of these stratospheric fines cannot just be allowed to be absorbed by an operating model that shrugs it off and continues with business as usual.

This is not just an issue of a top or jeans that might be a bit loose or too tight, these are serious consumer concerns. The implementation of this action plan should give Irish shoppers the protection they deserve from the EU Digital Sales Act.

It must be a matter of deep frustration for Irish manufacturers who must comply with the most stringent safety regulations, only to see manufacturers using online platforms to sell goods that are not compliant.

In the meantime, the busiest retail period in the calendar is getting into gear and shoppers could do well to take a digital break and walk the high street in their towns and cities.

One of the great pleasures of shopping is the tactile experience where you can see and feel what is for sale, converse with the people who are selling it to you, and see who you are handing over your hard-earned cash to.

There’s an awful lot to be said for the old school experience of trying it on; and if anything goes wrong, bringing it back to the location where you bought it. The whole human experience and bustle of it all also puts the buzz back in our shopping streets and the shopping experience.