Obama Administration Regulations On Fireworks Completely Insane Its that time of year. Time for the kids both young and old to head to the fireworks stand just across the county line and load up on sparklers, snakes, bottle rockets, Roman candles, poppers, and all the other neato cool pyrotechnic paraphernalia that makes the modern Fourth of July the Fourth of July. This week, the executive director of the American Pyrotechnic Association, Julie Heckman, sat down with Politico to talk about what it takes to stockpile the close to $1 billion industry ahead of the Fourth of July. When asked about the Obama Administrations approach to regulation, she said: Ive been working with the industry for a very long time, 26 years. I have never seen as many rulemaking initiatives as I have with this administration. It has just been completely insane. You know, Im not saying its necessary, but it would be really great when take a tiny industry like fireworks, and weve got to comply with ATF, CPSC, EPA, OSHA, multiple divisions of the Department of Transportation, its really challenging. It would be great if we could have one agency that took care of everything, and Im sure there are other industries that are also feeling that pain, but it has been very significant. Heckman listed specific challenges as things like a constant revolving door of agents working for the various government departments which require a whole new getting to know you time period in order to educate the new person on the industrys concerns, and limits on times truck drivers could be on the road. She also discussed the extensive testing done on legal fireworks sold to the public. The industry has been very committed to working with the foreign manufacturers over in China. In fact, through the APA, another organization was created, the American Fireworks Standards Laboratory, which is a third-party certification organization. They actually test the product in China to make certain that not only does it meet the Consumer Product Safety Commission regulations, it exceeds them, because AFSL standards go a step beyond what the federal government mandates. And you know, the product has improved significantly, so were very proud of that. Like the amusement park industry, it sounds like the fireworks people do their own due diligence when it comes to safety. On roller-coasters, the motto is its no fun if people get hurt, and most injuries happen when riders get out of the safety restraints after the ride has started. In fireworks, the same standard applies which is why Heckman stresses the difference between legal and illegal products. Last year, 11 people were killed and more than 10,000 people injured in fireworks-related accidents,according to a Consumer Products Safety Commission report. Most of the injuries were burns due to malfunction or misuse. Three of the deaths were bystanders who died in fires or from smoke inhalation. , said many fireworks injuries are due to illegal fireworks, which lack quality control and can produce powerful explosions. When you read articles that people lost their hand, that was an illegal firecracker,Heckmansaid. A legal one has 50miligramsof explosives, which is enough to sting but not enough to blow your digits off. To Politico on this topic, Heckman said, We look at the consumption, the overall usage of backyard consumer fireworks has increased significantly during the past decade, and when you look at the use of fireworks and compare then the number of injuries, actually, the injury rate has declined. Im not aware of one other consumer product on the market today where the usage has risen so dramatically, yet the injuries have gone down. And yet the Obama Administration has the industry dealing with at least five government agencies, each charged with regulating a different aspect of life in the United States. Just like multiple other industries, fireworks manufacturers and wholesalers are being regulated out the ying-yang. Unlike the others, pyrotechnics are not a large enough industry to be much of an influence in getting all the rule making to stop. At this time, fireworks are legal in 47 of the 50 states mostly thanks to the tax revenue they generate. Delaware, Massachusetts and New Jersey are the holdouts. 