Firecrackers a safety and climate issue

Last year, the Department of Health recorded 1,021 injuries from pyrotechnics, stray bullets and firecracker ingestion in three weeks, from Dec. 21, 2011 to January 5, 2012. Of that number, 97 percent — or a total of 987 — were due to firecrackers.

The number of casualties resulting from pyrotechnics may be higher this year, despite the warnings, accompanied by horrifying pictures of severed arms and fingers,  made by government authorities.

Climate Change Commissioner Heherson T. Alvarez calls on policy makers to ban or strictly regulate the use, as well as the manufacture of firecrackers and pyrotechnics.  

“We should not add to the devastation caused by super-typhoon Yolanda with the unrestrained carbon emission of firecracker explosions, pyrotechnics that contribute to climate change,” he says. “Part of the rehabilitation mindset should consider precisely cutting our already minimal carbon footprints as members of the international community of nations obliged by the UN Climate Change Convention to help save Earth from a runaway global warming beyond the dangerous 2 degrees Centigrade ceiling.

“This highly pollutive and destructive merry-making numbs our moral sensitivity to protect our natural and human-created environments,” the former environment secretary and former chair of the Senate committee on environment says. “Unless restrictions are strictly implemented, the likelihood is that the number of victims — majority of whom are children and Metro Manilans who join the world’s 1 billion disabled — from firecracker blasts in 2012 and the first week of 2013 will exceed last year’s toll based on the 8% higher market demand and estimated sales from 2012.”

Alvarez reminds the public that it is not only the loss of lives or disabilities engendered that should be considered but the grave environmental degradation when we welcome the New Year with a bang in the expected traditional New Year firecracker manic fiesta.

He explains that  â€œThe DOH statistics do not tell us the number of revelers, innocent bystanders — including infants, pregnant women, elderly and household pets — whose health is seriously adversely affected as a result of the chemical haze and air pollution caused by firecrackers and pyrotechnics.”

“Pyrotechnics and the mentality that promotes it aggravate global warming, to say nothing of its more perilous impact: the irreversible damage to our natural ecosystems and, ultimately, to our planet,” Alvarez says. “President Aquino has approved a climate change commission resolution we had initiated for undertaking the carbon war room program from low carbon to zero carbon.“

When Alvarez was environment secretary in 2001, his department recorded a 2,000 percent hike in Metro Manila’s carbon dioxide and nitrogen dioxide emissions as a result of massive New Year explosions. “Today, with at least 50% of the nation’s 100 million people residing in urban areas, I would not be surprised if today after 12 years, there is another 2,000 percent increase in greenhouse gas emissions,” he says.

According to the former senator, the Philippines “can be in a unique position of leading the world in the voluntary banning of firecrackers and pyrotechnics as a protective effort to save humanity and our habitat for integration in the  2015 protocol deliberations.”

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The United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP) Cosmopolitan Church Council will  launch a “Resource Book on HIV and AIDS: Ending Stigma, Shame, Denial, Discrimination, Inaction, Mis-action” at the UCCP Cosmopolitan Church, Manila,  on Feb. 15.

The book is the church’s offering to the 50th year (Jubilee Year) of the National Council of Churches in the Philippines (NCCP)  which has a special focus on “Building HIV Competent and Compassionate Communities” under the leadership of Rev. Rex RB Reyes. 

The resource book takes off from the HIV forum supported by the World Council of Churches and the NCCP with the full backing of the UCCP national office and Cosmopolitan  church last June. The forum featured Rev. Dr. Canon Prof. Gideon Byamugisha, Rev. Phumzile Mabizela and Elijah Fung, who gave lectures on HIV-infected church pastors and laypersons.

Dr. Erlinda Senturias, one of the forum’s organizers and publishers of the book, says, “It is our hope that our local churches will be HIV competent to meet the challenges of the escalation of HIV in the Philippines. Our church is a downtown church at the heart of Manila and we wish to make a contribution to get to zero HIV new infections, zero stigma and discrimination and zero AIDS-related deaths. We hope to work together with other local churches to campaign and work together towards achieving the three goals.’’

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The   Asian Journal, a California-based Filipino community newspaper,  features a  17-year- old Fil-American  who will take part in the 2014  Miss Teen California pageant on Jan. 3-4. If Aislinn (pronounced ace-lynn) wins the pageant, she will be representing the state of California in the Miss Teen USA 2014 pageant. These two pageants,  held in Long Beach, Ca., are part of the Miss Universe Organization which is owned by Donald Trump.

Aislinn was born in Panorama City, California, to Filipino parents. Her father, Angelo Sebastian,  is a native of Manila, while her mother, Alicia Casapao,  has roots in Calamba, Laguna and Cebu City. Her grandparents on her mother’s side are Popoy Casapao of Calamba, and Fe Macalalag of Cebu.

Aislinn started singing at age 2. Growing up, she said she wanted to become a singer, model and actress,  but with the influence of her mother Alicia, systems manager of the psychiatry department of LA county Hospital, when  she was eight, she told her grandmother, “Lola, I will become a singer, model, actress and nurse!”

Aislinn’s  mother, according to the article,  believes  that an individual’s future is shaped by his/her beliefs and strength of character. Her mom signed her up  for the Miss Teen pageant, and supported her involvement in a charity fashion show to widen her experience and exposure and get closer to her dream. During the recent Ms. Philippines-USA pageant, Aislinn was selected one of the Historic Filipino town Youth Ambassadors.

She is a senior at West Ranch High School in Valencia and is active in the school choir. She plays the guitar and ukulele.

According to the story, Aislinn takes pride in her multi-cultural heritage. Born and raised in Los Angeles, she is a typical American teen. At the same time,  she is “a Filipina at heart. She can eat balut at the blink of an eye, and she prefers her spaghetti to be on the ‘sweet’ side.”

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