Fireworks fizzling out in legislature

DES MOINES — Home fireworks displays remain grounded in Iowa and face an uncertain fate at best.

Proposals to legalize more consumer-grade fireworks are idling in the Iowa Legislature. A key state lawmaker said he is gauging interest among his colleagues, while making clear his personal preference is to prevent the legislation from advancing.

'It's resting,' said Sen. Joe Bolkcom, D-Iowa City, chairman of the Senate Ways and Means Committee in which the Senate proposal sits. 'I think it's bad policy. I'm concerned about the injuries and unanticipated problems we'll have, people losing eyes and fingers.'

The proposals would loosen current Iowa law, which allows for the home display only of sparklers and other novelties, by legalizing consumer-grade fireworks such as cone fountains, Roman candles and bottle rockets.

Like Bolkcom, a coalition of organizations from the health care and emergency services fields expressed strong reservations about the potential injuries created as a result of expanding legal fireworks in Iowa.

Nationwide, 11,400 people in 2013 were treated in hospital emergency rooms for injuries associated with fireworks, according to the federal Consumer Product Safety Commission. The majority of those happened within the month surrounding July 4, 2013.

'Physicians continue to see a number of individuals who are coming in losing fingers and thumbs and eyes,' Dennis Tibben, a lobbyist for the Iowa Medical Society, said at a subcommittee meeting earlier this year. 'We believe that the current policy is appropriate.'

A similar proposal is eligible for consideration in the Iowa House. But that committee's chairman said he would first like to see action by senators before voting on the House bill.

'We're still having a discussion on it to see if any changes should be made,' said Rep. Matt Windschitl, R-Missouri Valley. 'At this point, I would like to see movement on the Senate side before we take action in the House.'

Windschitl said he thinks the bill would pass the House with support from members of both political parties. He added he would be among those 'yes' votes.

'I believe that Iowans should be allowed to make the decisions for themselves' about displaying fireworks at home, Windschitl said. 'It's personal responsibility and individual liberty.'

Each chamber's bill has passed one committee already — Senate State Government and House Ways and Means.

Now it appears the proposal's fate rests with Bolkcom, who said he would not withhold the Senate bill simply because of his personal preference. He said he has moved other bills that he opposed but the Ways and Means Committee as a whole supported.

'I think with this issue, I'm just trying to assess if there's support or not in the committee,' Bolkcom said.

Forty states permit displaying consumer-grade fireworks as of June 2014, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission.

Iowa is one of just five states that allows only sparklers and/or other novelties. Arizona allows only novelty fireworks, and four states ban all fireworks.

What would be legal?

A partial list of in Iowa under a bill being considered:

• Firecrackers

• Helicopters and aerial spinners

• Roman candles

• Sky rockets and bottle rockets

• Cone and cylindrical fountains

• Ground and hand-held sparkling devices

• Ground spinners

• Toy smoke devices