Police officers have been successfully carrying out activities aimed at preventing negative consequences of the use of pyrotechnic products for many years, at least since 2001.

Under the title "Be a star, don't throw firecrackers", a national project was designed in cooperation with the Ministry of Education at the time and the Institute for Health Protection, which was initially aimed mainly at fifth and sixth graders, but over the years we have expanded it and now we use it to address all young people or the entire public.

The reckless, careless and indiscriminate use of pyrotechnics, intended only for a few seconds of entertainment, can leave a mark on individuals for life.

The Devastating Effects of Fireworks on Pets and Wildlife

The hearing of many animals is much more sensitive than it is in humans, so the explosions of fireworks are not only more disturbing to them, but they can damage their hearing more severely. In addition to these harms, the noises caused by fireworks harm animals by causing fear. They also harm the other animals who are around us, both in urban environments and outside them.

In addition, when set off, fireworks can release toxic chemicals and pollute the environment. The chemicals are also dangerous for cats and dogs, just as they are for humans with respiratory diseases such as asthma.

The campaign

That's why at the beginning of every December, even before the Christmas and New Year holidays, we start urging users of pyrotechnics to use these relatively dangerous means correctly, responsibly and considerately, in order to reduce both the number of physical injuries and various violations. Most often, injuries such as burns, hand lacerations, eye injuries, etc., occur exactly due to experimentation with pyrotechnic substances, irresponsibility on the part of the individual and failure to follow the manufacturer's instructions.

In the campaign, we cooperate with doctors and paramedics, teachers, inspectors, societies for the protection of animals, firefighters and the media. At the same time, we visit elementary schools, and in cooperation with other inspection services, we also carry out controls over the resale of these products.

Certainly, all our joint activities so far have influenced the fact that the number of accidents is slowly decreasing. But we will not be satisfied until the holidays are over without physical harm to people and without related violations. It is possible to conjure up a festive atmosphere even without annoying crackling.

We try to attract the attention of young people with interesting thematic posters and sparkling slogans

Our project is well received by the public also thanks to the themed posters with interesting slogans that we prepare every year at the General Police Directorate. So far, we have even included our top athletes employed by the police in the prevention campaign on several occasions (for example skiers Tina Maze and Ilka Štuhec, ski jumper Peter Prevc, motocross racer Tim Gajser and others), who in this way additionally supported our efforts and contributed to greater visibility of the campaign among young people.

In some police departments, the project has been upgraded in the past years with various "grips", at the Nova Gorica Police Department, for example, years ago, together with the local youth center, they prepared the theater play "Firecrackers in my city" for primary school students, at the Ljubljana Police Department, in cooperation with the city municipality, they have organized the art-literary competition "Firecracker is dangerous" for several years in a row, and also at the Koper Police Directorate at the end of 2020, they prepared a prize competition in which everyone, especially children, were invited to draw fireworks through social networks.

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Safe use of pyrotechnics
Prevention projects
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