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Cit­i­zens Against Noise Pol­lu­tion Trinidad and To­ba­go (CANPTT) has wel­comed the Gov­ern­ment’s de­ci­sion not to have the state-spon­sored fire­works dis­play for In­de­pen­dence Day this year.

In a state­ment, CANPTT said the de­ci­sion ad­dress­es long­stand­ing con­cerns about the ef­fects of fire­works on cit­i­zens and com­mu­ni­ties. The group not­ed that fire­works have been a source of dis­tress for vul­ner­a­ble groups, in­clud­ing the el­der­ly, chil­dren, per­sons with dis­abil­i­ties, and pet own­ers.

CANPTT al­so high­light­ed risks as­so­ci­at­ed with fire­works, in­clud­ing bod­i­ly harm and prop­er­ty dam­age. The or­gan­i­sa­tion re­called sev­er­al in­ci­dents over the past decade that un­der­scored the need for stronger reg­u­la­tion. These in­clud­ed a sev­en-year-old boy in Ari­ma who sus­tained burns in 2019 when a fire­work land­ed in his yard, a teenag­er in San Fer­nan­do who lost par­tial vi­sion in 2017 af­ter a pre­ma­ture ex­plo­sion, a Laven­tille fam­i­ly whose home was de­stroyed by a fire in 2015, and two chil­dren in Ch­agua­nas who were hos­pi­talised in 2013 af­ter suf­fer­ing hand in­juries.