MANILA, Philippines?Keep your fingers on. Your other body parts, too. Today, in a shameful and nationwide orgy of destruction, many otherwise reasonable, right-thinking Filipinos will risk both life and limb to mark the passing of the old year and the coming of the new with a literal big bang. Hundreds of them will suffer injuries; perhaps a handful will lose their lives, the latest victims of a senseless and unforgiving tradition.

If past experience is a guide, very many of the injured will be children 10 years old or younger. The 2008 Fireworks Injury Surveillance Report prepared by the National Epidemiology Center of the Department of Health found that of the 733 injured between Dec. 21, 2008 and Jan. 5, 2009, over one-third, or 261, were 10 years old or younger. This suggests, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III told reporters the other day, that the lack of effective parenting skills may be partly responsible for the great number of children-victims. (That, or parental absence.)

Already, the number of firecracker-related injuries reported between Dec. 22 and Dec. 29 this year has reached 165. Of the total, 71 victims, or 43 percent, are children 10 years old or younger. According to the DOH, eight of the 165 firecracker victims had their hands amputated, while 22 suffered eye injuries.

The 2008 report also found that the five firecrackers that caused the most injuries?piccolo, ?kwitis,? 5-star, luces and home-made or altered firecrackers?were the affordable and popular ones. ?These devices are not toys and are very dangerous, especially in the hands of innocent children. We recommend a ban on the use of these devices in residential areas and encourage local authorities to designate an area where fireworks could be lighted, displayed and handled by professionals or those who are trained in using explosive devices,? Duque said in an earlier press statement.

The DOH, in particular, has taken aim at the piccolo. Dr. Yolanda Oliveros, director of the DOH?s National Center for Disease Control and Prevention, told the Inquirer the piccolo should be banned outright. Very easy to ignite, this firecracker accounts for over half of all reported firecracker-related injuries. In his press statement, Duque also noted that: ?Piccolo, an illegal firecracker, continued to be the number one cause of injury during the last holiday season and it did not only cause minor injuries but also severe ones like the ruptured eyeball of a boy in Bicol.?

Some 61 percent of the incidents listed in the 2008 report?451 out of 733?took place in Metro Manila.

As for our all-too-vulnerable body parts: ?The top three body parts which sustained most injuries were the hands with 277 (38 percent) cases, lower extremities with 130 (18 percent) cases, and head and neck with 103 (14 percent) cases,? Duque reported.

Meanwhile, a 10-year-old girl from Nueva Ecija sustained a gunshot wound believed to be caused by the indiscriminate firing of a weapon recently. This kind of injury is even more pernicious, because it quite literally comes out of nowhere. Short of not leaving a bunker, there is no adequate defense against criminal merrymakers who fire their weapons into the air to mark the holidays.

Indeed, the lone fatality recorded last year was a mother from Cotabato City. She died from a stray bullet.