Translated material
Firecracker meat
On the eve of the New Year holidays, Moscow authorities will teach citizens how to use pyrotechnics
Along with the culinary shows that have flooded daytime television before the New Year, Muscovites will be shown “recipes” for using all kinds of firecrackers, mini-salutes and fireworks. “Every day on television they show and tell you how to cook pasta. In the same way, people need to be told about the rules for using pyrotechnics,” Vladimir Malyshkov, head of the Moscow consumer market department, said at a press conference yesterday, announcing that all district and regional television studios, as well as cable channels, will soon receive appropriate instructions from prefects.The head of the Moscow consumer market is concerned about the amount of counterfeit pyrotechnics on the city's shelves. True, there has been some progress compared to the early 2000s, when “illegal” firecrackers made up half of all noisy toys - now counterfeit goods reach 20-30%. “But this is still a large part,” said Mr. Malyshkov, who believes that low-quality pyrotechnics, which threaten the health and lives of Muscovites, are much more dangerous than, say, counterfeit audio and video products. Thus, according to the deputy head of the state fire supervision department of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations in Moscow, Alexander Lukashevich, during the New Year holidays of 2006/07, five people died as a result of the use of low-quality pyrotechnics, and another 92 Muscovites, including 30 teenagers, received various injuries.
Officials, law enforcement agencies and rescuers complain about insufficiently strict legislative regulation of both the production and distribution of such explosive products. Today, mini-salutes and fireworks, mainly supplied from China, can be freely purchased from street stalls. Licensing for this type of activity, according to Mr. Malyshkov, “was canceled at the federal level.” In particular, the federal law “On licensing of certain types of activities” provides for obtaining a license only for the production and distribution of pyrotechnic products of the 4th and 5th classes, the radius of the danger zone of which is more than 20 meters. As for the most common dangerous toys of class 1-3 with a danger zone radius from 0.5 to 20 meters, they can be sold without a license.
True, as Gennady Gusev, head of the department for combating offenses in the consumer market and implementing administrative legislation of the Moscow City Internal Affairs Directorate, said, such retail outlets must have a quality certificate and information on the procedure for using pyrotechnics, otherwise traders face an administrative fine and confiscation of firecrackers. Mr. Lukashevich, however, insists that if counterfeit pyrotechnics are detected on the counter, the operation of the entire shopping center or store should be suspended. “We do not agree with the situation when at the entrances to large shopping centers there is a collapse where all the pyrotechnic products are stored,” he said, recalling that the rules for trading pyrotechnics require the presence of a separate sector, distance from evacuation routes and other safety measures. “Where such violations are identified, measures will be taken, including the closure of the entire trading enterprise,” said Alexander Lukashevich. Ideally, he considers it right to transfer the right to sell firecrackers, fireworks and mini-fireworks to specialized hunting stores, since “there is less gunpowder in a hunting cartridge than in some pyrotechnics.” According to Mr. Lukashevich, the Ministry of Emergency Situations is preparing to make appropriate amendments to the rules for the sale of pyrotechnics in 2008.
Vladimir Malyshkov is also ready to sacrifice “a couple of shopping centers” in order to avoid the death or injury of people and as a good example for other trade organizers. According to him, the Moscow government, confident that “it needs to be less liberal” with sellers of pyrotechnics, is also preparing proposals for its federal colleagues to tighten the requirements for the sale of pyrotechnics. “You cannot buy these products anywhere,” noted Vladimir Malyshkov.