A disservice has been done to human heads everywhere! The Consumer Product Safety Commission recently did a public demonstration of fireworks and what kind of damage they can do if improperly used. This demonstration took place on the National Mall in Washington, DC, our center of federal government, possibly in front of thousands of impressionable citizens.
In the CPSC's rush to demonize fireworks in the publics eye, they failed to take into account that human heads are not made of Styrofoam, nor are they filled with cornmeal. Normally they are made of bone, with muscle, skin, blood and other gory stuff like brains. They aren't near as delicate as Styrofoam although they can be damaged with enough force, usually an amount of force NOT found in off the shelf fireworks, not even in most homemade fireworks. The force required to explode a REAL human head in the same manner as their Styrofoam head would be akin to that provided by a double barrel shotgun under the chin with both barrels firing buckshot, not something that normal citizens want to see on the Fourth of July, or any time.
According to the caption, the CPSC used Professional-grade explosives and a quick fuse in their demonstration, not very honest of them since their whole justification behind this is to further increase support to reduce the general public's access to Consumer-grade fireworks that have six second fuses, by legislation either in the city, county, state or federal forum, they aren't particular as long as the message that gets to the public is one of exploding body parts and DANGER, DANGER, DANGER, all fireworks are bad.
The CPSC does good work, but they need to stick with products that have defects that the manufacturer refuses to fix (like the one I personally reported) or has not recognized as being a danger to the public. Fireworks have been demonized enough by people who either have a vested interest in requiring users to be licensed or are just afraid someone might have too much fun with them. Sure there are dangers, same as riding a bike, walking along a city street or climbing a mountain, the "user" just needs to recognize them and pay heed to the safety measures required before taking part in any of them.
Special thanks to Popular Science's October 2010 issue for bringing this to my attention.
The linked video has the same mannequin and containment screen as the one in the magazine, just more vivid watching it in action. Overall I think the demonstration lacked believability. Children don't stand still when someone sets their clothes on fire and only a fool would stand looking down into a launcher, as for the hand being blown off and the house being blown up, it's possible you can destroy a lot of tissue if gripping a large explosive when it goes off, that's why you don't hold them tightly in your hand, use a bucket or bag. As for the house falling down, someone needs to hire a better carpenter.
Now, where can I get some fireworks like they had.......