‘Carbide Guns’, Which Caused Spate of Eye Injuries Around Diwali, Must Be Banned: Doctors
New Delhi: In light of numerous people, particularly children, suffering eye injuries from ‘carbide guns’ around Diwali, a nationwide ban on the explosive device alongside information campaigns and medical preparedness drives are in order, a collective of eye physicians has said.
Carbide guns – a makeshift device made from pipes that creates explosions by mixing calcium carbide and water – are “chemical bombs, not firecrackers”, can cause irreversible burns, blindness and disfigurement and must immediately be banned across the country, the All India Ophthalmological Society (AIOS) said in a statement on Friday (October 24).
The ban must be strictly enforced including by registering FIRs, campaigns must be conducted to prevent children from experimenting with the device and hospitals must be ready around the clock to treat eye injury cases, the association said.
“With Chhath Puja and other festivities approaching, continued use of such hazardous devices could lead to another wave of preventable blindness and severe facial injuries,” it warned.
Cases emerged around Diwali of children suffering vision loss due to carbide gun explosions.
Madhya Pradesh in particular reported a high number of injuries, with Bhopal's chief medical and health officer telling ANI that 186 cases were recorded in and around the capital city as of Thursday. NDTV cited unnamed health officials as saying that around 300 people in the state suffered eye irritation or burns or vision loss caused by carbide guns.
Chief minister Mohan Yadav was cited as saying in a Friday night communique that the cases were a “matter of grave concern”. He directed that an “immediate prohibition be imposed on the illegal manufacture, sale and use of this device in the state”.
Chief secretary Anurag Jain subsequently “directed that carbide guns are prohibited devices and action against them should be taken under the Arms Act 1959, Explosives Act 1884 and Explosives Substances Act 1908”, the note added.
Speaking to the Indian Express, one state government source said that no campaign had been carried out on the carbide gun's dangers due to the low number of incidents it had caused in previous years.
“We were caught off guard … There was a lack of any effort to understand how children were consuming this content [about the gun] on social media and how this could have led to a health crisis,” the newspaper quoted the source as admitting.
Reports said that people in Bihar and Delhi were also injured by the use of carbide guns.
“The rise in these preventable, blinding injuries is alarming and unacceptable. We urge the government to act decisively and immediately to save vision and lives,” AIOS president Dr Partha Biswas said.
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