On September 13, the Ohio House of Representatives Government Accountability and Oversight Committee voted House Bill 226 (HB 226) out of committee; the bill could be considered by the Ohio House as early as this week. HB 226, if passed, legalizes the discharge of consumer grade fireworks, including bottle rockets, firecrackers, and missiles 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, with only minimal safety restrictions in place.
- Allow Ohioans to buy, possess, and use 1.4G fireworks on their own property or others’ property with permission effective Wednesday, July 1, 2020
- Require sellers to give safety pamphlets to buyers
- Impose a 4% fee on top of sales taxes to fund firefighter training and fireworks regulation
- Set up a 13-member study committee (to have its first meeting no later than Sunday, September 30) to consider alternative regulations to recommend to the legislature which would need to act upon any recommendations before Wednesday, July 1, 2020, for them to be in effect;
- Extend the long-standing moratorium on licenses to manufacture and sell fireworks to 2020
- Allow counties, cities, and some townships to either ban fireworks or restrict the times and dates they may be used.
Current Ohio law provides for the sale and use of trick and novelty fireworks (anything that goes snap, crackle, or pop – including sparklers) that are widely available in grocery and department stores. Current law in Ohio also allows for the sale of 1.4G consumer fireworks (available at special fireworks stores from licensed manufacturers or wholesalers throughout the state), but requires purchasers to transport them out of state within 48 hours. These types of fireworks may not be legally discharged in Ohio. In 2016, the requirement for purchasers of 1.4G fireworks to sign a form attesting that they will take them out of state within 48 hours was removed.
Because of patient safety concerns, the Ohio Academy of Family Physicians has opposed similar legislation in the past. Send a message to oppose HB 226.